The American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress has many diverse digital collections. The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment 1870-1920 takes a look at the popular form of entertainment that took America by storm around the turn of the 20th century. This collection is comprised of numerous multimedia holdings that include motion pictures, photographs, sound recordings, playscripts, and playbills. There is also a portion of the collection devoted to Harry Houdini.
The collection is set up where the user can search the collection by keyword or browse by author or subject. The collection contains many interesting things, such as the playbill for Ziegfeld Follies in 1914. Each section of the collection is given special attention, and background information is provided. Also within each section, the collections are divided by subject. If the user is looking for something on a particular subject, this makes it easy to locate.
Within the collection of motion pictures, the user can click on a specific picture. Once the motion picture is brought up, the site gives further information about the picture itself, such as plot summary, when and where it was filmed, and other facts of interest. This collection provides a great resource to the public that is interested in turn-of-the-century entertainment.
