Collection of playbills from the Theatre Royal, English Opera House

The collection contains 215 playbills and 210 playbill broadsides from the Theatre Royal, English Opera House, including 23 playbills advertising "Presumption! Or, the Fate of Frankenstein" adapted by Richard Brinsley Peake from Mary Shelly's novel. Five of the 23 are from the original 1823 run at the Theatre Royal. Additionally, included is a playbill advertising a double-bill featuring "Presumption!" and "The Vampire, Or, Bride of the Isles" by James Robinson Planche. "The Vampire" was based off of John William Polidori's, "Vampyre", which was conceived and written at the same time and place as Shelley's "Frankenstein." Both works were the result of a contest which included Lord Byron and Percy Shelly at a Villa in Switzerland over the course of several days when bad weather kept the group indoors.