Special Collections & Archives hold two significant collections of material about the playwright and actor Dionysius Lardner Boucicault (1820-1890), better known as Dion Boucicault.

Collection in brief

Contents: programmes, posters, music, letters, research notes, legal documents, photographs
Period: 19th-20th century


Fawkes Boucicault Collection

This is a collection of ca 750 items, principally consisting of the research notes of Richard Fawkes for his book Dion Boucicault: a Biography (1979). The collection also contains photocopied playbills and letters, rough drafts of the book, and photographs and other image material.

This collection is completely catalogued. It consists of:

  • biographical material
  • material relating to Fawkes's book on Boucicault
  • newspaper cuttings
  • miscellaneous material
  • photographs
  • letters
  • programmes
A building on fire, surrounded by firemen.
Unknown. All rights reserved..

Print showing the sensation scene in the final act of The Streets of New York. 

Calthrop Boucicault Collection

This is larger and more important than the Fawkes Collection. It was compiled by Christopher Calthrop, Dion Boucicault's great-grandson. The material on Boucicault's plays and the biographical material have been catalogued and can be found in Librarysearch.

Uncatalogued material includes a large number of legal documents, letters, and material on later members of the family, eg Nina Boucicault, the first actor to play Peter Pan on stage, and Donald Calthrop, a character actor in films of the 1920s and 30s.

A bundle of manuscript documents tied with cotton tape from the Boucicault collections.
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