Portland Public Library Digital Commons

Within the Children's Theatre of Maine Archives, the series CTM.TH comprises a range of histories authored by the theatrical group itself, largely to narrate its story as well as to generate public support. Beginning with the Junior League's launch of Children's Theatre of Portland in 1924 (with the play, Raggedy Ann), and subsequent firsts through the 1930s, performing in the Elm Theater (coincidentally the present-day footprint of the children's and teen departments of the Portland Public Library), Children's Theatre has kept track of its own accumulating history. The histories in the archival collection comprise narratives composed between 1955 and 2004, and are complemented by such Library publications as History of Children's Theatre, and a thorough masters thesis by William Theodore Burgess, of Cornell University, titled The Children's Theatre of Portland, Maine. Both original documents, as well as the Archives, are available for research in the Portland Public LIbrary's Portland Room.