Any project of this size requires the assistance and guidance of a considerable ensemble cast. The collegial collaboration of many people helped secure this funding and made the project possible. Some of the people listed below helped develop the project’s application, others helped get it set up, while others supported it at various points. The project and I owe a big debt to them all.
Maureen Burgess (Trinity College Dublin); Mattie Burkert (University of Oregon); Dan Carey (University of Galway); James Cummings (Newcastle University); Aileen Douglas (Trinity College Dublin); Lisa Freeman (University of Illinois); Austin Glatthorn (University of Southampton); Jane Grogan (University College Dublin); Miriam Haughton (University of Galway); Barry Houlihan (University of Galway); Robert Jones (University of Leeds); Jarlath Killeen (Trinity College Dublin); Charles Larkin (University of Bath); Gary Lupton (University of Galway); Andrew McDiarmid (UCD); Sarah Nangle (Trinity College Dublin); Anne O’Connor (University of Galway); Danny O’Quinn (University of Guelph); Mary Rogan (Trinity College Dublin); Tom Walker (Trinity College Dublin); and, Jane Wessell (US Naval Academy).
The intellectual work of the project is built on and supported by many wonderful scholars of eighteenth-century theatre. It is fraught with peril to single people out so to this collegial community as a whole, I would also like to say a gracious thank you. But I must pay appreciative tribute to Mattie Burkert and her team for the extraordinary work they have done and continue to do in making the data of The London Stage; 1660–1800 available through open access: simply put, the project would not have been possible without their efforts.
I am also grateful to the libraries and the staff who supplied us with archival materials and/or hosted members of the team carrying out archival research: University of Bristol Theatre Archives; British Library; Drury Lane Theatrical Fund; Folger Shakespeare Library; Garrick Club Library (and the wonderful Moira Goff); Houghton Library, Harvard University; Hugh Owen Library, University of Aberystwyth; London Metropolitan Archives; National Archives London; Royal Opera House Covent Garden Archives; and, Trinity College Dublin Library. The Folger Shakespeare Library has been a remarkable collaborator on this project and I am very grateful to Julie Swierczek, Melanie Leung, and all members of the indefatigable team who captured the digital images that made the financial archive of Drury Lane available to us. Finally, I am of course enormously grateful for the support of the staff at the University of Galway’s James Hardiman Library throughout the project, with a special word of thanks to Barry Houlihan.
I would also like to thank audiences at the various papers and presentations given over the course of the project, particularly those drawn from the Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society, the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. A full list of presentations related to the project given 2020-25 can be read here.
Over the course of development of this resource, we were fortunate to connect with other similar projects and their teams around Europe and this has been a very stimulating collaboration. My particular thanks to Frans Blom (University of Amsterdam), Sara Harvey (University of Victoria), Ulla Kallenbach (University of Bergen), and Jeff Ravel (MIT).
I owe a considerable debt to the members of the Advisory Board who played a major role in improving the grant application and who supported the work throughout: Christiane Hellmanzik (TU Dortmund); Leslie Ritchie (Queen’s University, Canada); Gillian Russell (University of York, Emerita); and, David Taylor (University of Oxford). I would also like to acknowledge Leslie Ritchie’s fantastic work on the Richard Cross diaries; her data was an immense help to our project.
A workshop held at the University of Galway in April 2024 was a key event in the genesis of the project. I am very appreciative of the immense effort put in at that by the Advisory Board and the other participants who helped us shape the final resource: Ros Ballaster (University of Oxford); Frans Blom (University of Amsterdam); Robert Jones (University of Leeds); Ulla Kallenbach (University of Bergen); Heather Ladd (University of Galway); Elaine McGirr (University of Bristol); Rebecca Morrison (Independent scholar); Ian Newman (University of Notre Dame); Robin Pearson (University of Hull); Chelsea Phillips (Villanova University); Jeff Ravel (MIT); Diana Solomon (Simon Fraser University); Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University); Vanessa Rodgers (Rhodes College); and, François Velde (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)
The website, user interface, and project branding was designed and built by Language and FUSIO. My deep appreciation to Barry Hone, Katy Finnegan, Adam May, Mat May, Tony O’Hare and Dawid Swiecicki for their commitment to the project.
The website draws on a database designed, built, and maintained by David Kelly, Digital Humanities Manager for the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies, University of Galway. David’s commitment to the project was extraordinary over its course and is very gratefully acknowledged here. I am also thankful to Luke Watts and Muraffa Zeb for their technical input.
The project and its team were hosted initially by the Moore Institute and then the Hardiman Research Building. We were most fortunate to have the world-class administrative support of Martha Shaughnessy and Iwona O’Donoghue throughout.
The project team of Susan Bennett, Jenny Buckley, Edward Kearns, Nikita Koptev, Edward Purcell, Kandice Sharren, Leo Shipp, and Stephen Sun were simply immense in the face of a much more daunting data challenge than I had anticipated. I am truly grateful for their commitment to the task and for keeping the wheels on the project.
My final word of thanks goes to my excellent colleagues in the School of English, Media, and Creative Arts at the University of Galway for their support, encouragement, and forbearance as I worked on this project with a special thanks to Marie-Louise Coolahan for her wise counsel, support and friendship through tricky times.
David O’Shaughnessy
