The manuscript Subcollection contains clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, 85 postcards of film stars, programs, promotional items, voluminous research, scrapbooks, sheet music, 17 glass lantern slides, and more. There is material on the Thanhouser family and material on Marie Eline, including birth and death certificates, newspaper clippings, an interview transcript, and correspondence. Items of special interest include a scrapbook with photographs of Maude Fealy, promotional stamps from Mutual Film Corp., and blue lines of Q. David Bowers's unpublished book on Thanhouser Studio.

The Thanhouser Company was an independent motion picture studio formed in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser, his wife Gertrude, and his brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan in New Rochelle, New York. In 1912, Thanhouser opened a winter studio in Florida and that same year the company was acquired by the Mutual Film Corporation syndicate headed by C.J. Hite. The New Rochelle studios were destroyed by fire in 1913. When Hite was killed in an auto accident in 1914, Edwin Thanhouser returned as head of the studio. The Company name changed to Thanhouser Film Corporation. It operated in New York City until 1920.