The Brander Matthews
Dramatic Museum

HENRY W. WELLS
 

Design for a No mask
painted by Sokan Asai.
 

On May 8, i<)6}, on the eve of bis
retirement. Dr. Henry W. Wells
gave an address in which he sum¬
marized the developrment of the
collections and the principal
types of activities of the Brander
Matthews Dramatic Museinn,
during the fifteen years of his
Curatorship. The concluding
part of his address is printed be¬
low. This is followed by a pic¬
ture section in which are shown
a few examples of the manifold
resources of the collections.

Editor's Note
 

The Theater leaves as a deposit materials for both eye and
ear that have great artistic value. The literary documentation
of the theater is the world's greatest poetry. The music of
the theater is at times unsurpassed even as pure music. Its cos¬
tume and decor are of infinite value and also available in some
measure for a museum as detachable from actual productions. This
all adds up to the possibility of a dramatic museum in the fullest
sense of the words. Columbia established the first such museum
in this country, as it also established the first chair of dramatic
literature. Today we have very obsolete museum equipment but
the nucleus for a really important collection and, I hope, the
initial effort and effectual momentum to bring this about. I cannot
readily conceive such a result without an active drama school and

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