View PDF finding aid (590.79 KB) - New York Public Library

Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Papers
Box/Folder Description _
This series contains a most extensive collection of scrapbooks kept by Chamberlain and
Lyman Brown from their childhood through their adulthood, mostly documenting a large
array of 19 th and 20 th century performers, as well as other theater subjects. There are also
several personal scrapbooks relating to Chamberlain Brown. A number of the
scrapbooks contain programs for miscellaneous productions seen by the Brown brothers
at theaters such as the Hartford Opera House, Parsons Theatre also in Hartford,
Connecticut, and on trips to New York City. Several scrapbooks also cover
miscellaneous actors and actresses. The Theatre Record scrapbooks (1903 – 1914)
include two volumes of the playgoing diaries kept by Chamberlain and Lyman Brown,
while several other volumes appear to have been purchased. (See also Related Materials
– Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Theatrical Diaries.)
Included in the scrapbooks are mostly clippings, but also programs, a number of
photographs, and other ephemera for the performers. In some instances, there are
multiple scrapbooks for the star, such as Edith Ellis, Violet Heming, Elsie Janis, Helen
Menken, Tom Mix, Marjorie Rambeau, and Joseph Schildkraut to name but a few. Some
of the most notable personalities include Maude Adams, Humphrey Bogart, Mrs. Leslie
Carter, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Edward Everett Horton, Bert Lahr, Fredric March,
Carlotta Monterey, Antoinette Perry, William Powell, Fritzi Scheff, Clifton Webb, and
Peggy Wood.
The Chamberlain Brown scrapbooks provide some of the only information in the
collection on his early career. His summer productions of The Social Stew (1909) and
The Chorus Boy (1910) in Annisquam, Massachusetts are well-documented in the
scrapbooks. The two Westchester Theatre scrapbooks document the 1931-1932
productions there by the Chamberlain Brown Players.
Series XI: Oversized, ca. 1890s – 1953 and undated
18 boxes
Arrangement: By Size and Format
This series is comprised of lists of stock productions, scrapbook fragments for stars such
as Kenneth MacKenna, Paul Muni, Ethel Shutta, and Ernest Truex, photographs, posters,
publicity materials, and clippings, some of which are autographed. The lists and
schedules of stock productions appear to have been filled-in by the Brown office.
Photographs include a portrait of Chamberlain Brown (ca. 1920s), as well as a photo of
Emma Brown Lyman (Aunt Kittie).
Of particular note are the posters for some of Chamberlain Brown’s early productions,
including The Social Stew and The Chorus Boy at the Village Hall, Annisquam,
Massachusetts (1909, 1910), and for Night of January 16 th at Bronxville Auditorium
(1936), as well as newsletters for the Brown brothers’ stock companies at the Greenwich
Theatre, Greenwich, Connecticut (1929) and Riviera Theatre, New York City (1931).
There are also clippings autographed by Bennett Cerf, Charles Laughton, and Winged
Victory cast members.
7