Overview
Costume designs for Parisian productions by Italian-born painter and costume designer, Alfredo Edel.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1895-1907
Creator
- Edel, Alfredo, 1856-1912 (Person)
Language of Materials
In French.
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 to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
6.5 linear feet (41 volumes in 40 boxes)1714 pencil and watercolor costume designs, some with glitter, by Italian-born designer, Alfredo Edel, on card stock and bound in 41 volumes. Most designs relate to shows mounted at the Folies-Bergère, the Moulin-Rouge, and the Châtelet; most represent female figures in national dress as well as in extravagant costumes featuring birds, fruits, playing cards, and beverages.
Many designs are signed and have annotation on the verso. Spine labels on volumes have been transcribed as they are.
Biographical / Historical
Alfredo Edel Colorno was an Italian-born painter and costume designer who attained international renown for the work he undertook for La Scala. He moved to Paris in 1890.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged in original volume number order which usually does not correspond to any title or subject order.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
The collection was previously owned by Parisian fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin who likely organized the watercolors and had them bound in numbered volumes with themes (written on the spines of the volumes).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020MT-20. Purchased with funds from the Beatrice, Benjamin and Richard Bader Fund in the Visual Arts of the Theatre and the Howard D. Rothschild Bequest, 2019 June.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019 August.
Creator
- Edel, Alfredo, 1856-1912 (Person)
- Title
- Edel, Alfredo, 1856-1912. Alfredo Edel costume designs for Parisian productions, circa 1895-1907 (MS Thr 1977): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Date
- 2019 August 23
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03252
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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