Music and Culture

Ira Aldridge built a Shakespearean career across Britain and Europe, performing far beyond the role of Othello. Playbills, letters and a striking entry in Shakespeare’s Birthplace…

Adelaide Hall’s voice travelled from Broadway and Duke Ellington’s orchestra to London clubs, wartime radio and the West End. Recordings, theatre credits and rare surviving film…

New Beacon Books connected publishing with the work of building a readership. Founded by John La Rose and Sarah White in 1966, its history takes in…

Fanny Eaton appears in some of the best-known circles of Victorian art, yet her life extends beyond the figures she was paid to represent. Drawings, paintings…

Before her work at the BBC, Una Marson had edited a magazine, published poetry and written for the stage. Her years in London brought those activities…

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor built a musical career through composition, teaching, conducting and collaboration. From the success of Hiawatha to his arrangements of African and African American melodies,…