The Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research was established in 1974 by theater historian Helen Armstead-Johnson for the purpose of collecting, preserving, documenting and exhibiting the history of African-American contributions to the American stage. The Foundation was supported financially by Dr. Johnson from her university salary, lectures and exhibition fees, and with a few small grants and modest private donations.
Theatrical history from slavery to the 1980's is represented in the collection. Most of the items were acquired through donations, although Dr. Johnson also purchased some material and gathered contemporary articles to supplement older material. Among the materials which were collected by the Foundation are correspondence, scripts, programs, production files, rare books and pamphlets, posters, broadsides, contracts, scrapbooks, costumes and costume designs, playbills, musical instruments, family memorabilia, photographs, phonograph records, taped interviews with well-known entertainers, newsclippings and trophies.
The Foundation was housed adjacent to Dr. Johnson's apartment in the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan. There, she put together a small museum in 1975 for the display of some of the objects she had collected. When the museum closed to the public after a few years, Dr. Johnson promoted the objectives of the Foundation through the preparation of exhibitions using the material she had collected. The exhibits traveled to a variety of venues over the twenty year period between 1975 and 1993 exposing thousands of people to the history of blacks in the performing arts.
From the guide to the Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Theater Research records, 1974-1994, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.)
