Collection of Carmen Tórtola Valencia photographs and ephemera
Overview
Photographs and ephemera about dancer, choreographer, costume designer, and painter, Carmen Tórtola Valencia.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1910-1955
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
A portion of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff for retrieval policies and times
Extent
.15 linear feet (1 box)Photographs, bookplates designed by Tórtola Valencia, programs, a letter, an issue of La Pelicula with a silent film review, and publicity material.
Biographical / Historical
Carmen Tórtola Valencia was a Spanish early modern dancer, choreographer, costume designer, and painter. Born in Seville to a Catalan father and Andalusian mother, she was three years old when her family emigrated to London. She made her debut at the Gaiety Theatre in London (1908). Tórtola Valencia was also known as a "pioneer Spanish feminist". Being gay and having leftist ideas, Tórtola Valencia was jailed at the end of the Spanish Civil War. In 1928, she met Magret Angeles-Vila and they were inseparable thereafter. She danced for the last time in 1930 in Quito. She began painting in Barcelona where she died in 1955. (Source: Wikipedia contributors, "Carmen Tórtola Valencia," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmen_T%C3%B3rtola_Valencia&oldid=1039473340 (accessed July 27, 2022).)
Arrangement
Collection is arranged as received.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository.
Custodial History
Ownership prior to this acquisition is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2022MT-67. Purchased from Elena Gallego with funds from the Howard D. Rothschild Bequest, 2022 February 22.
2023MT-14. Purchased from Graph Books with the Howard D. Rothschild Bequest, 2022 July 5.
Processing Information
Minimally processed by Lilli Keaney, 2022 August.
- Title
- Collection of Carmen Tórtola Valencia photographs and ephemera, circa 1910-1955 (MS Thr 2183): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Date
- 2022 April 12
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03452
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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