| Collection | Calthrop Boucicault Collection |
| Description | This section includes items relating to various plays including Faust and Marguerite, Rip Van Winkle and The Vampire. Material includes posters, programmes, photographs of paintings, letters and cuttings. One of the photographs is of the earliest known portrait of Boucicault, in his role as Sir Alan Raby in The Vampire. This portrait was commissioned by Queen Victoria and is copyright to H.M. the Queen.
Boucicault was a prolific playwright; he estimated that he wrote, acted in and directed 250 plays. While some were huge successes, other were less popular; the disparity between Boucicault's hits and failures contributed to his lifelong financial difficulties. |