The BAM Archives is a rich resource for artists, historians, students, and art aficionados. The Archives holds the pre-eminent contemporary performance collection today along with original photos, posters, playbills, and other objects dating back to the 1860s. For more information, please contact the Archives directly at Archives@BAM.org.

History
The strong need for a formal BAM Archives was first identified in 1995 when a search for records, photographs, and other materials in conjunction with major institutional events revealed that items of historical value were scattered in various locations throughout BAM buildings and New York City, and in serious danger of being lost forever. In response, BAM created the Archives to both collect and preserve these materials, and make them available to students, scholars, cultural organizations, historians, artists, press representatives, and BAM staff.

Construction at BAM in 1996 uncovered more forgotten boxes, and in 1997 the Brooklyn Public Library gave the Archives materials dating back to the Civil War. Archival holdings include BAM's administrative records; lectures from nineteenth-century intellectuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson; thousands of photographs; and performance playbills from shows featuring the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, Enrico Caruso, Merce Cunningham, Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Philip Glass. The materials held in the BAM Archives offer insight on the development of the institution, the changing face of New York City, and the evolution of the performing arts in the United States.