SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Joseph Davidson Collection comprises 6.5 cubic feet of materials and consists of four sub-groups. The first sub-group is his professional papers and contains Mr. Davidson's correspondence, papers concerning his teaching career, his professional activities and interests, and materials concerning the B.C. Theatre department. The second sub-group concerns Yiddish Theatre, which apparently was of great interest to Mr. Davidson. The third sub-group is his personal memorabilia and the fourth is a book collection.

Mr. Davidson's professional papers include a resume and a letter of recommendation from 1930, a folder detailing his struggle for promotion at Brooklyn College, and his membership with the B.C. Alumni Association. There are his class roll books back to 1930 and notes and papers concerning his time at Columbia University. Of special interest is material on his Brooklyn College Memorial service of May 18, 1981. There are also extensive newsclippings, both about Mr. Davidson himself and theatre in general.

Sub-group I also contains numerous playbills of B.C. productions from 1932 through 1980. There are two scrapbooks, one of which deals exclusively with the play "In Abraham's Bosom" [1938], and numerous photographs both of Prof. Davidson and of theatrical productions. Lastly there are prompt books from five different plays and a set design file consisting of 266 cards and drawings.

The collection contains a rather large amount of material on the Yiddish Theatre. This included playbills and flyers of various productions, photos and newsclippings. There are poems and short stories, including papers written by is students. There are also magazine articles and clippings on Judaism in general.

His personal memorabilia consists of an award cup and three plaques awarded to Prof. Davidson for service at Brooklyn College, while the book collection consists of theater books which have been annotated by Prof. Davidson and a small collection of books about Abraham Lincoln.