Edwin Binney 3rd collection of dance and theater prints, drawings, sheet music covers, and objects
Overview
Prints and drawings depicting ballet, dance, theater, popular entertainment, stage design and other subjects from 16th to mid 20th century collected by American philanthropist and collector Edwin Binney 3rd, and his research papers on ballet history and collecting.
Dates
- Creation: 1562-1986
Creator
- Binney, Edwin (Collector, Person)
Language of Materials
The majority of collection materials is in English, French, German, Danish, and Russian
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
A portion of 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
145 linear feet (90 flat drawers, 91 document flat boxes, 2 volumes)One of the largest individual collections of dance iconography in the United States, Edwin Binney 3rd collection encompasses several centuries of the graphic representation of dance, from its earliest depictions in printed books and individual prints in 16th century to the mid 20th century. Collection includes a variety of formats: fine and popular prints, sheet music, caricatures, newspaper and magazine cuttings, games and objects – images in almost every medium, depicting stage dancing, social dancing, national and ethnographic dancing, and dancing as it formed a part of daily life, and as it was represented in fine art, whether or not dance was specifically the subject of the image. By the end of his life, Binney had recorded 10,220 accessions in the Ballet Prints collections and 750 in Stage Designs; since many accessions included more that one image, there are approximately 12,000 prints in the collection as a whole. As of 2022 it remains one the largest single donations on dance history to an Amerian library. Collection also includes Binney's research papers on ballet history, drafts of his books, correspondence on collecting, and inventories of his collection. Books on dance collected by Binney have been cataloged invividually in HOLLIS catalog with a note, "Edwin Binney 3rd Collection". Also, see a separate collection at Houghton Library, Edwin Binney papers on Danish dance prints, his papers on the catalog of Danish prints he was not able to prepare for publication before his death in 1986.
Biographical / Historical
Edwin Binney 3rd (1925-1986) was an American philanthropist and collector. A Harvard graduate, he received his Ph.D. in Romance Languages. He became a collector at a very young age, starting with tram tickets and toys, later, his intersts ranged from Persian miniatures, Ottoman art and South Asian painting to early American quilts. He had amassed a large collection of ballet prints and theater books, which he bequeathed to Harvard. Binney was inspired to add dance to his collecting interests when he cataloged the existing dance collection at the Harvard Theatre Collection in 1961, as a graduate student volunteer then working on his doctoral dissertation on the Paris ballets of Theophile Gautier. In 1975 he became the Honorary Curator of Ballet at the Theatre Collection and remained a good friend until his death in 1986. His bequest included a large and significant collection of rare books on dance, numerous lavish souvenir volumes depicting European court and civic festivals of the 16th-18th century, his own working library on the history of ballet and dancing in general, his research files and notes for his many publications on dance, and what is said to be one of the largest collections of dance iconography in the world.
Arrangement
The collection is currently arranged in the following series:
I. Portrait prints and drawings
II. Stage design prints and drawings
III. Costumes for theatrical, national, and social dancing prints and drawings
IV. Character, national and regional dances, and popular entertainment prints and drawings
V. Balls, carnivals and masqueardes prints and drawings
VI.Original art
VII. Dance images on sheet music covers
VIII. Posters and programs, and contracts
IX. Danish prints
X. Dance images from European and American magazines and newspapers
XI. Prints on other subjects
XII. Manuscripts and objects
XIII. Edwin Binney papers on collecting and dance history research
XIV. Edwin Binney correspondence with collectors, dealers and researches
XV. Programs of ballet, opera, and drama performances attended by Edwin Binney
XVI. Auction and exhibition catalogs and printed material
Each series is listed in the alphabetical order, by title, and by the name of the subject or artist.
This arrangement follows the order established by the staff of the Harvard Theatre Collection in 1991, there is a certain overlap of material in Series III, IV and V, as subjects of the prints couls be interpreted loosely.
Physical Location
AS
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Gift of Edwin Binney, 3rd; 1968. No accession number. Gift of Edwin Binney, 3rd. 1981 April 23. No accession number. Gift of Edwin Binney, 3rd. 1981 August. No accession number. Bequest of Edwin Binney, 3rd; 1986 August 4.
Creator
- Binney, Edwin (Collector, Person)
- Title
- Binney, Edwin,1925-1986, collector. Edwin Binney 3rd collection of dance and theater prints, drawings, sheet music covers and objects, 1562-1986 (MS Thr 1972): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- December 16, 2020
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03246
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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