Today marks the traditional birthday (and definite deathday) of William Shakespeare, who was baptized April 26, 1564, and died April 23, 1616. Any Shakespeare-related content in the Commons? Of course there is!

William Shakespeare watches over a rehearsal at the Futurist Play House, c1910s

Library of Congress

Shakespeare’s “Richard the Third” as a metaphor in an American political cartoon, 1834

Cornell University Library

Macbeth Drinking Scene at Oregon State University

OSU Special Collections & Archives

A group of Elizabethan Ladies, 11 August 1909, at the Builth Wells Historical Pageant

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales

Deathbed Scene from “Othello,” played by two British men in France during WWI

National Library of Scotland

On 15 April 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and quickly sunk, with many lost lives. The event catches many of the Commons collections at their richest, so it’s no surprise that the Titanic can be found across the Commons (in fact, we’ve visited the topic before on indicommons). A few survivors and not-so-lucky souls from the Commons…

Estelle Stead’s father died in the Titanic disaster; she sought contact with her father’s spirit for many years after that, and wrote about her experiences in seances and with mediums.

Library of Congress

Francis David Millet (1846-1912) was an American artist, in charge of decorations at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, 1893; he died on the Titanic.

Smithsonian Institution

Madeleine Force Astor (1893-1940) was a Titanic passenger; she survived, but her husband John Jacob Astor IV perished; soon after the disaster, she delivered her son, John Jacob Astor VI.

Library of Congress

R. Norris Williams (1891-1968) was an American tennis player who was traveling on the Titanic; he survived the sinking. This photo was taken the next year, while he was practicing for the Davis Cup.

Library of Congress

Young Michel and Edmond Navratil boarded the Titanic with their father, who died in the sinking; they survived, and are shown here in their mother’s arms.

Library of Congress

B. J. Falk
Eugen Sandow, ca. 1895
George Eastman House: 1982:0816:0001

Eugen Sandow, “The Father of Modern Body Building,” was born 2 April 1867, as Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, in Königsberg, Prussia.