The Theatre Library Association is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1937 to promote the collection, preservation, and use of theatrical and performing arts materials. Membership includes librarians, scholars, curators, archivists, performers, writers, designers, historians, collectors, and students.
Recognizing the need for documenting theatre as both an art form and as a factor in a community’s social and educational life, leading theatre curators, librarians and historians met in June 1937 under the chairmanship of Harry M. Lydenberg, director of The New York Public Library, to discuss the issue. Among those present were the curators of the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum of Columbia University, the William Seymour Theatre Collection at Princeton University, the Museum of the City of New York, and the New York Public Library Theatre Collection. It was on this occasion that the group founded and successfully launched the Theatre Library Association. George Freedley, curator of the Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library, was appointed its first president, and it was formally adopted as an affiliate of the American Library Association the following year.
Conference Dates and Sites
*Officers change January 1st
Board of Directors