Samuel Whitbread correspondence concerning the Drury Lane Theatre
Overview
Letters to and from British politician, Samuel Whitbread, related to Thomas Shaw's dispute with the management of the Drury Lane Theatre.
Dates
- Creation: 1811-1815
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.25 linear feet (1 box)Autograph manuscript letters related to Thomas Shaw's dispute with the management of the Drury Lane Theatre. Includes letters from Samuel Whitbread to Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan to Whitbread, and Sheridan to Charles Sheridan.
Biographical / Historical
Samuel Whitbread (1764–1815) was a British politician. He was the only son and third child of Samuel Whitbread (1720–1796), brewer and politician, and his first wife, Harriet, daughter of William Hayton, attorney, of Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. When the Drury Lane Theatre burned down in 1809, theater owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan was financially ruined. Sheridan turned to his old friend Samuel Whitbread to head a committee that would manage the company, deal with the theater's complex debts, and oversee the rebuilding. Whitbread asked Sheridan to withdraw from management himself, which he did entirely by 1811. Thomas Shaw (ca. 1760-ca. 1830) was one of the many claimants against the management of the Drury Lane Theatre.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Letters from Whitbread
- II. Other letters
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Purchase; received: 1955 May 31.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Whitbread, Samuel, 1764-1815. Samuel Whitbread correspondence concerning the Drury Lane Theatre, 1811-1815: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02287
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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