The Theatre Collection in the College Library has lately received by gift a collection of 102 original water-color drawings of famous actors and actresses, nearly all full length, mounted in three volumes folio. All but a few of the drawings are by Samuel De Wilde, an English portrait painter, 1748-1832.

From 1797 on, De Wilde devoted himself almost wholly to portraits of actors in character, and, as the National Dictionary of Biography says: "Throughout a long life-time there was hardly an actor or actress whom he did not draw in their principal characters, thereby forming a storehouse of theatrical biography. Charles Mathews, Jr., described De Wilde towards the close of his life as constantly to be found at the corner of Drury Lane Theatre, a portfolio under his arm, and as having a happy knack of invariably hitting on a likeness."

A large number of De Wilde's portraits are preserved at the Garrick Club, London, and 20 others are in the Print Room at the British Museum. The drawings acquired by the Harvard Collection represent most of the famous English actors and actresses of the latter part of the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th century.