Overview
Personal and professional papers of German countertenor and visionary theatrical performer, Klaus Nomi.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1950-1983
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
8.8 linear feet (17 boxes and 1 volume)Collection includes manuscripts, artwork by Nomi and by others, audiovisual material, a phonograph record collection, photographs, legal and medical records, clippings, and ephemera.
Biographical / Historical
Klaus Nomi, born Klaus Sperber in Immenstadt, Bavaria, Germany in 1944, was a countertenor and visionary performance artist. He moved to New York City in 1972, affilating with the arts scene in the East Village and supporting himself as a pastry chef and night club singer. His groundbreaking performance of an aria in a space suit at Irving Plaza's New Wave Vaudeville series in 1978 was followed in 1979 by his singing backup, with fellow artist and friend Joey Arias, for David Bowie on Saturday Night Live. Nomi died in 1983 as a result of complications from AIDS, one of the earliest known figures from the arts community to die from the disease; Joey Arias served as executor of his will.
Arrangement
Arranged in order as received.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2019MT-120. Purchased, with the Joey Arias papers, from Carl Johan Kugelberg, Boo-Hooray LLC, with funds from the Herman Dunlop Smith Bequest, the Robert Gould Shaw Fund, and the Douglas Roby Fund, 2019.
Processing Information
Processed by Betts Coup, Magee Lawhorn, and Melanie Wisner, 2019.
- Title
- Nomi, Klaus. Klaus Nomi papers, circa 1950-1983 (MS Thr 1916): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 March 25
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03121
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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