Overview
The George Chaffee dance collection contains engravings, lithographs, pastels, sketches, pen and ink drawings, and a single photograph from throughout the history of ballet, including portraits of dancers, costume designs, images of groups or scenes from performances, and scenographic designs.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1613-1947
Creator
- Chaffee, George (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection is in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
16.5 linear feet (5 boxes, 88 oversize folders, and 4 frames)Consists of engravings, lithographs, pastel sketches, pen and ink drawings, sketches, a single photograph, and three ballet slippers relating to ballet and ballet dancers from the early seventeenth to early twentieth centuries, across France, Italy, England, Germany, the United States, and Russia.
Series I contains engraved, lithographic, and photographic portraits of ballet dancers, mostly individually, by name, which were created as souvenirs for audience members and ballet devotees. The portraits include depictions of dancers in specific ballets or costumes, while others are more general situations or even seated portraits. Dancers include: Amalia Brugnoli (active 1820-1840), Fanny Cerrito, Pauline Yolande Marie Louise Duvernay (1813-1894), Fanny Elssler (1810-1884), Flora Fabri, Carlotta Grisi (1819-1899), Jules Perrot (1810-1892), Louise Pierson, Marie Taglioni, (1804-1884), among many others.
Series II contains engravings and lithographs of costume designs from ballet and dance productions, ballet-related caricatures, and depictions of ballet scenes and groups of ballet dancers. Costume designs are attributed to Jean Berain (possibly also known as Joan Berin) and his son, as well as the atelier of the Bonnart family, Hautecoeur-Martinette, and others. Ballet-related caricatures, mainly from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were created by S.W. Fores (1761-1838), J.J. Grandville, also known as Jean-Ignace Gerard (1803-1847), Hannah Humphrey (active 1774-1817). Additionally included is a series of caricatures of Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) and Jules Perrot (1810-1892) in Flore and Zephyr created by William Makepeace Thackery (1811-1863), under the pseudonym Theophile Wagstaff, with Edward Morton. The scenes depict groups of dancers, such as groups of contemporary popular women dancers, or specific scenes from ballets, such as Carnival Scenes by Engelbrecht and scenes of circus dancers from Der Berggeist by Friedrich Horschelt.
Series III consists of original drawings relating to ballet, including portraits, costume designs, and depictions of groups and scenes, spanning the eighteenth century to drawings relating to the Ballet Russe in the early twentieth century. Included are two drawings by Nataliia Sergeevna Goncharova (1881-1962), six pastel drawings by Valentine Hugo (1887-1968), and one pastel drawing by Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861-1939), as well as earlier pen and ink drawings attributed to Pierre-Jean Boquet (also known as Bocquet) and Daniel Rabel (approximately 1578-1637).
Series IV includes prints showing scene designs, mainly from Italian and French ballet productions, including designs by Alessandro Sanquirico (1777-1849) and Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686), among others.
Series V contain two ballet slippers worn by Alicia Markova in Giselle, signed to the Harvard Theatre Collection, and a single ballet slipper worn by Yvette Chouvire in Les Mirages.
Biographical / Historical
Born in 1907 in Oakland, California, George Chaffee studied with ballet teachers in Europe and the United States, and became a professional ballet dancer by the 1930’s. He initially danced in the companies of Michel Fokine (1882-1942) and Mikhail Mordkin (1881-1944) before becoming a principle dancer of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York, New York, and then led his own chamber ballet company. He also performed on Broadway, dancing in Helen Goes to Troy in 1944. He had his own ballet studio off West 56th Street in New York, where he taught for thirty-three years, assisted by Adelaide Vernon, with students such as Alicia Alonso (1921-) and John Gilpin (1930-).
Chaffee was a historian and collector of ballet materials, collecting dance prints, including lithographs and engravings, as well as dance-related drawings, paintings, sculpture, and books. These resources date from ballet history beginning in the sixteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century. He specialized in the French Romantic Ballet, presenting numerous lectures on the topic. He wrote a regular column, “Balletophile,” in Dance Magazine in the late 1940’s, as well as further articles on the history of dance in that same publication as well as Dance News, Lincoln Kirstein’s Dance Index, and the Dance Encyclopedia. In 1948, Chaffee organized “A Retrospective Exhibit of the French Court and Opera Ballet (1851 to 1948),” shown at the French Embassy in New York at the time of the Paris Opera Ballet’s first visit to the United States. He was decorated with the Palmes Academique by the French government in 1949 for his efforts.
Chaffee died 1984 October 19 in New York City, following a stroke.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged into the following five series: I. Dance portrait prints; II. Dance costumes, caricatures, groups, and scenes; III. Original drawings; IV. Scenography prints; V. Ballet slippers.
Physical Location
b, pfd (P1.C7.01.01 - P1.C7.01.03 [Folders 1-87]), ppf (P1.C7.01.04 [Folders 58, 82])
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Donated by and acquired from George Chaffee in multiple stages from 1949 September to 1984.
Processing Information
Processed by Betts Coup, 2018 March.
Prior to processing, the collection was organized by groups of portraits; groups, caricatures, and scenes; original drawings; and scenography, and largely alphabetized. The archivist put all materials into new folders and boxes, and maintained much of this order, completing the alphabetization. Names and titles of works are listed as found on original folders, and are not necessarily standardized.
Creator
- Chaffee, George (Person)
- Title
- Chaffee, George. George Chaffee dance collection, circa 1613-1947 (MS Thr 861): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Date
- 2018 March 06
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02897
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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