One of the most challenging and interesting aspects of the American Theatre Architecture Archive is the overwhelming amount of artificial collections. Almost all of the collections were created by Theatre Historical Society of America members with a specific interest in a theatre circuit, geographic region, or other aspect of theatre buildings and operations. 

These collections were formed by creating negatives of images from periodicals, books, and ephemera; by scanning reference pages; by adding in an artifact or two. 

An artificial collection, as defined by the Society of American Archivists, is one that comes from a variety of provenances, organized for ease of retrieval. Often times the original source, or provenance, is lost in these sorts of collections.

This week we will explore the Jack Tillmany Collection, which is comprised of photographic negatives of theatres across the West Coast, beginning with this mid-century image of the South San Francisco Opera House.

(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)