University of Arizona

Students, faculty, staff, and the public are now welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday.

American Vaudeville Museum Collection

Black and white photograph of an all-female band, The Ingenues, from the 1928 motion picture The Band Beautiful

This archive was collected by Frank Cullen and Donald McNeilly, founders of the American Museum of Vaudeville, focusing on areas surrounding Boston and New York.

The collection consists of materials documenting vaudeville and other entertainment in the United States, particularly in the 1910s through 1940s. The collection focuses on vaudeville but encompasses other forms and eras of American entertainment as well. The collection comprises theatre programs and postcards, sheet music, magazines, playbills, photographs and posters, stage scripts and other manuscripts, clippings and scrapbooks, films, miscellaneous papers, and a large collection of LP albums, as well as some entertainers' costumes and accessories. Some materials are included as photocopies rather than in original form.