THET 290: American Theatre 1750 to 1890
Professor: Dr. Heather Nathans
Web Page created by Leahkim Gannett, UM Libraries
The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with the research for your THET 290 project. If you need additional assistance, please contact the Theatre & Dance Librarian, Leahkim Gannett, leahkim@umd.edu, 301-405-9117.
Table of Contents
Reference Works for American Theatre Looking Up Known Citations Searching by Subject/Topic in the Catalog Research Port Primary Sources for American Theatre Citatation Style Guides Academic Integrity Reference Works for American Theatre
Why start with these sources? These subject encyclopedias and other reference materials provide an introduction to a topic or person; background information; and in most cases, a bibliography so you can further your research. They can also be used to help identify a topic and narrow or broaden it. The words in the parentheses are the Library of Congress Subject Headings - useful for finding additional books on the same topic.
THEATRE Reference Works
Eddleman, Floyd. American Drama Criticism: interpretations, 1890-1977 PA LIB REF & MCK REF PS332.E34 & supplements
Meserve, Walter. American Drama to 1900. A Guide to Information Sources. PA LIB REF & MCK REF & MCK STKS PS345.M45
Moody, Richard. Dramas from the American Theatre, 1762-1909. PA LIB REF & STKS & MCK STKS PS623.M66
Moses, Montrose Jonas. The American Theatre as Seen by its Critics, 1752-1934. PA LIB REF & STKS & MCK STKS PN2221.M7 1967
Odell, George. Annals of the New York Stage. (1798-1894) PA LIB REF PN2227.N5O4 Available full text in the North American Theatre Online database
Wilmeth, Don, ed. The Cambridge History of American Theatre. vols. 1 (Beginnings to 1870) PA LIB REF PN2221.C37 1998
Witham, Barry, ed. Theatre in the United States: a documentary history. Vol. 1. 1750-1915. Theatre in the Colonies and United States. PA LIB REF PN2221.T54 1996
Wolter, Jurgen, ed. The Dawning of American Drama: American dramatic criticism, 1746-1915. PA LIB REF PN2221.D38 1993
AMERICAN HISTORY Reference Works
American Eras. vols. 1-8. MCK REF E169.1.A471979 1997
(united states-civilization)--(colonial era-1600-1754)--(development of a nation-1783-1815)
Boyer, Paul, ed. The Oxford Companion to United States History. MCK REF E174.O94 2001 (united states-history-encyclopedias)
Finkleman, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century (3 vols) MCK REF E169.1.E626 2001
(united states-civilization-19th century-encyclopedias)
Foner, Eric, ed. The Reader's Companion to American History. MCK REF E174.R43
(united states-history-encyclopedias)
Greene, Jack, ed. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. MCK REF E208.B635 1991
(united states-history-revolution-1775-1783-encyclopedias)---(united states-history-18th century-encyclopedias)
Jaycox, Faith. The Colonial Era: an eyewitness history. MCK REF E188.J39 2002
(united states-history-colonial period-ca. 1600-1775)--(united states-history-colonial period-ca.1600-1775-sources)
Morris, Richard, ed. Encyclopedia of American History. MCK REF E174.5.E52 1996
(united states-history-chronology)---(united states-history-encyclopedias)
There are many other reference books of United States history shelved in McKeldin Reference. Browse the call numbers listed above.
Looking Up Known Citations
If you have a citation for a book or a journal, you can use the UM Libraries' Catalog to look up the title and see if we own it. If the Libraries own the book you can write down the Location and Call Number and retrieve the book. If you cannot find the book or journal in the catalog, you may need to request it through Inter-Library Loan (ILL).
Look up these books and journals in the Catalog and find their Call Numbers:
Examples of book citations:
Carson, Cary, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. Albert. 1994. Of consuming interests: the style of life in the eighteenth century. Perspectives on the American Revolution. Charlottesville: Published for the United States Capitol Historical Society by the University Press of Virginia.
Silverman, Kenneth. 1976. A cultural history of the American Revolution: painting, music, literature, and the theatre in the Colonies and the United States from the Treaty of Paris to the Inauguration of George Washington, 1763-1789. New York: T.Y. Crowell.
Search Tip: in Basic Search, select "title beginning with..." or "author beginning with..."
(DO NOT USE "word/s anywhere"!!!!!)
BEWARE citations from a CHAPTER/ESSAY in a book!
Richards, Jeffrey H. "Play and Earnest on the Postwar Stage." In Theater Enough: American Culture and the Metaphor of the World Stage, 1607-1789, 265-79. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
Philbrick, Norman. "The Spy as Hero: An Examination of Andre by William Dunlap." Studies in Theatre and Drama: Essays in Honor of Hubert C. Heffner, edited by Oscar Brockett, 97-119. The Hague: Mouton, 1972.
