Archives such as the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, and the Mander and Mitchenson Collection offer a wealth of interesting and hard-to-find material from the earliest days of UK, European and USA circus. Including posters, programmes and illustrations charting the history of Astleys, Ricketts, Barnums and Baileys - as well as the development of traditional skills and acts including clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists.

Modern circus performance and studio portraiture is represented by photographers Marilyn Kingwill, David Jamieson, Nigel Norrington, Eric Richmond, Peter Ekin-Wood and Frazer Ashford, and by our international partners Sputnik (RIA Novosti) (Russia), Roger-Viollet(France), and Ullstein bild(Germany),  covering the lesser known as well as the major companies such as Cirque du Soleil, Slava's Snowshow, the Tiger Lillies, the Circus of Horrors,  Cirkus Cirkor and the Pickle Family Circus. We also have a fantastic selection of international troupes such as the Moscow State Circus and Chinese State Circus.