Cary Ellison was a talent spotter who worked for Spotlight. As part of his work from 1953-1980 he went on twice yearly tours around repertory performances across the UK to locate the up and coming performers, directors and plays. The Cary Ellison Theatre Programme Collection consists of the theatre programmes collected by Cary Ellison on these trips, complete with his added notes on the actors, plays and directors he saw. He commented on a number of well known actors in the early stages of their careers, as well as offering his view on several well known plays.

The collection consists of minutes of management meetings, 1974 - 1994; membership lists; internal correspondence; external correspondence concerning the reactions of the public to the productions; correspondence regarding funding; copies of scripts written by members of the company and outside authors; audition notes and CVs; correspondence and accounts relating to tour arrangements; tour reports; posters and programmes for productions; photographs, video cassettes and loose film reel of productions; promotional material; newspaper cuttings relating to specific productions and Gay Sweatshop in general; theses based on Gay theatre.

Letters received by Henry Lee, naturalist, 1866-1887.

Records of the Shakespeare Association, 1914-1955, consisting of minute books, annual reports, membership lists, cash book, correspondence regarding publications and subscriptions, other correspondence and press cuttings.

Records of the magazine Adam International Review and its editor, Miron Grindea, 1941-1995, and associated papers dating back to c1903, consisting of a wide range of material dealing with aspects of British and European cultural activity, particularly since the 1930s, and relating to art, literature, music, literary criticism, and the history of ideas. The archive includes the Adam International Review, issues 152-499 (wanting 186, 210-211, 218, 224-228, 331-54), 1941, 1946-1988, and indexes; microfilm copies of nos 13-14, 65, 148-149, 151, and issues dating from 1936 and 1938; and published copies of Christopher Fry, 'Genius, Talent and Failure: the Brontes' (The Adam Lecture 1986); Yehudi Menuhin, 'Tolerance' (The Adam Lecture 1987); Frances Stern, 'A Concordance to Proust' (Adam Books, 1987); 'Miron Grindea 1909-1995: a Celebration'. Unpublished papers of the Review were created by or relate to many prominent writers, artists and musicians of the 20th century including Natalie Clifford Barney, Samuel Beckett, Max Beerbohm, Nicolas Bentley, Isaiah Berlin, Edmund Blunden, Agatha Christie, Jean Cocteau, Ivy Compton Burnett, Cyril Connolly, Benedetto Croce, Cecil Day-Lewis, Lawrence Durrell, T S Eliot, George Enescu, E M Forster, Christopher Fry, William Golding, Duncan Grant, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, L P Hartley, Storm Jameson, Augustus John, Arthur Koestler, F R Leavis, Rose Macaulay, Compton Mackenzie, Thomas Mann, Katherine Mansfield, Walter de la Mare, John Masefield, Somerset Maugham, Yehudi Menuhin, Arthur Miller, Henry Miller, Joan Miro, Henry Moore, Iris Murdoch, Pablo Picasso, Anthony Powell, J B Priestley, Marcel Proust, Herbert Read, Jean Rhys, Ralph Richardson, Vita Sackville-West, Jean Paul Sartre, Siegfried Sassoon, Ronald Searle, George Bernard Shaw, Georges Simenon, the Sitwell family, C P Snow, Stephen Spender, Frances Stern, August Strindberg, Dylan Thomas, Arnold Wesker, Angus Wilson, Stefan Zweig, and others. Other material relates to the management of the magazine and includes editorial material (notes, proofs, preparatory research material, and correspondence required for production of an issue) and papers relating to circulation. The material is varied in form and comprises correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, proofs with author's and editor's corrections and printed documents, including poems, stories, and criticism, both published and rejected for publication; photographs; original drawings and illustrations; news cuttings and other ephemera such as programmes for events; tape recordings including the Adam lectures, 1985-1987; and interview transcripts.

Correspondence and papers, 1883-1938, mostly relating to Arnold Bennett's death and the demands on his estate, including his will, arrangements for the funeral, correspondence between the two Mrs Bennetts, the settlement for his daughter, papers of his secretary, financial affairs, and correspondence about sale of rights.

The collection represents the contacts through two centuries of a group of men and women of high distinction ramifying through the medical, legal and literary worlds. It forms a not unimportant fund of minor historical material, comprising more than a thousand letters from nearly five hundred writers.

