I decided to go there today and it was quite an experience. Took about 3 hours to get to New Haven then another 45 minutes to find the library and a place to park. The streets are like mazes.
Once on the library's system I found a whole bunch of items I wanted to see. They can take four boxes out at a time and keep them at the desk and you can then bring one box from the desk to the reading room. My first four boxes were all Barrie's notes and diaries. You know those tiny little notebooks you see Ian Holm writing in in THE LOST BOYS? Well, they seem to have most of them there. It was quite something to be holding in your hand one of Barrie's notebooks and reading his actual notes. Though, to be honest, I could barely read any of it; his handwriting may as well be Egyptian hieroglyphs. As I was allowed to bring only my laptop into the reading room I was able to take a few pics of myself holding Barrie's notebooks.
Apparently THE BOY CASTAWAYS is restricted, with permission from the curator required, though you can see it on microfiche. But what good is that? I can see pics of the book on this website. I wanted to hold it in my hands and turn the pages.
I gave my second set of four boxes to the librarian at around 6 pm. This included the original rehearsal script of PETER PAN, with cues and staging notes as well as various other PETER PAN writings. It also included some letters to the Davies'. But apparently they had a hard time finding these. They are supposed to bring them out in about 15 mintues. Thirty five minutes later I still did not have them. Ands they close at 7 pm. Therefore I did not get to see the second set of boxes. I was very disappointed that they weren't more organized and were not able to find the items. It was a long trip and it was a vERY hot day. And to make matters worse I got a flat tire on the way home!
But sttill it was thrilling to hold those notebooks of Barrie's in my hand! They must have had 20 or 30 of them. Hopefully Iwill go back someday.
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