Manuscript Division

The Manuscript Division has several silent-film-related special collections, primarily of actors and producers from the silent film era. The selected list below contains titles of these collections with links to finding aids.

View a complete list of finding aids for Manuscript Division special collections on their website. For additional reference assistance with these materials or questions about uncataloged items, contact the Manuscript Division.

Highlighted Special Collections

Lillian Gish papers, 1829-1978 [finding aid]
Actress. The collection chiefly contains synopses of silent films and scripts of plays, films, and television productions in which Gish did not appear.
May Robson papers, 1849-1950 [finding aid]
Actress. The collection includes correspondence, books, play scripts, and other material autographed or created by prominent actors and producers of stage and screen from the late nineteenth-century until Robson’s death; also scrapbooks, playbills, and other material documenting her life and stage and film career.
Nazimova collection, 1877-1988 [finding aid]
Actress. The collection includes correspondence, programs, press clippings, and scrapbooks documenting the American stage and film career of the Russian-born actress Alla Nazimova, particularly during the silent film era.
Rowland V. Lee papers, 1907-1971 [finding aid]
Director, producer, actor, and dramatist. The collection includes scripts, scrapbooks, photographs, printed matter, and other papers relating to Lee's career in motion pictures as a silent film actor, director, and producer from 1917-1959.
Thomas H. Ince papers, 1913-1964 [finding aid]
Motion picture producer, director, actor, and screenwriter. The collection primarily contains business and production files documenting Ince's career as a producer and director of silent films.

About the Manuscript Division

The Manuscript Division seeks to preserve personal papers and organizational records that document the course of America's national experience. Its more than twelve thousand collections and more than seventy million items touch upon every aspect of American history and culture. The Manuscript Division's holdings are strongest, however, in the areas of American national government, the federal judiciary, diplomacy, military history, women's history, and black history.

Manuscript Reading Room
Submit a question through our Ask a Librarian service, call the Research Center at 202-707-5387, or visit us in person in Room LM-101 of the James Madison building in Washington, D.C. Learn more about using the collections in this reading room.

Music for Silent Film: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress

Manuscripts: Ask a Librarian

Manuscript Division

Highlighted Special Collections

About the Manuscript Division