The autograph letters are mounted in 10 large volumes: -

1. Letterbook of John Arbuthnot (1667-1735). The most interesting letters are those of Pope and Swift and their circle written in 1714 when the Queen's death involved the destruction of their political hopes. Letterbook of William Hunter (1719-1783). It includes letters from Tobias Smollett the novelist, from Dr. Johnson thanking Hunter for presenting his book to the King, and from Edward Gibbon 'proposing himself the pleasure of attending some of Dr. Hunter's Anatomical lectures.'

2. Hunter and Baillie family letters and reminiscences, including the letters written by John to William Hunter from active service in 1761-62; poems by Sophia Baillie, Jenner family letters.

   3. Letters to Matthew Baillie from the Royal Princesses. Letters of the Bentham family, including three from Jeremy Bentham. Autograph letter collection includes letters from Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens. 1735 - 1845

3. Denman family collection; autographs collections of Lady Bell and Dr. William Whewell; letters of John Baron, Edward Jenner's biographer; fragment of unpublished music by Mozart; letters from Joanna Baillie's friends including c.1782-1877

4. Letters to Joanna Baillie includes letters from Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth. Various dates

5. William Hunter's diplomas, and letters to him, Hunter family documents, and notes on family history compiled by Joanna and Matthew Baillie. Locks of hair and christening caps worn by Hunter family. Various dates

6. Matthew Baillie's letters to William Hunter includes material relating to treatment of George III and to his wife Sophia (Denman) and his diplomas. C. 1783-1823

7. Matthew Baillie's professional correspondence including notes on illness of George III and on labour of Princess Charlotte. Letter to Helen Hunter Baillie from George Peachy re Matthew Baillie's notebooks (1923). 1783-1923

8. Joanna Baillie's letters and papers relating to her plays, sale of her works, mss. of two stories and a comedy, letters from Mrs Sigourney, Henry Siddons, Anne Hunter, Mary Somerville; Agnes Baillie's reminiscences, prescriptions by Matthew Baillie

9. Princess Mary's letters to Baillie concerning the illness of Princess Amelia, Anne Hunter's autograph poems, libretto of Haydn's Creation; account of death of Princess Charlotte.

   The Hunter Baillie collection comprises also a number of manuscript books, the oldest of which is a commonplace book of the early eighteenth century, giving details of family history of the Hunters. Matthew Baillie's notebooks include: -

Journal of a tour in Europe in 1788 and A short memoir of my life, 1818. 'Some brief observations from my own experience upon a considerable number of diseases', in two volumes. n.d. With these are his casebooks, fee-books and other professional notes, including details of his attendance on King George III. Baillie records that his total annual fees mounted from £121 in 1792 to £9,995 in 1815.

Translation of The Wasps by Aristophanes, c 1800s, comprising a manuscript translation into English by an unknown translator, written on each left hand page, with English notes and extracts in Greek on the right hand pages.

Records and collection of manuscripts of the Hunterian Society, 1676-1989. The manuscript collection includes extensive letters and papers relating to the Hunter and Baillie families.

The David Heneker Archive contains the working papers of musical theatre composer David Heneker, who wrote or contributed to several well known musicals incluing 'Half a Sixpence' and 'Charlie Girl'. The Archive contains materials relating to each of the shows David Heneker worked on including drafts of songs and scripts, musicals scores, correspondence and publicity. There is also material relating to his work as a songwriter in the 1930s and 1940s (including the Second World War), and his work for films and advertising. There are also materials relating to shows and films that David Heneker worked on that never reached the final production stage.

Papers and books belonging to the theatre critic Sheridan Morley (1941-2007). Includes correspondence, records relating to his various productions, volumes of press coverings covering his reviews, research notes and transcripts of some of his publications, photographs, records relating to his father Robert Morley and Grandmother Gladys Cooper, records relating to Noel Coward, theatre memorabilia and ephemera and objects.

Notebooks containing typescripts of plays, essays and poems on various subjects and eminent individuals with some manuscript annotations, all written by Fritz Gross (except one item in notebook 1).

Papers of the Incorporated Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers comprising an annual report for 1945.

The collection consists of member lists and registers; correspondence, notes and publications relating to the building of the new theatre; financial papers relating to loans; financial papers concerning various productions; legal papers relating to the lease of land; applications to the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Greater London Council for funding, including annual reports and accounts; papers and publicity material relating to productions; scripts; programmes and posters for plays; material concerned with the Women's festival of June 1986; publications about fringe theatres and the East End of London; photographs of productions and cast; press cuttings.