Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017 - 37

SPECIAL SECTION:

Design and Technical Archives
George Izenour also played a large part in the origins of this archive. Many of his published illustrations
and project files are housed at Penn State; some are
located in the special collections and some are found
in the Eisenhower Auditorium. William Allison relayed "when he (George) retired from Yale and closed
the basement electronics laboratory, I managed to get
a share of its more interesting instruments and equipment. ... And in a still later time of closer friendship,
when he was withdrawing from his professional practice
and seeking safe and expert care for the splendid original drawings from which his publications were printed,
I persuaded him that Penn State was the best place for
them."
In the fall of 1975, lighting designer and author
Francis Reid, then editor of Rank Strand Electric's
TABS Stage Lighting International, arranged a visit to
the new archives. This visit resulted in an article about
lighting archives for the spring 1976 issue of TABS,
where he asks the following questions: "Why shall we
preserve?" "What shall we preserve?" "Where shall we
preserve?" and "When shall we preserve?" In the article,
Reid included information on the Lighting Archive at
Pennsylvania State University as well as a request for
locations and details regarding other collections around
the world.
During his recent interview with the 2016 USITT
archive working group, Professor Allison spoke eloquently about his passion and drive for preservation:
"Remembering from wartime service in Europe the
extensive destruction and loss of historic and cultural
materials highly important to people living there, I was
sensitive to the preventable loss of theatre materials of
historic worth, seeing in a narrow window of time an
opportunity to acquire and hold safe some items for
specialists to deal with in years to come."
That statement resonates through this collection.
Every place the eye falls brings forth either a moment of
nostalgia or a pathway of discovery. It is awe-inspiring
to pause and consider how close these materials were to
being lost to memory, a sensation reinforced by one look
at the unique and prototype fixtures, the visual timeline
of lighting control, or the drawings that collectively tell
one part of the story of the evolution of lighting technology.
BUILDING THE ARCHIVE
In the summer of 2014, seven individuals, selected by
two project leaders, converged in State College, Pennsylvania, to begin a journey into the collection of this
Stage Lighting Archive, which has grown in quantity
and mystery since its creation in 1970. Funded by a
grant from USITT, project leaders William Kenyon and
Jeffrey Gress, and team members Ellen Jones, Sandra
Strawn, Andrea Bilkey, Richard Bryant, Kevin Griffin,

Effects drum and Kleigl
Rotoelector

Peter Roberts, and Michael Mehler arrived to investigate the current status of the archives. The collection
is of a size now that it has spread to four locations-
Special Collections, the Eisenhower Auditorium, the
Theatre and Production Studios (TAPS), and cold storage-with much of the more recent acquisitions in need
of cataloging and sorting. On that first trip, the team
focused on photographing and cataloging the remainder of the collection of historic lighting equipment donated by David L. Thayer, emeritus professor of design
at the University of Iowa. With what was left of that
week they surveyed the other locations, photographing
items to return to for later study and spending hours
in conversation about conservation. All too quickly the
week was over.
Two years later, William Kenyon, Jeffrey Gress,
Andrea Bilkey, Richard Bryant, and Michael Mehler,
along with Carl Walling, returned for an additional
week spent working in, researching, and documenting
the archives. They were joined by Zach Straeffer and
Lea Asbell-Swanger to hear Professor William Allison
speak about its origins and his incredible theatre journey. This visit and exploration led to the start of a finding aid specific to the items housed at the Eisenhower
Auditorium. More than 2,500 entries were made, which
covered just a few of the many file cabinet drawers.

Visit, Research, or Volunteer at the Archive
Visits to the archives are currently through advanced arrangement, while
the special collections has additional hours, rules, and considerations.
Contact Professor William Kenyon at lights@psu.edu for more information.
The Lighting Archives at Penn State continues to take donations.
For more information on donations, contact Professor William Kenyon at
lights@psu.edu.

S p r i n g 2 0 1 7

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017