No fewer than three Boston theaters were called the Globe, and the Boston Athenæum owns playbills and portions of playbills from the first two. When the first theater was erected in 1867, it was initially called Selwyn's, but burned down in 1873. The third Globe was built by Arthur H. Vinal in 1903. Most of the Athenæum's Globe Theatre programs originate from the first and second playhouse, which was built by B.F. Dwight in 1874. All three theaters were known for their celebrated stars. Among the actors featured at the Globe in the 1870s and 1880s were Helena Modjeska, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Richard Mansfield, all of whom are well-represented in the library's theater collection.

In the early 1880s, Madame Modjeska starred in several plays at the Globe, opposite the handsome Maurice Barrymore, father of the illustrious Lionel, Ethel and John. A large number of programs featuring Modjeska and Barrymore are found in the Athenæum's collection of theater scrapbooks.

Only about two 1888 theater programs from this relatively obscure playhouse exist in the library's collection. The Grand Dime Museum was located at the corner of Washington and Dover Streets, and apparently presented variety shows. One of its many attractions was a swimming pool!

Located on Hollis Street, between Washington and Tremont Street, the Hollis Street Theatre was in its day the most fashionable theater in Boston. Built in 1885 by John R. Hall, the theater was razed in 1935. Hollis Street opened with Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Mikado, and featured such well-known actors as Dion Boucicault, Madame Modjeska, Maurice Barrymore, E.H. Sothern, Sarah Bernhardt and, around the turn of the century, Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, William Gillette and Maude Adams. Isaac B. Rich was the theater's general manager and proprietor until management of the Hollis Street Theatre passed to Charles Frohmann sometime between 1907 and 1910.

Many of the Boston Athenæum's theater playbills have survived intact. The Hollis Street Theatre scrapbooks include programs that, with few exceptions, retain all of the advertising and cover art. The covers of the earliest programs (1886) represent exterior and interior views of the theater itself, valuable images of a playhouse and street that no longer exist. Judging by the covers, the theater was decorated in sumptuous, neo-Baroque style, lending credence to its fashionable status. Intact covers from the late 1880s and seem to have been purely decorative. The Athenæum's collection of Hollis Theatre programs date from 1886 to the 1920s.

Of all Boston theaters, the Howard Athenæum is one of the most famous as well as the most lamented. To those Bostonians who still remember it, the theater was affectionately called "The Old Howard". Originally the site of a Millerite temple whose followers awaited Armageddon, the building was rebuilt as a playhouse in 1845, only to burn down a few months later. In 1846 a new structure was designed by Isaiah Rogers in a Gothic style unique among American theaters. The playhouse soon became famous for its opera productions: Verdi's Ernani, performed at the Howard in 1847, which may have been Boston's first exposure to Italian bel canto opera .

Plays and ballets were also featured at the Howard. Gradually, however, as the theater lost much of its audience to the Boston Museum and the Boston Theatre, it began presenting variety shows, which in the first decades of the twentieth century degenerated into burlesque. From its fashionable grand opera days in the mid-nineteenth century the Old Howard had become a tawdry establishment especially beloved by Harvard undergraduates for its strip-tease acts.

The Boston Athenæum has a very small but interesting collection of programs from the Howard's early years dating from 1847 to 1848. Notable is a program of Verdi's Ernani (also called Hernani), which had its American premier at the Howard in 1847.

Located on Tremont Street, opposite Park Street Church, in roughly the same location where Tremont Temple is now, this theater should not be confused with the two other Tremont Theatres built in 1827 and 1889, respectively. In the space of a year, the name "Jane English's New Tremont Theatre" changed to "New Tremont Theatre" and, later, to "Tremont Theatre". Judging from the programs, this playhouse mounted many types of theatrical diversions, including variety shows, operas and stage plays. (See also "Tremont Theatre")

New Hampshire showman Benjamin Franklin Keith opened his theater next door to the second Boston Theatre in 1894. Earlier, Keith had successfully opened a chain of theaters in several cities that he was the first to dub "vaudeville". Keith's Theatre was an elegant vaudeville playhouse with reserved seats, two shows a day and an orchestra.

Built by J.B. McElfatrick, B.F. Keith's Theatre became a landmark of American theater history with some 400 Keith theaters soon built throughout the country. In 1909 B.F. Keith's took over its great competitor, the Boston Theatre, which became one of Keith's three-theater complexes seating 7000 people.

B.F. Keith's featured a variety of vaudeville acts every day. A theater program for May 19, 1902 mentions, among other entertainers, singers and dancers, an "eccentric, juggling comedian" by the name of W.C. Fields.

Located at the corner of Washington and Dover Streets, Lothrop's was managed by G.E. Lothrop and had its own stock company. The library owns only six programs from this playhouse.

The Athenæum's two programs from the Lyceum date from 1892 and 1893. The theater was located at 661 Washington Street and was managed by James W. Bingham. Judging from the programs it specialized in comedy and burlesque acts.

For Histories A-C   For Histories N-W

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