Overview
Papers, books, and art by and belonging to American writer and connoisseur Lincoln Kirstein.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1907-1996
Creator
- Cadmus, Paul, 1904-1999 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Portions of this collection are shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Extent
28 linear feet (42 boxes)Collection represents Kirstein's personal and professional life; it includes manuscript compositions, correspondence, artwork by Kirstein (some from childhood) and others, photographs, scrapbooks, medals and memorabilia, personal and financial material, and books by Kirstein and others.
Correspondents and artists represented in the collection include Kirstein family members, Paul Cadmus, PaJaMa (a photographic collective comprised of Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret French), N. C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth, Walker Evans, Elie Nadelman, Lloyd Fonvielle, Bo Bartlett, Michael Bergt, and many others.
Biographical / Historical
Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and influential cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet with George Balanchine and serving as the company's general director from 1946 to 1989.
Kirstein was raised in upstate New York and Boston and attended Harvard where he founded the literary magazine Hound & Horn. On a trip to England in 1929, he met choreographer George Balanchine whom he convinced to move to America; together they established the School of American Ballet in 1934, going on to form multiple troupes together before founding the New York City Ballet.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged physically as received from the dealer, with some rearrangement by type of material by the accessioning archivists.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Other Finding Aids
Dealer's list, with additional descriptive detail for some sections of the papers, available in curatorial file.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2023MT-23. Purchased from Lorne Bair Rare Books with the Howard D. Rothschild Bequest, 2022 November 10.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner and Rebecca Kelly-Bowditch, 2022 December)
Creator
- Cadmus, Paul, 1904-1999 (Person)
- PaJaMa (Artists’ collective) (Organization)
Subject
- Kirstein, Fidelma Cadmus (Person)
- Title
- Kirstein, Lincoln, 1907-1996. Lincoln Kirstein papers, circa 1907-1996 (MS Thr 2239): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2022 December 12
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03513
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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