Search Tip: Search by the title of the book: (Theater Enough... or Studies in Theatre...), or by the author of the book (Richards or Brockett) NOT the title of the chapter or essay ("Play and Earnest..." or "Spy as Hero...")
Examples of journal articles citations:
Fox, D.R. "The Development of the American Theater." New York History, 17 (1936), 22-41.
McArthur, Judith N. "Demon Rum on the Boards: Temperance Melodrama and the Tradition of Antebellum Reform." Journal of the Early Republic. 1989 9(4):517-540.
Search Tip: to search for journals in the Catalog, click on the JOURNALS tab at the top of the Basic Search page. Use "title beginning with..."; Once you have located your journal, click on the HOLDINGS link to see which volumes and issues the library has.
Searching by Subject/Topic in the Catalog
Another way to search the Catalog is by Subject. Subject words can be powerful tools, once you learn to recognize them. Look up some of these books in the catalog and examine their Subjects:
Bank, Rosemarie. Theatre Culture in America, 1825-1860. PA LIB PN2248.B36 1997
Brown, Jared. The Theatre in America During the Revolution. PA LIB PN2237.B76 1995
Garrison, Tim Alan. The Legal Ideology of Removal: the southern judiciary and the sovereignty of Native American Nations. MCK KF8228.C5G37 2002
Lindenauer, Leslie. Piety and Power: gender and religious culture in the American colonies, 1630-1700. MCK BR520.L56 2000
McConachie, Bruce. Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society, 1820-1970. PA LIB PN2248.M34 1992
Salinger, Sharon. Taverns and Drinking in Early America. MCK E162.S23 2002
Click on some of their Subjects and see where the links take you.
Fishing for Subjects:
Practice Search 1: Find books about American Theatre in 1700s
Subject Search Terms: "united states" and “theat*” and “18th”
Search Tips: on the ADVANCED SEARCH page, choose SUBJECT instead of ALL FIELDS. You can use the separate search boxes to search for multiple concepts at once. Note the * = Truncation. Using the * will pull up all words starting with “theat” (theatre, theater, theaters, theatrical…)
Practice Search 2: Find books about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (not 1793)
Subject Search Terms: "fugitive slave act" and “1850”
Search Tips: First do a SUBJECT search in ADVANCED SEARCH, as before. How many results do you get? To broaden your search, try changing SUBJECT to ALL FIELDS and repeat your search. Does this change your results?
Practice Search 3: History of Quakers in Philadelphia
Subject Search Terms: “quaker*” and “philadelphia”
Practice Search 4: Theatre during the time of the American Revolutionary War
Subject Search Terms: “theat*” and “united states” and “revolution*”
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Research Port
Research Port is the gateway to the electronic resources the libraries subscribe to. These resources include databases of journal abstracts and citations, full-text journals, streaming audio and video, and image/visual-art databases.
When you find a relevant article or citation in a database, you can follow the 
See also the UM Libraries' Research Port User Guide (PDF).
American Theatre-related databases available in Research Port:
America: History and Life 1954 - Present?
Most important database for locating articles on the history of the United States and Canada. Search Tips: Choose LANGUAGE = english / DOCUMENT TYPE = article / select appropriate TIME PERIOD. Search Strategies:
drunkard and (drama or theat*) / tyler and contrast / uncle toms cabin and (drama or theat*) / phrase = "fugitive slave act"
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance. 1982 - Present.
Comprehensive database for research on all aspects of theatre, performance and dance. Search Strategy: tyler and the contrast
North American Theatre Online.
Includes the full-text of reference works (such as O’Dell’s Annals of the New York Stage), full-text and in-depth information for more than 10,000 plays, digitized playbills, posters, photographs and related theatrical ephemera and links to editorially selected web resources. Search Tips: Search by person or name of play.
Early American Imprints.
The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America. Contains digitized Plays, Playbills and Theatre Posters. Search Tips: Search by person or name of play.
Primary Sources for American Theatre
Primary sources are original materials, from the original time period of an event or person. Primary sources are tangible remains of history, upon which later interpretations are based. Below you will find a list of *some* of the primary sources available to you through the UMD Libraries.
Citatation Style Guides
Use the Citation Systems and Style Manuals library guide to make sure you are citing correctly. Includes style manuals for MLA and Chicago/Turabian.
Academic Integrity
Use the What is Plagiarism library guide to make sure you understand academic integrity and plagiarism.
