Dion Boucicault Collections

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

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

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.

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.

Dion Boucicault chronologies

• Brief biography of Dion Boucicault, with links to information about material in both collections
• Chronology of Boucicault's plays, with summaries of selected plays

Dion Boucicault manuscripts and printed play texts are also included in the Pettingell Collection.