For many years Max Tyler was the historian and archivist of the British Music Hall Society.
After his passing in January 2018 his collection was transferred to the Special Collections and Archives at the University of Kent in June 2018 from the British Music Hall Society. He had liaised with the University over a decade earlier to arrange to transfer ownership of the collection after his death.
The collection contains material spanning from the late 19th century to the early 21st century.
It includes: original and copies of Music Hall song sheets, song sheets and scripts for musical comedies, music hall programmes, playbills, 20th century music hall and vaudeville magazines and periodicals, music hall audio recordings on cassette, CD, shellac discs, and reel-to-reel tapes, published books on music hall, and music hall performers, research notes.
We are looking for ways to raise further funding to support cataloguing the collection so that it will readily available to a wide range of audiences, including researchers.
Leaving a legacy can also impact and support scholarships, alleviating hardship and future research.
