Sarah Bernhardt in the title role of “Adrienne Lecouveur” in 1880. The play is about the leading French actress of the 18th century and her mysterious death.

The Theater Collection at the Museum of the City of New York contains over 190,000 objects that document theatrical performance in New York City from 1785 on. These include more than 30,000 photographs, documenting over 5,000 Broadway productions, which are currently in the process of being put online. Below is a sample, including Sarah Bernhardt in an 1880 production of “Adrienne Lecouvreur,”  Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in the original 1948 production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and  “New Faces of 1952” featuring Eartha Kitt and Paul Lynde — as well as Lunt and Fontanne, Katharine Cornell and Basil Rathbone, Fanny Brice and a Fanny Brice female impersonator, Paul Robeson, Patty Duke, Celeste Holm, Lillian Gish, Tallulah Bankhead, Glenda Jackson, Gwen Verdon, Faye Dunawaye’s first Broadway play and Katharine Hepburn’s final Broadway role… and Samuel Beckett in rehearsal with Billie Whitelaw in 1984. Click on any picture to see it enlarged, and read the caption.

Tallulah Bankhead in “Antony and Cleopatra” 1937

Katharine Cornell as Juliet and Basil Rathbone as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet”. 1934

Fanny Brice and Albert Carroll (as Fanny Brice) in “Grand Street Follies” 1929

Florence Reed as Lady Macbeth 1928

Lynn Fontanne as Manuela and Alfred Lunt as Serafin in “The Pirate” 1942

Celeste Holm as Ado Annie Carnes and Lee Dixon as Will Parker in “Oklahoma!” 1943

Lillian Gish as Ophelia in Hamlet, 1936

Sophie Tucker in High Kickers, 1941

Paul Robeson in Othello, 1943

Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire 1948

“Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952” Eartha Kitt (center), Paul Lynde (right)

Gwen Verdon and Eddie Phillips in Damn Yankees, 1955

Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke ,Patricia Neal et al in The Miracle Worker, 1959-61

Faye Dunaway as Margaret More and William Roderick as Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons” 1963

Glenda Jackson in Marat/Sade, 1965

Katharine Hepburn and Dorothy Loudon in West Side Waltz, 1981, Hepburn’s final Broadway production.

Billie Whitelaw and Samuel Beckett rehearsing “Rockaby”. in 1984