The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute is an archive for theatre and dance at The Ohio State University.
Founded in 1951 as the Ohio State University Theatre Collection, the original Theatre Research Institute collection consisted of microfilm rather than original materials and engaged researchers in more than 100 European museums and libraries to compile bibliographies of rare theatrical material unique to their institutions. From the researchers' contributions and his own surveys, Dr. John McDowell, the Institute's founding director, built a collection of 450,000 frame microfilm archives of theatre history of the Western world -- from Medieval to Modern unduplicated anywhere in the United States containing copies of rare documents, promptbooks, posters, playbills, and costume and scene designs with especially strong holdings from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and the United States.
The OSU Libraries' Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute serves as an archive for performers, playwrights, choreographers, designers, producing organizations, and theatre and dance companies, among others, and advances the study and inspiration of the performing arts. In association with the Department of Theatre, the Institute acquires, preserves, and makes accessible materials documenting the performing arts for the purposes of scholarship, education, and enjoyment; provides an active teaching component; serves as a source for new works creation, development, and reconstruction; and enriches patrons' experiences of these materials which reveal our performing arts culture and history.
