- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Collection Overview
- Creator:
- Delarue, Allison
- Title:
- Allison Delarue Collection
- Repository:
- Manuscripts Division
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/ht24wj420
- Dates:
- 1820-1990s
- Size:
- 32 boxes and 153 items
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (mss): Boxes 1-50; 1A; 2A
- Language:
- English
Abstract
The Allison Delarue Collection consists of a draft of Delarue's unpublished autobiography, letters received by Delarue from various friends, associates, and people involved in dance and the theater, and prints, photographs, and objects collected by Delarue relating to ballet and its history.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Description:
Consists of the draft manuscript of Delarue's unpublished autobiography, Memoirs of a Balletomane, photographs of Delarue, and approximately 250 letters (1930-1990) received by Delarue from various European and American friends, associates, and people involved in dance and the theater. Correspondents include Marian Hannah Winter (133 letters), also a dance historian, Anibal Navarro (80 letters), Eugene Berman (25), Paul Bowles (29), Stanislav Buzek, Paul Cadmus, Anton Dolin, Margot Fonteyn, John Hall, Pavel Tchelitchev, Alice B. Toklas, and others. There is also an extensive series of letters (1941-1960) by Delarue to Alexander D. Wainwright, lifetime friend and Princeton classmate.
An addition to the collection consists of approximately 170 objects collected by Delarue, relating to the ballet and its history, including porcelain figurines, paintings and portraits, drawings, engravings, costume designs, lithographs, prints, posters, musical scores, and printed books. There are representations, in various forms, of Fanny Elssler, Marie Taglioni, Fanny Cerito, Waslaw Nijinsky, and others by such artists as F. Kruger, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joseph Eymer, Paul Cadmus, Faivre, Lerasseur, and others.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Delarue, Allison
Allison Delarue, a member of the Princeton Class of 1928, was a staff member (1951-1972) of McCarter Theatre, as well as a dance historian and balletomane. He graduated from the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and later received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Princeton. While pursuing graduate studies at Oxford University, Delarue become interested in the history of ballet in England and studied dance with the Hon. Martin-Haney. Upon his return to the United States, he continued his interest in ballet while serving on the staff of the Cooper Union Museum in New York City. As well as being a collector and writer, Delarue was also a talented photographer. He was on the staff of McCarter Theatre in Princeton and had professional memberships that included the Theatre Library Association and the American Society for Theatre Research. He is the author of two books, The Chevalier Henry Wikoff: Impressario, 1840 (Princeton University Press, 1968), and Fanny Elssler in America (Dance Horizons, 1976), as well as many articles, including "The Stage and Ballet Designs of Eugene Berman" ( Dance Index, December 1946), "Ballet Figurines in Porcelain" ( Dancing Times, November 1973), the foreword to Let Joy Be Unconfined: An Exhibition Representing Three Centuries of Ballet (Princeton University Library, 1980), and "Alfred-Edouard Chalon's Pas de Quatre" ( The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Autumn, 1986).
Collection History
- Acquisition:
The collection was a gift of Allison Delarue, Princeton Class of 1928 in 1957-1996.
- Appraisal
No appraisal information is available.
- Processing Information
This collection was processed by Jannon Stein and Rachel Jordan in 2002. Finding aid written by Jannon Stein and Rachel Jordan in 2002.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
- Credit this material:
Allison Delarue Collection; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/ht24wj420
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (mss): Boxes 1-50; 1A; 2A
Find More
- Existence and Location of Copies
Digital images of the collection are available at: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/Visual_Materials/Delarue/Htmls/index.html.
- Subject Terms:
- Ballerinas -- 19th century.
Ballet in art.
Ballet.
Collectors and collecting -- United States -- 20th century.
Costume design.
Dance in art.
Dancers -- 19th century.
Paris porcelain. - Genre Terms:
- Correspondence.
Porcelain.
Prints. - Names:
- Berman, Eugène 1899-1972
Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999.
Delarue, Allison
Elßler, Fanny, 1810-1884
Wainwright, Alexander D.
Winter, Marian Hannah.