These photographs pre-date the Zelzer era of Allied Arts. They are primarily images of ballet and opera performances in Chicago (Civic Opera House) and New York (Metropolitan Opera), taken from various places (prompt box, wings, or audience) by photographers Eugene Olshansky and Sam Woolf. There is little known about the photographers Eugene Olshansky and Sam Woolf. The collection of negatives consists primarily of 35mm rolls of black and white negatives with some corresponding prints. There are multiple prints of varying sizes, some Polaroids, and color stereo slides. Negatives are in order by negative job number assigned by the photographers, with miscellaneous and unidentified at the end.

Information about the performers, venue and productions are taken from the original negative sleeves, which are included in the folders of negatives. The ones labeled "Chicago Civic Opera Company" should read "Chicago City Opera Company", which was the name of the company from 1935-1939.

See also the Eugene Olshansky Photographs collection, Newberry Library (Dance MS Olshansky). These are prints, many 11 x 14 inch sized, of ballet and some opera productions, presumably printed from the same negatives in this subseries. The prints were a bequest to the Newberry Library from Eugene Olshansky in 1996.