[1.] Wirth Bros Circus and Menagerie, c1932, containing a student exposition, 'A Visit to the Circus', by B.S. Backstrom

program. noun. 3. a list of items, pieces, performers, etc., in a musical, theatrical, or other entertainment; playbill.

(The Macquarie Dictionary, rev 3rd ed.)

Entertainment programs may begin life as humble guides to events, but to their owners and collectors they offer so much more. They become nostalgic mementoes, evidence of attendance, emblems of cultural credibility, objects of beauty and style.

For historians, purportedly detached from such subjective and emotive considerations, programs are primary source documents, ripe for historical interrogation. The program proper, the supplementary contents such as the biographical pen portraits, summary histories and advertisements, the design features, the dates, the marginalia; all these elements taken separately and together add to the historical record and provide new opportunities for understanding the past.

Fryer Library has a large collection of entertainment programs, covering a wide cultural spectrum, from Rugby League to Rigoletto, His Majesty's Theatre to Festival Hall. It's a rich mixture. And dangerously addictive. Even the most disinterested scholar will find it hard to resist the charm of these little curiosities.