Actors Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Victorian Shakespeare

Hamlet and Ophelia. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Shylock and Portia. Benedick and Beatrice. During their 20-year artistic partnership at the Lyceum Theatre in London, Henry Irving (1838–1905) and Ellen Terry (1847–1928) were the most successful and popular actors of their time, and were especially beloved for their performances of Shakespearean counterparts.

In 2024, the Folger acquired the Henry Irving and Ellen Terry Collection, consisting of over 400 playbills, personal photographs and letters, annotated playscripts, theater posters, prints, and other materials offering insight into the intertwined professional careers and private lives of the iconic duo.

Some of the highlights include paintings of Terry as Lady Macbeth by artist Henry Batley; a rehearsal copy of Henry VIII with Terry’s annotations; a poster for the 1895 performance of King Arthur featuring Irving as Arthur and Terry as Guinevere; Henry Irving Birthday Book—published as a book for theatergoers to collect autographs of actors and note their birthdays, with Irving’s signature on his birthday page, February 6; a £1000 check from Irving to Terry as payment for an American tour in 1895; a 1905 poster for the final performances of Irving in the titular role of Becket by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and the first edition of Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906) by Dracula author Bram Stoker, who managed Irving’s career as his day job, with signed letters pasted in.

New acquisition |  Henry Irving and Ellen Terry Collection

While many of the materials, gathered over 40 years, were already organized in chronological order or arranged by material type, there was one mysterious item: Ellen Terry’s locked photo album.

Members of the Folger team tried several different methods to unlock the album and even gathered various sized keys from around the building, but all to no avail. Professional locksmiths were brought in to safely open this personal keepsake.

And what was inside?

The interior front cover includes a photo of Queen Victoria with Terry’s handwritten message “God save the Queen!” Spanning a decade from 1888–1898, the album is a “personal creation made by Ellen Terry,” shares Rachel Bernstein, acquisitions librarian. “It’s in a fragile condition, but it’s this amazing personal artifact that teaches us so much about who she was.”

There is a personal note from England’s poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson addressed to Terry, who starred in his play The Cup, a tragedy set in ancient Galatia. There are intimate photos of family and friends, photos from sightseeing and theatrical tours to New York City and Italy, including a trip to Verona with Irving, where she wrote, “the gondola, the peace, the leisure, the Shakespeare, the Henry!” There are poems, watercolor paintings, and sketches throughout the album, often with Terry’s personal notes and recollections interspersed. Other delightful surprises include botanical flourishes as Terry pasted in dried flowers and feathers among the photos, often secured with little strips of postage stamps. The final page of the album includes a photograph of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, with whom Terry had a famous correspondence, and after departing from Irving and The Lyceum, Terry turned to the works of Shaw and Henrik Ibsen in the next phase of her long career.

Ellen Terry’s Photo Album Unlocked

The collection uncovers new details into the careers of Irving and Terry, new documents into the theater history of the Lyceum, and, through deeply personal and sentimental items such as Terry’s keepsake album, offers glimpses into the private life of the most famous British stage actress of her time.

“The Folger is very associated with the early modern period, but we are also one of the best places you can go to discover this kind of material about 19^th century theatrical and performance history,” says Greg Prickman, Eric Weinmann librarian and director of collections and exhibitions. “There’s a lot more yet to be learned about these fascinating people and about how Shakespeare’s works weaves its way through this time period in theater history.”

Ellen Terry and Henry Irving in performance | Folger collection

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of  Folger Magazine.