Melville Theatre Collection The Melville collection tells the story of a once thriving, theatrical family. It consists of play texts, some photocopied playbills, programmes, photographs, items relating to specific theatres, publicity material and a large number of personal papers. The collection was acquired in several batches from 1990 onwards, including the purchase of the Bad Woman Dramas, plays written by Frederick Melville and Walter Melville. These were plays with a strong moral theme, very much suited to the tastes of the day. When the material was received it had no immediately apparent order and so the decision was taken to sort it into a series of categories, consisting of theatres, biography, publicity material, periodicals, playtexts, programmes, playbills, Melville associates, music and miscellaneous. The collection comprises ca 1,500 items. c1800-1987