Sally Wingert visited our caverns recently, searching the Guthrie Theater archives to learn how to wear her hair to play Gertrude in William Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet.” She found what she was looking for — a costume bible from the Guthrie’s 1963 production, starring Jessica Tandy.

A costume bible is a book created by a theater designer that provides sketches and fabric swatches about the costumes for a particular production. But the historic Guthrie Theater costume bibles are getting older and are in danger of being lost to future generations of actors, directors, and historians.

Take that 1963 Hamlet costume bible, for example: The pages are becoming brittle, the bindings are breaking, and the fabric swatches are falling off pages. The University Libraries has the expertise to fix it and preserve it, but it costs money.

That’s where you can help. A gift of $20 or more can help to restore and preserve the 1963 Hamlet costume bible.

Can you help us?

Go to our giving page