Use the library catalog, SearchWorks, to find special collections materials at Stanford, including rare books, archives, and manuscript collections. Using the advanced search, limit your search to the library "Special Collections."

You can search across the full text of the finding aids for Stanford Special Collections on the Online Archive of California.

The Online Archive of California hosts finding aids for research institutions across California.

Digitized from the John Larpent Collection from the Huntington Library, 18th Century Drama is a unique archive of almost every play submitted for license between 1737 and 1824, as well as hundreds of documents that provide social context for the plays. Materials include correspondence, financial documents, and portraits.

Digitized material from the archive of the Stationers' Company, including constitutional records, court records, membership records, financial records, trade records, general administrative records, and charities and property records. The Stationers' Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the establishment of legal requirements for publishing, especially copyright provisions, the printing and publishing community and the history of bookbinding."

Prompt books for performances of Shakespeare’s plays between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, and supporting material for 17 selected plays. Documents are indexed by genre, country, theatre, associated names, and other key search terms. Also present: ephemera, photographs, illustrations, music scores, correspondence, and illustrations.

Contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain, and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, including spiritualism and magic, circuses, music hall culture, theater, optical entertainments, and the advent of cinema.