There’s no business like show business, and this exhibition brings Australia’s performing arts history into the limelight.

We hold one of Australia’s largest collections of performing arts materials.

Learn about our rich collections related to the Picnic at Hanging Rock film and to Joan Lindsay's 1967 book of the same name.

Learn about the fascinating career of Eleanor Witcombe with 2023 National Library Fellow and biographer Eleanor Hogan.

More than 1,000 comics, mostly published in Australia and including some overseas titles reprinted in Australia, from the 1940s to 1970s, as well as fanzines and personal papers.

Personal papers, manuscript scores, literary manuscripts, sound recordings and family photographs of Peter Sculthorpe, plus videos of films for which he wrote the music and television interviews.

12,569 music scores which were used in Australian cinemas in the silent film era (roughly 1896 to 1929).

Learn about National Library of Australia Asia Study Grant Scholar Rima Febriani’s research exploring how ideas about sexuality developed in postcolonial Indonesia.

Our theatre and performance music collections showcase the music Australians were listening to throughout the 20th century.