Letters by O'Neill
Letters written by O'Neill to family, friends and associates

Manuscripts & Typescripts
Manuscripts and typescripts of O'Neill's work

Documents
Contracts and agreements relating to productions and publications

Photographs
Original photographs of O'Neill and his family, friends and associates

Production Artifacts
Artifacts from theatre, film, radio, and television productions of O'Neill's plays

Ephemera
Books, pamphlets, recordings and memorabilia

Written Materials by Others
Letters and documents written by O'Neill's family, friends and associates

References
Resources relating to O'Neill and the theatre

On Collecting O'Neill
The origins of the collection

Hammerman's O'Neill
by William Davies King

Eugene O'Neill was born in a Broadway hotel room on October 16, 1888 and died in a Boston hotel room on November 27, 1953.  The sixty-five year journey in between was often turbulent, often tragic, and always unconventional.  But out of the turmoil came insight, sensitivity, and genius -- the twisted road leading to four Pulitzer Prizes, and recognition with the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature as America's greatest playwright.

O'Neill's plays are a direct reflection of his complex life, culminating in the openly autobiographical Long Day's Journey Into Night.  Consequently, one must understand O'Neill's life in order to truly understand and appreciate his great body of work.  One can start by reading the wonderful O'Neill biographies, including O'Neill, by Arthur and Barbara Gelb, O'Neill Son and Playwright and O'Neill Son and Artist, by Louis Scheaffer, and Contour in Time, by Travis Bogard.

The Hammerman Collection is also an attempt to understand O'Neill.  It undertakes to "collect" O'Neill -- to capture the man and, thereby, capture an appreciation of his work.  The Collection includes manuscripts, first editions, limited editions, inscribed materials, letters, photographs, theatre programs, reference materials, and various ephemera.

The Hammerman Collection is housed at Washington University in St. Louis.