The National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) was founded in 1994 by the University of Sheffield with the support of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the Fairground Association of Great Britain. The collection was accummulated as the result of scholarly research conducted by Professor Vanessa Toulmin, initially during her PhD and later through her passion and expertise. Professor Toulmin assumed the role of Director of the NFCA from its inception until 2016 and was instrumental in building the foundations of the archive.

The Archive is based at the Western Bank Library and is part of the Special Collections and Archive Division of the University of Sheffield Library.

Since the formation of the Archive, the emphasis has focused on building its foundations, acquiring major donations and strengthening its position within key audiences and communities through stewardship, research and discoverability.

The NFCA actively reviews the way it contributes to institutional goals for research, learning and public engagement and sets the path to future development. As part of its core activities it is set to respond and adapt to new technological demands and new philosophies in research and learning, become a key resource to deliver innovative research potential, improve engagement levels with the academic community and play a role in the city's cultural vibrancy.

The collection embodies the history of popular entertainment in the United Kingdom from the seventeenth century onwards, covering every aspect of the travelling fair, circus and allied entertainments as well as the culture, business and life of travelling showpeople. The NFCA is the only public repository in the UK collecting this type of material, under the unified cultural identity of leisure history, the evolution of showmanship and travelling showpeople as a defined community.

The Archive collects material from the fairground, circus and all the allied industries that found a place in the early travelling entertainment sector, including early film, sideshows, freakshow, menageries, magic, boxing, variety, theme parks and amusement parks, seaside entertainment and World's Fairs and Expositions until they developed into their own distinctive form of entertainment.