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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 2218

Papers documenting the career of Alphonse Berg, The Great Drapo

Overview

Photographs and ephemera documenting the vaudeville career of Alphonse Berg, known professionally as The Great Drapo.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1924-1972

Condition Description

Photographic negatives are decayed.

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 for retrieval policies and times.

Extent

.25 linear feet (1 box)

Photographs, programs, broadsides, and an unpublished memoir documenting the career of Alphonse Berg, known professionally as The Great Drapo.

Biographical / Historical

Alphonse Berg (or Bergé) was a performer who fashioned original gowns on live models with yards of fabric in front of live audiences in the United States and in his native England.

Biographical / Historical

Alphonse Berg was a performer who fashioned original gowns on live models with yards of fabric in front of live audiences.

Arrangement

Arranged as received.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Custodial History

Ownership prior to this acquisition is unknown.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2023MT-6. Purchased from Johnson Rare Books and Archives with the John M. Kasdan Fund, 2022 May 9.

Processing Information

This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner, 2022)

Title
Berg, Alphonse. Papers documenting the career of Alphonse Berg, The Great Drapo, circa 1924-1972 (MS Thr 2218): Guide
Status
completed
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard University
Date
2022 July 20
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
hou02877

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.

Contact:
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Harvard University
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