Black and white photo showing actors on the stage during a 1930 performance of Cleveland Play House's "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Actors, including Margaret Hamilton, perform onstage during a production of Cleveland Play House's "The Importance of Being Earnest" during the 1929-30 season.

Staff members earn mini-grant for cleanup of Kelvin Smith Library’s Cleveland Play House collection

Stephanie Becker, digital collections manager at the Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship; Nora Blackman, archivist, and Anne Kumer, electronic resources metadata librarian, received an LSTA Metadata Mini-Grant from the State Library of Ohio, in conjunction with the Ohio Digital Network. The grant will enable them to perform a legacy metadata cleanup of the Kelvin Smith Library’s expansive collection of Cleveland Play House (CPH) production photographs, accessible online and numbering more than 6,000 still images.

The cleanup will make search and discovery more consistent across platforms, as well as discoverable on the larger web, where many researchers begin their searches. The CPH collection at Kelvin SMith Library offers an expansive look at the development of regional theater productions from the view of the audience, backstage and during rehearsals.