Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive

Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive contains over 3000 free-to-use illustrations taken from the most important illustrated editions of Shakespeare’s works in the Victorian period and is free for anyone to do whatever they like with the images — teach, research, create.

The Archive has expanded recently as more editions have been added to it to make it even richer and give it more depth. These editions include the one by John Tallis, which features famous actors of the time in character (including American ones), as well as other interesting works, such as the first ever full-colour treatment of the plays in an edition, published by John Murdoch. What is likely to be the final edition was added last year (Charles Knight’s Imperial Edition), completing the project in time to participate in the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the First Folio taking place across the world. The Archive now contains ten editions of Shakespeare’s plays (it originally launched with four) and is fairly comprehensive in how people experienced Shakespeare, visually, in book form, in the UK in the 19th Century. There is even a colouring book users can download for free!