Using the University of Akron Archive Page:

To explore the online collection of playbills, first visit the University of Akron online archive. This link will take you directly to the Weathervane playbill collection, although other collections are available on the main page.

From this page, you can use the 'Sort By:' bar to decide how you want the playbills to be organized. 

To find a specific playbill, however, click on the 'Advanced Search' link beneath the main search bar. [Insert image here]

Scroll down to the search terms fields and input 'Weathervane' in the first field. Then click the plus sign to add another search term and input the name of the play you want to find. You may also enter other search terms, and at the bottom you may enter the opening date of the show in the format 'year-month-day'. So if the play you want to find opened specifically on March 9th, 1956, you would input '1956-04-09'.

Lastly, hit the search button at the bottom right corner, and you will be taken to every instance that fulfills the search criteria you've input.

Note: Generally, the search terms you should input into this search should be titles or dates. Inputting a person's name into the advanced search may not retrieve every instance of their appearance, as some of the playbills were not able to be digitized in a way where all of their contents are automatically searchable due to the style of print or font used. As well, it will result in every instance of that individual's name and Weathervane being mentioned together, so you may also have newspapers and advertisements rather than just playbills. 

However, if you would like to see if there are more instances of that individual's name mentioned within the University's online archive, especially in relation to the Weathervane Playhouse, you can absolutely enter their name into the advanced search!

Using the playbill themselves, there are a few ways you can search for specific terms depending on what form of the playbill you are accessing.

If you are searching a playbill from the University of Akron Archives online page, first you will expand the playbill with the two arrows symbol in the upper right hand corner of the playbill. [Image here]

From there, you can use the keyboard shortcut ctrl+f to search any terms you want to find, or click on the magnifying glass to input your search terms. [Image here]

To download a playbill, you must also click on the expand option. Then, there is a file symbol in the upper right hand corner that will allow you to download the full file. It will automatically download as a pdf, and to search your own file, you can open the file and utilize the ctrl+f search function. For more thorough instructions, click here.

Note: Due to the search terms used to organize the University's online archives, every instance of the words 'Weathervane' and 'and' will automatically be highlighted in the document. [Image here] This will not interfere with your own search, but will reappear when you exit your search and view the playbill without any filters. These highlights will not appear when downloading the playbill.

Also, some playbills are damaged and may appear as though sections of the pages have not loaded correctly. [Image] These playbills have had portions cut out or removed, likely to be used in scrapbooks or as keepsakes. This did not interfere with the collecting of names, but does make for an odd picture and may cause issues with the search function on the damaged pages/sections. Otherwise, these playbills are still just as valuable and usable as any other.

Unfortunately, you cannot go into the online University of Akron Archives page and enter an individuals' name in the main search tab and consistently retrieve every instance of their name appearing within a Weathervane playbill. If you want to find what plays a specific person appeared within, it is recommended you first go to the Weathervane's search page, linked above.