Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Desti, Mary
- Abstract:
- The Mary Desti Collection focuses on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Materials include incoming correspondence from or relating to Duncan, photographs, ephemera, clippings, programs, artifacts and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings. Mary Desti was Duncan's close friend and biographer.
- Extent:
- 1.2 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 1 flat box) and Number of containers: 2 boxes, 1 flat box Linear feet: 1.25
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan. MS-P 5. Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine, The UCI Libraries. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Mary Desti Collection focuses on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Materials include in-coming correspondence from or relating to Duncan, photographs, ephemera, clippings, programs, artifacts and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings. Mary Desti was Duncan's close friend and biographer. Although the majority of correspondence was received by Desti, the collection does not comprise her personal papers.
Materials are organized in three series: correspondence, printed items, and other materials. The internal arrangement within series is based on format, such as clippings and programs, and chronology. Dates are provided in the container list, when known.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Mary Desti (1871-1931) left Chicago for Paris in 1901 with her year-old son Preston Sturges. In Paris, she met and befriended dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan. Desti undertook various enterprises in Europe, including a cosmetic business. She frequently accompanied Duncan in her travels, and occasionally Duncan lived with her. Duncan was staying with Desti in Nice at the time of her sudden death in an automobile accident on September 14, 1927.
Following Duncan's death, Desti, a casual writer of both fiction and non-fiction, wrote a Duncan biography, The Untold Story: The Life of Isadora Duncan (New York: Liveright, 1929). Isadora Duncan's autobiography My Life (New York: Liveright, 1927) recorded events through 1921, prior to the period when she opened a dance school in Moscow. Desti intended to tell the rest of the story.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Albert Dukow via Professor James Penrod in 1971 or 1972.
- Processing information:
-
Preliminary processing by Special Collections staff; completed by Laura Clark Brown in 1997.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research. Researchers must use microfilm or photocopies of fragile restricted items in boxes 3 and 4.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan. MS-P 5. Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine, The UCI Libraries. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
- Location of this collection:
-
Special Collections and ArchivesThe UCI Libraries, P.O. Box 19557Irvine, CA 92623-9557, US
- Contact:
- (949) 824-3947