Portraits of Actors, Dramatists, Singers and Musicians online

Lily Brayton (1876-1953) as Iseult in 'Tristram and Iseult' by Rita Martin, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, bromide postcard print, 1906 (detail) © National Portrait Gallery, London

Lily Brayton (1876-1953) as Iseult in 'Tristram and Iseult' by Rita Martin, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, bromide postcard print, 1906 (detail) © National Portrait Gallery, London

The Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920 database includes almost 3,500 pictures of actors – studio portraits and actors posing in costume for a particular role or performing a scene from a play. Dramatists, theatrical managers, singers and musicians are also included, but the majority are British and American actors who worked between about 1770 and 1893. Among the hundreds of actors included are Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, John Philip Kemble, Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, William Henry West Betty, Charles Mathews, Dorothy Jordan, Frances Abington, and Ada Rehan. The images were digitized from etchings, engravings, lithographs, mezzotints, aquatints, wood engravings, photographs, and photomechanically-reproduced prints, all from the University of Illinois Theatrical Print Collection.

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