The Daniel J. Travanti collection has been arranged into two series: General Papers, and Scripts and Production Materials. Most of the collection concerns Travanti's career since his success on Hill Street Blues.
GENERAL PAPERS include a substantial quantity of general correspondence, consisting of letters of congratulation, thanks, and recognition, requests for assistance, and some copies of outgoing responses; personal letters from family members, friends and acquaintances; and letters of admiration generated by Travanti's work with alcoholism recovery groups. There are also invitations to social and charitable events, generally within the acting community; requests for donations of services or money from individuals and organizations throughout the country; and fan mail. Numerous requests for photographs and autographs, and other routine letters from fans, were discarded.
Travanti's personal papers include awards, both those which he received and those where he appeared to honor someone else; publicity material and correspondence regarding his honorary degree from Emerson College; miscellany; and many magazine articles and newspaper clippings about Travanti and his colleagues.
SCRIPTS AND PRODUCTION MATERIALS include Travanti's copies of scripts from the movies in which he appeared and from a few of the episodes of Hill Street Blues. Since the MTM Enterprises collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society contains a complete run of scripts of Hill Street Blues, exact duplicates found in the Travanti collection were removed. Those that remain are revised versions of scripts in the MTM Enterprises collection. Most of the scripts have been annotated or highlighted to indicate Travanti's part in the production.
There are scripts, a shooting schedule, staff and crew lists, clippings, letters, a script for a commercial, and response mail for Adam: His Song Continues; a script for The Cancer Confrontation (narrated by Travanti); a script and shooting schedule for A Case of Libel; and a shooting schedule and Travanti's portions of the script for Here's Richard!, a special about fitness expert Richard Simmons. From Murrow, an HBO film in which Travanti played Edward R. Murrow, there is promotional material, a letter, and clippings; for Night of 100 Stars, a 1985 benefit for the Actor's Fund of America, there are script portions, programs, a schedule and promotional materials; from the 1977 San Diego Shakespeare Festival, where Travanti was a member of the professional repertory company, there are programs, promotional materials, and staff and cast lists; from a production of Twigs, there are programs and reviews; and there are programs and invitations to the 1985 “Women in Show Business” Gala.
