Archives and collections

The worldwide pilot currently includes twenty institutions, with varying levels of detail. It is incomplete. The directory below also points to collections that have not yet been added to that catalogue. Follow the institutional links for current holdings, references and access conditions.

A catalogue description tells you what an institution holds. A digital image lets you examine a document; a transcription makes its words easier to read and search. These resources may be offered separately.

Start with the digital access guide for a collection-by-collection assessment, or choose Online images or selected material in Bram Stoker Worldwide. Online availability is checked at record level; a few images do not establish that a whole file or archive is digitised.

For reading texts already published here, use Search archive texts or browse the manuscript transcriptions. This search does not read handwriting in external scans.

Before travelling, contact the holding institution with the collection reference and the file or item you wish to consult. Check appointment arrangements, identification requirements, handling restrictions and whether the material is available on your proposed date.

If you cannot visit, ask whether a scan or photograph can be supplied and whether any charge applies. A catalogue-only result means that a public digital copy has not been verified here; the institution may still be able to help.

For publication or other reuse, check the item’s rights statement and the institution’s reproduction conditions. Custody of an original does not, by itself, establish who owns copyright or who can grant a particular permission.

After Bram’s death, Florence sold books, manuscripts and pictures through Sotheby’s in 1913, 1915 and 1916. Later transfers, collecting and institutional acquisitions brought related material to different repositories.

The Dracula working notes were sold in July 1913 and acquired by the Rosenbach in 1970. Other literary manuscripts reached Leeds; family papers also passed to Trinity College Dublin. Individual catalogue records provide the evidence for each item’s provenance.

Sources: Rosenbach’s Bram Stoker collection guide and William Hughes’s introduction (December 1996). Its statements about untraced manuscripts describe the position at that date.

The Rosenbach’s working notes and outlines, the British Library’s theatrical manuscript and the privately held novel typescript bearing the title The Un-Dead are different bodies of material. They should not be treated as interchangeable versions of one archive.

The novel typescript has passed through private ownership. Historical reports of its rediscovery and ownership do not provide a current public access arrangement. We do not identify a present reading-room location or an authorised complete online copy here.

Read about the different manuscript sources for Dracula.

The Estate publishes selected family objects, photographs and research material as they are organised and cleared for publication. Individual published records identify their sources and holding collections where agreed.

Explore Family objects and Articles. Use the Press archive for published coverage, or contact us with a research enquiry or correction.

These additional leads may help with particular people, theatre productions, editions or episodes in Bram’s life. Confirm the scope of a collection with its current catalogue before assuming that it contains a particular document.

Bram Stoker: life and writing – Trinity College Dublin · Bram Stoker’s Royal Literary Fund application – British Library, Loan 96 RLF 1/2841/5 · Bram Stoker research guide – William Hughes · Bram Stoker’s letter to Walt Whitman, 18 February 1872 – Walt Whitman Archive · Ellen Terry and Edith Craig – programme and correspondence catalogue · Bram Stoker material – University of Leeds Special Collections · Bram Stoker’s reading – Marsh’s Library digital exhibition · Bram Stoker research collections – Trinity College Dublin Library · Bram Stoker collection – Emory University Rose Library · The London Library: institutional history · Bram Stoker’s Royal Literary Fund file – British Library, Loan 96 RLF 1/2841 · Bram and Florence Stoker: Society of Authors files – British Library · Leslie Shepard Bram Stoker Collection – Dublin City Library and Archive catalogue · Dublin Writers Museum collection – Museum of Literature Ireland guide · Bram Stoker manuscript record – Leeds Digital Library · Dracula and vampire-related holdings – Rosenbach collection guide, 20 April 2021