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Edward Lasker manuscript collection
mssLasker manuscripts and mssHM 68495-68513  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administration Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Edward Lasker manuscript collection
    Inclusive Dates: 1523-1994
    Bulk Dates: 1988-1994
    Collection Number: mssLasker manuscripts and mssHM 68495-68513
    Creator: Lasker, Edward, 1912-1997
    Extent: 1,894 items in six boxes plus 19 manuscript volumes
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department
    The Huntington Library
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2191
    Fax: (626) 449-3477
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: The collection contains correspondence and other material related to Edward Lasker's horse library as well as 19 manuscript volumes from his library.
    Language of Material: The records are in English.

    Administration Information

    Access

    Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, please go to following web site .

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of Item], Edward Lasker manuscript collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Acquisition Information

    Gifts of Cynthia Lasker, 1998-2005, and Courtland E. Palmer, November 2010.

    Biography

    Edward Lasker was the son of American businessman and philanthropist Albert D. Lasker and his first wife Flora Lasker. He graduated from Yale University in 1933. He worked at his father's advertising agency, Lord & Thomas, until 1942 when he joined the U.S. Navy. After the war, Edward Lasker moved to California where he became a film producer. In 1947, Lasker married actress Jane Greer, with whom he had three sons: Alex, a screenwriter; Lawrence, a retired producer/screenwriter, and Steven, a Jazz historian and record remastering engineer. In 1955, Edward graduated wtih his law degree from the University of California in Los Angeles and began practicing law in Los Angeles. Lasker and Jane Greer divorced in 1963 and he married Cynthia Palmer. Edward Lasker died in Los Angeles in 1997.
    Edward Lasker was long involved in Thoroughbred horse racing as an owner and breeder. He also collected early and rare books and manuscripts about horses. His collection was donated to the Huntington Library by Cynthia Lasker in a series of gifts from 1998 to 2005. The Edward Lasker Collection includes approximately 1400 rare titles, chiefly books and serials.

    Scope and Content

    Correspondence Files: The correspondence files consist of 5 boxes of letters, faxes, invoices, and book catalogs related to Edward Lasker's rare book and manuscript purchases that made up his horse library. Notable corespondents include: Blood-Horse Inc., DeWitt Clinton, Fasig-Tipton Co., J. A. Allen & Co., and James Cummins Bookseller. There is also a folder containing material regarding British jockey Fred Archer, who shot himself in 1886, including photographs. Several folders contain photographs of books or copies of title pages, etc.
    Scrapbooks: The two scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings about Edward Lasker's racehorses and their races, most of which are from the Daily racing form. There are also some clippings about the horse By Zeus, which was owned by Jane Greer.
    Manuscript Volumes: The 19 manuscripts, all formerly owned by Edward Lasker, span five centuries of horse and horse racing history, mostly in Great Britain and the United States, although there are two Italian manuscripts, one in German, and one in Arabic. The volumes include stud books; treatises on horse care and treatment; manuscripts with illustrations of bits and bridles; manuscripts on horse training, breeding and racing; horse pedigrees; horse registers; and two volumes dealing with horse races at "The Derby," and "The St. Leger." Many of the volumes have illustrations, and two are illuminated. One manuscript (HM 68502) is a subscription agreement for the Prince's Stakes races at Newmarket which is signed by George IV when he was Prince of Wales; it is also signed by several other notable British nobility. This finding aid contains a detailed list of the manuscripts.

    Arrangement

    Organized in the following manner: Correspondence Files (Boxes 1-5); Scrapbooks (Box 6); Manuscript Volumes (HM 68495-68513). The Correspondence Files are arranged in alphabetical order and the Manuscripts are in chronological order.

    Indexing Terms

    Personal Names

    Archer, Fred, 1857-1886
    Clinton, DeWitt, 1769-1828
    George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, signer
    Gould, Nat
    Greer, Jane, 1924-2001
    Lasker, Edward, 1912-1997
    Lasker, Cynthia, donor
    Palmer, Courtland E., donor
    Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of, 1847-1929
    Scott, Robert W. (Robert Wilmot), 1808-1884
    Skinner, John Stuart, 1788-1851
    Taunton, Thomas Henry
    Wavertree, William Hall Walker, Baron, 1856-1933

    Corporate Names

    Blood-Horse, Inc.
    Fasig-Tipton Co.
    J.A. Allen & Co.
    James Cummins Bookseller
    Daily racing form

    Subjects

    Book collectors -- California -- Archives
    Horse racing -- Great Britain
    Horse racing -- United States
    Horses -- Breeding
    Horses -- Early works to 1800
    Horses -- Training
    Stallions
    Thoroughbred horse -- Great Britain
    Thoroughbred horse -- United States
    Race horses -- Great Britain
    Race horses -- United States

    Genre

    Book catalogs
    Illuminated manuscripts
    Invoices
    Letters (correspondence)
    Manuscripts
    Photographs
    Scrapbooks