Photograph albums, 1938-1940

Component identifier:

Series 23

Content Summary:

This series comprises three folio photo albums. Album 1 contains over seventy photographs, some fifty of which are of dancers who toured Australia with the Ballets Russes. Most of these were souvenir photographs which were sold at the theatres where the Ballets Russes companies performed. Many of the photographs are of Irina Baronova. The listing below includes the abbreviations 'BR' for Ballet Russe and 'BB' for Borovansky Ballet.

The two other albums contain photographs and clippings from journals. There are photographs of the Colonel de Basil Ballet and the first performance of Graduation Ball in 1940, together with some photographs of Icare a piece designed by Sidney Nolan, also performed in 1940.

Please note: these albums have been digitised, and are available online through this finding aid.

Immediate source of acquisition:

In 1989, the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council provided a grant to organise and preserve these archives as a record of the pioneering work done by Margaret Walker in the field of folk and character dance. The Margaret Walker Folk Dance Centre Archives was purchased by the National Library and received in two consignments. The first consignment arrived in November 1991. A guide detailing most of the documents in this consignment was prepared by Marie Anne Slaney (Series 1 - Series 15). Some material in this consignment was not arranged and described by Marie Anne Slaney, but was described subsequently by staff of the Manuscript Section (Series 17- Series 22). Much of this supplementary material consisted of issues of journals and periodicals, most of which was already held by the Library and was consequently offered to other collecting institutions. Those that did not duplicate existing holdings have been retained and are held in the Library's Australian and overseas collections. The second consignment consisting of three photograph albums (Series 23) was received in February 1993. Further papers were added in 1997 and 2010.

Subjects:

Performing arts

Contents

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