The Birmingham Shakespeare Library

Important Update

Please note that access to the Birmingham Shakespeare Collection has ceased from Monday 25 July 2011

There is a range of resources on the open shelves on floor 3 in the library suitable for studying the life and works of Shakespeare at 822.33

These web pages provide further information on Shakespeare’s plays, life, critical analysis and exclusive illustrations from the collection. There is a list of electronic resources on the Bard and the online version of the Shakespeare Guide for GCSE and A-Level students. You will be able to consult the collection again after the new Library of Birmingham opens in 2013.

The Library and Archives services at The Shakespeare Institute and Shakespeare Birthplace in Stratford –upon –Avon may also be accessed for research (on limited basis) by members of the public. Please check their websites for more information regarding your visit.

New ! Access to Arden Shakespeare from Public Library Online

Public Library Online (a division of Bloomsbury Publishing) offers access to a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, from renowned publishers. Access the books using any internet enabled device in the library, whilst you’re on the move, or from home.

Public Library Online have made their Shakespeare bookshelf available to Birmingham Library members

Ten of Shakespeare's best-known plays in the Arden Edition with notes and criticism

Please note - these titles cannot be downloaded, but can be read online.

World Shakespeare Festival 2012

The World Shakespeare Festival is a celebration of Shakespeare as the world's playwright, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in an unprecedented collaboration with leading UK and international arts organisations, including the Birmingham REP. It runs from 23 April to November 2012 and is part of London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.

Birmingham has one of the world's best collections of works by and about Shakespeare

The Birmingham Shakespeare Library

was founded in 1864 by members of the local Shakespeare Club during celebrations to mark the quarter centenary of Shakespeare's birth. The aim, as stated by George Dawson, President of the Club, was to build a collection containing as far as practicable " every edition and every translation of Shakespeare, all the commentators, good, bad and indifferent, in short, every book connected with the life and works of our great poet. I would add portraits of Shakespeare and all the pictures etc. illustrative of his work." Almost a century and a half later, the Library contains copies of almost all the English language editions of the works of Shakespeare and a very extensive collection of criticism.

In the library it is possible to satisfy enquiries ranging from primary school project work and GCSE student level to research level through every subject relating to Shakespeare. The library also contains editions and criticism in ninety-three languages. Many of the foreign editions were gifts, given by well-wishers after the disastrous fire which destroyed the Reference Library in 1879.

The Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed by J. H. Chamberlain to house the collection.

Shakespeare wrote for the stage, and the history of the plays on the stage and screen is well covered with extensive collections of nineteenth century illustrations, performance reviews, photographs of productions, programmes, playbills and posters, British and foreign. The library has the complete BBC TV Shakespeare series on video and most videos of Shakespeare on film are available for reference. There is also much fascinating material on adaptations of the plays, ranging from ballet and operatic productions to humorous adaptations such as The Ravin' Prince of Denmark!!! or the Baltic Swell!!! And the Diving Belle!!!

The Library has altogether over 200 scrapbbooks containing illustrations, photographs and newspaper cuttings, and there are 52 volumes of playbills.

The Scrapbook Collections

include the remarkable illustrated collection acquired from H. R Forrest of Manchester in 1890. The collection fills 76 folio volumes. Another set of scrapbooks acquired around 1910 is the James TurnerCollection which fills 37 volumes.
The collection of Howard S Pearson covers productions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Here are some examples from the The Tempest, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

The collection is available for reference only.

Touchstone Website

Touchstone is the joint website of the Shakespeare Institute, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Birmingham Shakespeare Library. You can search the web site to find out more about each library's individual collections.

Online resources

Shakespeare on Video
Shakespeare websites
Shakespeare information in the Literature Resource Centre available on computers in Birmingham Libraries and on computers outside libraries if you have a library card.

Contact Details

Arts, Languages and Literature
Central Library,
Chamberlain Square
Birmingham
B3 3HQ
UK
Tel: 0121 303 4227
Fax: 0121 464 1005
e-mail: information.services@birmingham.gov.uk

Shakespeare Memorial Room
Introduction to William Shakespeare
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
The Tempest