resources
Bram Stoker’s papers
Find Bram Stoker’s surviving documents and read historical texts published on this website.
Find documents worldwide · BetaSearch the catalogue to identify documents, holding institutions and available digital copies.Read the story →Letters and documents
Read and search letters, transcriptions and contemporary accounts published here.Read the story →
Find a document: Bram Stoker Worldwide
Search institutional descriptions of manuscripts, letters, theatre records and printed material. Find references, holding institutions and links to digital copies.Read the story →
Our aim is to make this a comprehensive starting point for finding Bram’s surviving documents. The first catalogue pilot includes twelve institutions. Coverage is incomplete and varies by institution: a missing result does not establish that a document has been lost or that an institution holds nothing relevant.
For collections beyond the pilot, use Archives and collections. The digital access guide explains which resources offer catalogue descriptions, selected images or longer manuscript sequences.
Search the words of published documents
Browse published letters, historical extracts, transcriptions and recollections, or search their words.Read the story →
This focused search looks inside available reading texts. The worldwide catalogue helps you find a document and its location; an image alone does not make its handwriting searchable. Each text result links to its reading page, with source notes and any uncertain readings.
Browse manuscript transcriptions, read the Stoker–Whitman letters or explore Source materials. For the novel, use Search Dracula.
Research guides and reference material
Use these guides to frame a question, identify useful reading and compare the evidence behind a claim.
What inspired DraculaExplore the reading, working notes and ideas behind the novel.Read the story →Where is Castle Dracula?
Follow the evidence for the fictional castle and distinguish it from later tourist associations.Read the story →Where was Dracula’s London house?
Compare the Piccadilly candidates, the novel’s clues and the evidence still missing.Read the story →Bibliography
Find biographies, scholarship, editions and further reading.Read the story →Press articles on Bram Stoker and Dracula
Search contemporary reports, reviews, interviews and later coverage.Read the story →
The Press archive brings together published coverage. Articles follows research into unfamiliar documents and episodes in Bram’s life.
Plan your research
- Start with a question. A person, work, date or place will help narrow the search. Try variant spellings and names as they appear in contemporary documents.
- Identify the record. Note the holding institution, collection reference and file or item reference. A file can contain several letters; a catalogue entry is not always one document.
- Check what is available. A description, a scan and a transcription give different kinds of access. Selected images may show only part of a file or volume.
- Return to the source. Read the institution’s current record before arranging a visit, requesting a copy or citing the material. Record dates, provenance and uncertain readings with your notes.
For the distinction between the Dracula working notes, theatrical manuscript and privately held The Un-Dead typescript, see the archive guide.
Access, copies and reuse
Contact the institution that holds the original to ask about appointments, remote copies and any restrictions. Include the catalogue reference and explain which pages or files you need.
Permission to view material and permission to reproduce it are separate questions. Check the rights statement attached to the particular item or digital copy. Where institutional statements differ, the catalogue records the difference so that it can be clarified before reuse.
Building the worldwide catalogue
We are bringing dispersed descriptions together while linking readers back to the institutions responsible for the originals. The next stages are to check further holdings and references. We also hope to work with one or two universities and holding institutions to explore funding for further digitisation and transcription.
We also publish selected material from family collections in Family objects and Articles. If you hold relevant material or can correct a reference, contact the Estate.
Source references
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 · 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