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[A lot of thirty-two Baltimore Theatre playbills for the autumn season of 1816].

Baltimore: [G. Dobbin and Murphy, printers?], 1816. Performance dates from October 1, 1816 to November 21, 1816. 32 broadsides on laid paper, 5 approx. 20.5” x 8” and 27 approx. 13” x 8”, 20 with imprint reading “Printed at No. 4, Harrison-Street,” 1 with additional line reading “Where Checks, Prices Current, Cards, &c. are Printed with neatness and dispatch”; others lacking imprint but likely by the same printer. All playbills with manuscript page numbers from 1 to 32 in the upper right corner, with all numbers in the sequence present; additional contemporary manuscript annotations to many of these, mainly regarding changes in casting. With original 4to covers, marbled paper over boards with remnants of perished calf spine at edges, manuscript date of 1816 on front cover, manuscript index on paste-down of front cover.

An ample sheaf of thirty-two early nineteenth century playbills for the Baltimore Theatre, all of them unrecorded. This remarkable gathering provides rich documentation of theatre life in Baltimore in the second decade of the nineteenth century, recording the titles of the many plays performed in the Shakespeare-rich fall season of 1816 (from opening night, October 1st, to the last night, November 21st), the names of characters and actors, descriptions of the sets and action, and so on, with numerous manuscript emendations.

As was customary in the American theater at this early date, the plays performed at the Baltimore Theatre were largely of British or European origin, as American playwriting was in its infancy. Represented here are Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Coriolanus, and Othello. In addition, King Lear was announced but was canceled. Over the course of several weeks (October 19th to November 8th), the leading American tragedian of the day, Thomas A. Cooper (1776-1849), starred in Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and Coriolanus.

A handful of other works by notable playwrights were performed during the season as well, including Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, Beaumont and Fletcher’s Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife (altered by Garrick), and Pizarro; Or, the Death of Rolla (Sheridan’s adaptation of Kotzebue’s Die Spanier in Peru). Other fare included some of the many comedies, tragedies, comic operas, farces, etc. popular at the time, but now largely forgotten. The sole work by an American (or partly by an American), a melodrama entitled Rokeby; or, the Buccaniers, is described as “written by a gentleman of Maryland, and founded on the celebrated poem by that name, by Walter Scott, Esqr.”

A description of Columbus; Or, the Discovery of America, one of the more “exotic” works performed, takes up much of one of the longer playbills, the production including a “Grand Procession from all sides of Warriors and Caciques, accompanied by Indian Musicians; the High Priest bearing the Great Standard of the Sun” and Orozimbo, the king, “in a Magnificent Car of Burnished Gold, Supported on the Shoulders of Warriors, bearing Golden Staves, &c. Indian Girls strewing Flowers, &c.”

The theatre-going public of Baltimore was undoubtedly disappointed that English/American actor Amelia Holman Gilfert (1789-1833), who was to appear on the stage from October 4th to October 14th, apparently had to cancel. She would have played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, among other roles. Her name is crossed out on all of the playbills for her seven scheduled appearances, one S. Wheatley[?] taking her place on the first night (as Juliana in the comedy Honey Moon) and a Mrs. Entwisle appearing in her stead thereafter. This evidence seems to disprove John T. Scharf’s assertion that “In the autumn [of 1816] Mrs. Gilfert, formerly Mrs. Holman, gave great satisfaction in a round of her best characters, her seven nights averaging $430…” (History of Baltimore City and County, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day).

Baltimore was “one of the first towns in America to show hospitality to theatre companies.” (Oxford Companion to the Theatre). In 1781, the first proper theater building was erected in town, a brick structure located on East Baltimore Street, and from that time forward Baltimore assumed an important place in the theatre life of the young nation. In 1792, actor Thomas Wignell (1753-1803), who had gained fame as a leading member of the Old American Company, formed a partnership with composer and theater musician Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809). The two began construction of new theaters in Philadelphia and Baltimore. The Baltimore Theatre was established in 1794 and opened to the public in September of 1795.

With the death of Wignell in 1803, Reinagle became head of the musical department in Baltimore, and his compositions and adaptations proved very popular with the public. Actors William Warren and William Wood took over stage direction, and upon the death of Reinagle in 1809, they formed a partnership as proprietors of both the Baltimore and Philadelphia theaters. In 1811, the old wooden theater was demolished and the construction of a new brick theater begun, which opened to the public in 1813. Full completion of the theater must have occurred gradually after opening, however, as a notice appears at the head of the first of the playbills offered here reading, “The Managers respectfully inform the Public, that they at length have it in their power to offer them a complete and well finished Theatre, which will be Opened on Tuesday Evening , October 1, 1816…”

The Baltimore Theatre is perhaps best remembered for the historic role it played in the popularization of Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner. While credit for its first public performance has often been given to Ferdinand and/or Charles Durang, it is more likely that it was first sung in the theater by a Mr. Hardinge in October of 1814, as advertised in the Federal Gazette. However, at least according to some reports, the Durangs soon began singing it in the theater to great popular acclaim, eventually accompanied by an illuminated panorama of the Siege of Fort McHenry. From there it spread throughout the country. Various members of the Durang family were actors in the Baltimore Theatre company. The names “Mr. Durang” (presumably Ferdinand) and the “Misses C. and K. Durang” appear frequently on these playbills.

No records in OCLC for any Baltimore Theatre playbills from 1816, nor are any recorded in Shaw & Shoemaker. The Maryland Historical Society has a bound volume for the 1795 season, as well as various bound volumes from 1809 on, but as nearly as we can determine, none for 1816.

A rare and entertaining gathering of early 19th century Baltimore playbills.

REFERENCES: Scharf, John Thomas. History of Baltimore City and County, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day. Baltimore, 1881, pp. 680-686

CONDITION: Good, occasional soiling, stab-holes in left margins, margins trimmed at lower left side of the five larger playbills, but no loss of text.

Item #6590

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