Skip to main content
19th-Century-Drama-1950x550.jpg

Nineteenth-Century American Drama

Popular Culture and Entertainment, 1820-1900

An authoritative digital record of the American stage spanning 80 years
Summary
Learn what makes this product unique
  • Contains virtually every play published during the time period — more than 4,700 in total
  • Fills a major gap in institutional collections, enabling exciting new discoveries on U.S. culture across all classes of society
  • Based on authoritative bibliographies and collected from dozens of institutions over nearly four decades

The nineteenth century witnessed unprecedented growth and sweeping changes in the dramatic arts with the number of theaters in the United States growing a hundredfold. Music hall and variety theater came to rival the “legitimate” theater in popularity. Romance gave way to realism, the musical stage proliferated, and the stage became a platform for social and political commentary. As a result, drama became the most popular form of entertainment in America. It was popular across all classes of society and took myriad forms: historical plays, melodramas, political satires, black minstrel shows, comic operas, musical extravaganzas, parlor entertainments, adaptations of novels and many others. All of these can be found in Nineteenth-Century American Drama: Popular Culture and Entertainment, 1820-1900.

A digital museum of 19th-century American culture
This unique and authoritative collection of America’s most popular entertainment form opens a door on U.S. culture that has been closed until now due to the challenge of access. The wide-ranging materials in Nineteenth-Century American Drama will shed light on areas of study generally supported to this point only by imprints and newspapers: daily life in the United States; politics, both local and national; culture in all of its forms; and the shifting and evolving tastes of Americans from across the country. Subjects covered by these works include women’s movements, temperance, street life, westward expansion, slavery and abolition, immigration, wars and countless others.

Also included here are hundreds of prompt books and manuscripts—annotated copies that help reveal the changing intentions of authors and the artistic views of directors. Together, these unique materials written by both the famous and the obscure provide students and scholars with rich new opportunities to study the dramatic arts and the American past from diverse perspectives.

A treasure trove of previously unavailable plays
Nineteenth-Century American Drama represents a goldmine for Drama and Theater programs around the world. Broad geographic coverage—the stages of New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, for example—offers opportunities for many layers of analysis. Critical multi-disciplinary support is provided not only for American history and literature but also for economics, political science, religious studies, ethnic studies and sociology. In addition, a helpful “Suggested Searches” feature makes it easy for users to pinpoint the exact plays of interest—by type, subject matter, setting, character ethnicity and other criteria.

Filling a major gap in institution collections
Allowing researchers of all kinds greater insight into this increasingly studied time period, Nineteenth-Century America Drama is an essential complement to Early American Imprints, 1690-1820; American Pamphlets, 1820-1922; American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1749-1900 and other collections in the fully integrated family of America’s Historical Imprints. Students and scholars using Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, will access both newspapers and plays with Readex AllSearch—a streamlined platform for efficiently searching across all Readex collections.

Give It a Try
Take a step toward access for your library
“…vital…”
“...a rare window into 19th-century U.S. culture.....key to understanding U.S. literary, political, and social history.”
Robert Davis, Adjunct Assistant Professor, English Department, John Jay College
Got a Minute?
Learn more in this short video
Areas of Study
This product supports the following subjects
African American Studies
American Studies
Literature & Theater
US History
Women's Studies
Early American Studies
Title List
Reviews & Accolades

Nineteenth-Century American Drama is a comprehensive collection of 4,700 American plays published or produced between 1820 and 1900….The plays reflect their time, providing contemporary and unfiltered perspectives about 19th-century issues such as women’s movements, temperance, westward expansion, immigration, war, industrialism, slavery, reconstruction, and abolition….This is an excellent resource of 19th-century primary materials about American theater, life, culture, history, literature, economics, political science, religious and ethnic studies, and sociology.

“The layout and functionality of the database are simple but efficient….suggested topics offer comprehensive options for narrowing or broadening searches. For example, under ‘depictions of ethnic, racial, and religious groups in cast,’ there are 27 subjects found, including Arabs, Catholics, and Jews….Search results are retrieved quickly, and navigation is seamless. The plays are featured in their original form and wording, lending the database credibility. The digitalization quality of the works is outstanding, as is the database’s overall organization and functionality. The viewing options make for an effortless reading experience, and the content and play selections are thorough and balanced.

“…its interdisciplinary nature expands appeal to anyone researching the myriad aspects of 19th-century American life and culture. It provides a lens into not only what people read but also what they saw, and joins a long list of outstanding database products from Readex.”
Library Journal (October 2019)

“As a database, Nineteenth-Century American Drama: Popular Culture and Entertainment, 1820-1900, has the potential to effect a sea-change in how scholars and teachers approach pre-twentieth century American literature and theater history. In literary history, critics have long dismissed the period before the early twentieth century emergence of figures like Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Susan Glaspell. Deeming it as too commercial, scholars have largely ignored the nineteenth-century popular culture, leading to a distinctive dearth in scholarly and critical attention to the plays. While recent attention (in both scholarship and digital collections) has been given to popular literature in the form of dime novels, sensationalistic pamphlets, and novels, there has been scant resources for research into popular theatrical entertainment of a period. As a result, the plays that entertained, inspired, and challenged audiences and critics have largely languished in archives and microfilm collections.

“By making so many plays that have largely been forgotten available, Nineteenth-Century American Drama can bring back a vital part of U.S. cultural history. Its tragedies, poetic dramas, comedies, farces, sketches, and burlesques provide a rare window into nineteenth-century U.S. culture. Many of these works, such as Louisa Medina’s Last Days of Pompeii, were wildly successful at the time. Others formed parts of nineteenth-century social and political movements like abolitionism, temperance, and suffrage, making these plays key to understanding U.S. literary, political, and social history. This new database will streamline the research process for any project looking at these plays.”
— Robert Davis, Adjunct Assistant Professor, English Department, John Jay College (CUNY)

Notable Titles
Chronological Segments
MARC-Records
Series List
Case Study
FAQS
Advisory Board
Request Product Information

I am interested in:
Name

Address/Location

Tell your Library

Recommend this product to your institution

Provide your contact information, and we’ll let your library know of your interest.

Name
Note: This will enable us to share your recommendation with the correct person.
institution info

address_location

contact_information
Reason for recommendation
Request a Custom Course Map

Thank you for your interest in receiving a complimentary custom course map for this product.

Once your course map request is received, we'll send a customized document detailing how this product aligns with courses at your institution.

I am also interested in:
Name

Address/Location

Contact Information

Stay in Touch

Receive product news, special offers and invitations, or the acclaimed Readex Report

Sign Up

By clicking "Sign Up", you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.