Further Research

Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection

  • One of the world’s largest collections of digitized images related to Shakespeare and the Renaissance. Folger also features many postcards, costumes, books, and other related materials.

Furness Memorial Library Theatrical Image Collection (from the University of Pennsylvania)

  • Searchable collection of the many digitized items including playbills, postcards, costumes, props, and more held by the Furness Memorial Library at the University of Pennsylvania.

Library of Congress Digital Image Collection

  • The largest repository in the United States. Extensive manuscript, image, and audio recordings related to the content of our site in this database.

MIT Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive

  • “A collaborative project providing online access to performances of Shakespeare from many parts of the world as well as essays and metadata by scholars and educators in the field.” – MIT

National Portrait Gallery (UK)

  • Official UK archive of images of many of our players in character and in staged portraits. Also searchable by photographer (e.g., Lizzie Caswall Smith) and publisher (e.g., Rotary Photographic). Many of these images are postcards.

National Portrait Gallery (US)

  • Official US archive of images of many of our players with mostly American careers (Julia Marlowe, E. H. Sothern, Robert B. Mantell, etc.). Like in its UK counterpart, many of these images are also postcards.

New York Public Library Digital Image Collections

  • Extensive collection of New York City and American theater-related images and items from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Raphael Tuck & Sons Postcard Database and History

  • Database of many of Tuck’s widely appealing postcards from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. We do not endorse or benefit from the sale of any postcards.

Royal Shakespeare Company Performance Records (from Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

  • Search the collections of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1964. These collections include the local archives for Stratford-upon-Avon and South Warwickshire and the theater archives of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Royal Shakespeare Company Plays Database

  • Information about each of Shakespeare’s plays, including relevant RSC production histories, vibrant images, and other useful materials and information about each.

Shakespeare’s Globe Database of Productions

  • A catalog of all plays performed at the current Globe Theatre in London, dating back to the 1990s, complete with images and production details.

Shakespeare’s Staging (from the University of California, Berkeley)

  • Site is slightly older but nonetheless maintains a fantastic bibliography of Victorian and Edwardian theater research.

StageBeauty Digital Collection of Edwardian Actress Images and Postcards

  • Vast collection of images and information about famous actresses in the Edwardian era complete with contemporary performance reviews, theater history, and more.

University of Bristol Theatre Collection Database & Archives

  • One of the world’s largest archives of British theater history and live art. Includes extensive archives related to Sir Beerbohm Tree and his family, Sir Henry Irving and his family, Sir Martin Harvey, and more.

University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection: Nineteenth-Century American Theater Postcards

  • Digitized collection of theatrical postcards from the American theater in the nineteenth century.