The recent acquisition of three collections of playbills, was announced yesterday by Mrs. L. A. Hall, custodian of the theatre collection in Widener Library. The latest addition includes approximately 25,000 playbills from the Kemble-Duke of Devonshire, Henry H. Beaufoy, and Henry Plowman collections.

In the John Phillips Kemble collection there appears the playbill for the first: appearance of Kemble at Drury Lane Theatre as Hamlet in 1783, and the later debut of Edmund Kean as Shylock in the same theatre in 1814.

The collection, unusually large in its scope, extends from 1780 until 1820, and is drawn from the bills of the Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket theatres. Before the playbill for March 10, 1788, for the presentation of Macbeth, is a long notice for the Morning Post apparently in the handwriting of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who was at this time lessee of the Drury Lane theatre.

Announcement was also made of the recent purchase of a large collection of Vienna playbills, comprising some 17,500 specimens, over a period of years from 1800 until the present. The bills are mostly from the old Burgtheatre in Vienna, and the "Theatre an der Wien". This collection is the largest collection of Vienna playbills extant, excelling not only the public collection of Vienna, but also the famous collection of Hofrat Thimig. The collection will probably be ready for exhibition by the middle of next week.