Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Marjorie Kelly Borsum Papers
MSS 0116
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Creator:
Borsum, Marjorie Kelly
Title: Marjorie Kelly Borsum Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1927 - 1966
Extent:
0.40 linear feet
(1 archives box)
Abstract: Correspondence (1927-28) from Marjorie Kelly (Borsum) to family members during a year traveling in Europe and North Africa
and a year living in Paris. Correspondence (1929-65) to Marjorie Kelly Borsum from one of Picasso's former mistresses, Fernande
Olivier, from Mme. Asselin announcing Olivier's death, and a letter from Havelock Ellis. Also included is a photo of Olivier
and an art exhibition broadside from Paris.
Repository:
University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Collection number: MSS 0116
Language of Material:
Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research.
Not Available
Marjorie Kelly Borsum Papers, MSS 0116. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Marjorie Kelly was born in November 1904 in a part of San Diego County just east of Carlsbad known then as Rancho Agua Hedionda.
She attended San Diego High School, graduating in 1921, and received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of California,
Los Angeles and her master of arts degree from the University of Southern California.
Between 1927 and 1929, Marjorie Kelly traveled in Europe and North Africa with Kate Frost, the two finally settling in Paris
for the winter (1928-29) as tenants in the home of Mlle. Guillemin. During the Paris winter, Kelly took French lessons two
or three times per week from Fernande Olivier, who had met Picasso in 1903, lived with him for many years, and whose friends
and neighbors still called her "Mme. Picasso."
Kelly eventually married Adolph "Red" Borsum, a career navy dentist, and together they lived in, among other locales, American
Samoa and Japan. During her life, Marjorie Kelly Borsum became an arts professor at San Diego State College and was a member
of the Asian Arts Committee of the San Diego Fine Arts Society. She died in Solana Beach in May 1978.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Marjorie Kelly Borsum Papers comprise .4 cubic feet (1 archives box) and are arranged in two series. CORRESPONDENCE represents
two bundles of letters and cards: the first, numerous cards and letters from Borsum to various family members during her
two years abroad in Europe and North Africa (1927-29), including her mother, Mrs. Robert J. (Eliza Witty) Kelly; her sister,
Emily; her brothers, Robert Dewey, Stanley, and Carroll. Kelly Borsum recounts the day-to-day trials and pleasures of life
abroad, and details both locales and individuals visited.
The second bundle is comprised of 30 letters (1929-65 and undated) from Fernande Olivier to Borsum over the course of their
friendship, which lasted nearly 40 years. Olivier talks of life with Picasso, mentions mutual friends, along with famous
names such as Alice B. Toklas (who also took French lessons from Olivier), and laments economic hardships and life during
WWII.
Included in CORRESPONDENCE is one letter from Borsum to Olivier. Two additional letters can be found in the collection, as
well: one from Mme. Asselin, a friend of Olivier's, informing Borsum of Olivier's death in 1966, and one from Havelock Ellis
in response to Borsum's inquiry regarding a possible connection between the color red and "inversion."
MISCELLANEOUS consists of two items: a small photo of Fernande Olivier and a broadside announcing an art exhibition at the
Moderne Académie in Paris.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Borsum, Marjorie Kelly -- Archives
Olivier, Fernande
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973
Photographic prints -- 20th Century
Olivier, Fernande -- correspondent