Theatre Heritage Australia maintains an ever increasing collection of digital assets including rare books, archival images and audio.
Audio
THA maintains a growing collection of audio files, including archival recordings and interviews.
JCW Scene Books
Digitized Scene Books from the JC Williamson collection held by Scenic Studios, Preston.
The Falk Album
Digitized album containing over 1600 prints of predominately theatrical sitters taken during the 1890s by H. Walter Barnett’s Falk Studios in Sydney.
Riley/Hailes Scrapbook
Theatrical and musical items including engravings, photographs, newspaper cuttings, and entrance tickets.
Books
THA has digitised a number of important books, pamphlets & programs, now out of copyright
Photo galleries
The THA has a digital collection of rare production photographs, many from the JC Williamson era.
Digitizing the JC Williamson Scene Books
Between 2014–2016, THA undertook a program of digitization of Scene Books from the JC Williamson collection held by Scenic Studios, Preston. The collection comprises thousands of images of JCW sets, backdrops, scenic details, lighting rigs etc. stretching back to the end of the nineteenth century.
The collection comprises 10 digitized volumes and is now available to view online.
Riley/Hailes Scrapbook
The Riley/Hailes Scrapbook
The John Riley/Fred Hailes Scrapbook contains theatrical and musical items including engravings, photographs, newspaper cuttings, and entrance tickets. The scrapbook was compiled between the 1830s and 1917 by at least two people, circus performer John Riley (c.1819-1911), and journalist Fred Hailes (c.1852-1917). The ‘scraps’ are pasted on 309 pages of an international trade book.
Melbourne Theatres
Early production photos
Pirates of Penzance
The Chalk Garden
The Gondoliers
Trial by Jury
Yeomen of the Guard
The Pajama Game
My Fair Lady
Iolanthe
The Mikado
c.1958