Consists of a collection of correspondence of playwrights, authors, actors and actresses, and theater managers, and other manuscript materials relating to American and English theater, which were acquired by the Library from various sources as single items or small file groups. Materials span from the 1720s through the 1970s, though the majority are from the 19th century. There is a significant amount of correspondence, along with some drafts of scripts and other writings, notes, contracts, playbills, theater programs, printed plays, photographs, advertisements, clippings, short biographies, and ephemera. Notable figures represented in the collection include Truman Capote, Robert Penn Warren, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, John Wilkes Booth, and Ronald Reagan, among others.

This collection was formerly referred to as "General Manuscripts, Theater."