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In 1888, Edwin Booth, America's pre-eminent Shakespearean actor, and 15 other incorporators, including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman, founded The Players. Modeled after London's famed Garrick Club, The Players was the first American "gentleman's club" of its kind.
Its purpose: "The promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession and the kindred professions of literature, painting, architecture, sculpture and music, law and medicine, and the patrons of the arts..."
The Players, located in a Greek Revival townhouse facing historic Gramercy Park, is also home to the Hampden-Booth Theater Library, reflecting Booth's express wish to create "a library relating especially to the history of the American stage and the preservation of pictures, bills of the play, photographs, and curiosities connected with such history...".
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