The Scottish Theatre Archive forms part of the Special Collections Department of the University of Glasgow Library. Its role is to help preserve Scotland's theatrical heritage by providing a safe home for archival material and by making it accessible to all those interested in Scottish theatre. It also acts as a major information centre for enquiries related to theatre in Scotland providing information from its own holdings or by directing researchers to other repositories.
The Archive was founded in 1981 with funding from the Scottish Arts Council. Further money was provided by charitable organisations. Since 1985, however, the University Library alone has been responsible for its funding and staffing.
Since 1981 the Archive has grown enormously, and continues to expand rapidly. Its content is of much wider popular interest than many archives in university libraries. As well as providing a resource for undergraduate and postgraduate study at the University, the Archive is an invaluable research tool and reference centre for scholars, students, theatrical practitioners and historians, and members of the public from all parts of the world. Use of the Archive is free of charge.
The Archive's coverage of Scottish theatre is very broad, including both traditional and contemporary aspects, both serious and popular. Among the largest collections are the archives of the Citizens' Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet which includes material from its beginnings as the Western Theatre Ballet, the BBC Radio Scotland script collection, and the Jimmy Logan collection of music-hall material Other collections include material relating to the Scottish Repertory Theatre, the Scottish National Players the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh,
Glasgow Unity, Molly Urquhart and her theatre, the Scottish Theatre Company, and the Dundee Repertory Theatre, Wilson Barrett Company, Mayfest and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The contents of the different collections vary, but in general include programmes, scripts, production notes, photographs, posters, and presscuttings. Some of the collections also include business papers and correspondence. The Archive has extensive holdings of playscripts, totalling over 7,000 titles. As well as scripts relating to productions by companies for which there are major holdings, and large collections of published play texts, there are several separate script collections, including those of John Cairney, Michael Elder, Robert Kemp, and the Scottish Society of Playwrights.
The Archive continues to acquire new material, both to fill gaps in existing holdings and to cover areas as yet not well represented.
There is a dedicated search available from which records to the holdings of the archives catalogued so far may be accessed.