Uncover Australia's performing arts history with On Stage.

The Oral History and Folklore collection records the voices that describe our cultural, intellectual and social life.

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

Recordings of Australian folk songs, some British folk songs, Greek and Turkish music, African songs, dance music, recitations, poetry, jokes, children’s rhymes, yarns, and recollections recorded in Victoria 1953-1969.

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

80 oral history interviews with musicians, dancers and others, and recordings of songs and performances, as well as sheet music, imprints and personal papers.

2780 music scores for songs and vocal and piano selections from American, British and Australian musicals, music theatre, films and television shows produced from about 1920 to 1990.

2121 books, pamphlets, programs, periodicals and plays published between 1755 and 1972. 

See how Yvette Grant used the Library’s collections to revive the memory of four women in the story of Australian ballet.

A summary of copyright and rights in the Music Collection.

40 recordings of folk music, folklore and reminiscences from people in rural New South Wales recorded 1983-1988.

Recordings of folk songs and dance music from Queensland and also stories, legends and recollections of customs and immigrant settlement, particularly German and Scandinavian in rural Queensland.