Collection of ephemera, 1857-1869 and undated {1850s-1860s}, largely printed, including playbills, programmes, song sheets, catalogues and guides, relating to events, including sport, music, fireworks, fountains and illuminations, at the Crystal Palace (Sydenham, Kent); to operas at the Royal English Opera and the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden (Westminster); and to theatrical, musical and other recreational events, including comedies, ballets, tableaux, dioramas, exhibitions, and popular scientific events, at various premises including in Westminster, St Marylebone, Paddington, St Pancras, St Giles in the Fields, South Kensington, Kew, and Greenwich.

This class consists of single copies of newspapers and newssheets, including a copy of the 'Challenger Gazette', 1828; two issues of 'The Great Eastern Telegraph', 1866, when the GREAT EASTERN was engaged on laying the Atlantic cable; and a copy of the 'Wei-Hai-Wei Gazette', 1902. It also contains playbills, including one advertising a performance on board the prison ship CROWN in 1807 of a play by a French prisoner of war and another announcing the performance of a comedy, Speed the Plough on the MINDEN, 1817.