Learned collection on German-language theater Ms. Coll. 638 Finding aid prepared by Violet Lutz. Last updated on July 18, 2019. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 2007 Learned collection on German-language theater Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents..................................................................................................................................... 19 Administrative Information......................................................................................................................... 24 Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................24 Other Finding Aids......................................................................................................................................25 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 26 Theater Rehearsal Materials.................................................................................................................. 26 Librettos................................................................................................................................................. 29 Catalog of Theodor Bloch's Theater Lending Library, Philadelphia.................................................... 30 Musical Scores.......................................................................................................................................31 Playbills..................................................................................................................................................33 Theater Newspapers...............................................................................................................................35 Oversized Materials (other than newspapers). 1 map drawer...............................................................37 Appendix 1: List of Theater Venues Represented in the Learned Collection.......................................40 Appendix 2: List of Newspaper Advertisements for Performances in Turner Halle, 1873-1875..........42 Index to Playbills: Chronological Listing............................................................................................. 45 Index to Theater Newspapers: Chronological Listing.......................................................................... 67 Author/Title Index to Playbills and Theater Newspapers...................................................................105 Index of Works by Unidentified Authors........................................................................................... 160 Index by Composer Name...................................................................................................................161 - Page 2 - Learned collection on German-language theater Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Learned, Marion Dexter, 1857-1917 Title Learned collection on German-language theater Call number Ms. Coll. 638 Date [bulk] 1873-1895 Date [inclusive] 1832-1898 Extent 35 boxes (+ 2 map drawers) Language German Language note In German with some English. Abstract Comprises material relating to the production of German-language plays in Philadelphia, predominantly in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Material includes printed and manuscript plays with annotations, which served as prompt books; manuscript scenarios; lists of props, as well as a few actual props; role books; librettos; musical scores; playbills; and selected issues of German-language theater newspapers published in Philadelphia. Also includes a catalog of the Theater-Leihbibliothek, handwritten by Theodor Bloch, owner of the lending library. - Page 3 - Learned collection on German-language theater Cite as: Learned collection on German-language theater, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Biography/History German-Language Theater in Philadelphia: A Historical Sketch In the period between 1830 and 1930, 5.9 million German immigrants arrived in the United States, comprising 15.7% of all immigrants arriving.[1] One might, further, speak of a "mid-nineteenth century character" of this German immigration: about one-third of German immigrants over those one hundred years arrived between 1850 and 1869, during which time German immigrants constituted fully 35% of the total number of immigrants arriving.[2] On the other hand, more German immigrants arrived in the 1880s––about 1.4 million––than during any other decade.[3] The highest peaks of annual German immigration during the period were reached in 1854 and 1882.[4] German emigration to the United States famously began in Pennsylvania, with Francis Daniel Pastorius leading a group of German Mennonites and Quakers in the founding of Germantown, near Philadelphia, in 1683. The Middle Atlantic region in general, and particularly Pennsylvania, remained a favored destination of German settlement in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the focus of German settlement shifted westward and broadened significantly, with areas of settlement expanding into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, as well as Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. There were also significant settlements in Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, California, and Washington.[5] But even with this shift, in 1880, Philadelphia, which was at that time the second largest city in the United States, had a German-born population of 55,769––considerably larger, in absolute terms, than the German-born populations of either Cincinnati or Milwaukee, and slightly larger than that of St. Louis. Only New York and Chicago had larger populations of German-born immigrants.[6] German-born Philadelphians made up 6.6% of the city's total population. Considering the German-born in combination with those who were the children of German immigrants, one can speak of Philadelphians of 'German stock' as amounting to 16.2% of the city's population in 1880. (Only the Irish made up a larger immigrant group in Philadelphia at that time.)[7] Faced with the dilemmas of assimilation, German Americans in the second half of the nineteenth century debated the future of the 'German element' in American culture.[8] Love of the arts, especially music and theater, had long been a strong aspect of German social life, and so it was often through the expression of these cultural interests that German-American life distinguished itself. In the––perhaps filio-pietistic–– formulation of the eminent German-American scholar Albert Bernhardt Faust: "The social influence - Page 4 - Learned collection on German-language theater of the German element in the United States consists in the emphasis laid upon the cultivation of those arts and habits which divert from the narrow path of selfish interest or material gain, and which elevate, ennoble, and increase the joy of living."[9] As was the case for other immigrant groups in the nineteenth century, and for American life in general, German-American life was much bound up with participation in voluntary associations, known in German as Vereine.[10] Philadelphia was by some measures in the forefront of German cultural expression in this regard. The first German-American singing society in the country, the Männerchor, was founded in Philadelphia on 15 December 1835. The Turngemeinde Philadelphia, formally organized on 15 May 1849, was the fourth in a succession of such Turnvereine, or gymnastic associations, that had begun to form in the United States in 1848.[11] Both types of Vereine were reminiscent of traditional communal life in Germany. The support of German-language theater on a long-term basis was an often elusive goal for enterprising German-American community members in the mid to late nineteenth century. A German theater director and immigrant from Hamburg, Heinrich Börnstein, when undertaking to establish a German theater in St. Louis in 1858––what eventually opened the following fall as the St. Louis Opernhaus––tried to kindle enthusiasm for the new project among his compatriots by reminding them that, back in Germany, even a city with a population of only 12-15,000 inhabitants would usually have a theater of above-average quality, and that cities of 30-50,000 would, as a matter of course, boast a good, well-established theater presenting both operas and plays. Speculating that there were some 60,000 German-speaking residents of St. Louis, Börnstein asserted that one should be able to reckon at least 5%, or 3,000, of them as regular once-a-week theater-goers––and, if such were the case, then a good German theater was a realizable goal: "wir haben von Anfang an das feste Vertrauen gehabt, dass die deutsche Bevölkerung von St. Louis ihr eigenes deutsches Theater haben und erhalten könne, und in diesem Vertrauen haben wir gehandelt" (we were convinced from the beginning that the German population of St. Louis could have and maintain its own German theater,