Collection of handbills and broadsides advertising Professor De La Mano
Overview
Handbills and broadsides advertising the magic acts of Professor De La Mano.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1878-1881
Condition Description
In good condition.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Extent
.16 linear feet (1 box)Five broadsides and handbills of various sizes, two with printing on the verso, advertising appearances of magician De La Mano, noting many of the specific acts he performed in New York.
Biographical / Historical
Austrian-born magician and spiritualist Zell Dreitzehn, known on stage as "Professor De La Mano", came from a wealthy family who owned a circus. He toured Europe for four decades before his first American tours to the east coast in 1876, 1878 and 1881; his acts incorporated spiritualist elements. With his 1881 tour he left behind the magician role in favor of psychic investigator. He is said, during investigation of a supposedly haunted house in New York in 1882, to have disappeared without a trace. (Source: dealer's description)
Custodial History
Ownership prior to this acquisition is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source information is given with the item.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner, 2023)
Occupation
Subject
- Dreitzehn, Zell (Person)
- Title
- Collection of handbills and broadsides advertising Professor De La Mano, circa 1878-1881 (MS Thr 2250): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2023 January 31
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03524
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.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu