Guide to the Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan MS.P.005
Processed by Laura Clark Brown; machine-readable finding aid created by Brooke Dykman Dockter
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
(cc) 1997
The UCI Libraries
P.O. Box 19557
University of California, Irvine
Irvine 92623-9557
spcoll@uci.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: Mary Desti Collection on Isadora Duncan
Creator:
Desti, Mary
Identifier/Call Number: MS.P.005
Physical Description:
1.2 Linear Feet
(2 boxes, 1 flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1901-1930
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.
General Physical Description note: Number of containers: 2 boxes, 1 flat box
Linear feet: 1.25
Language of Material:
English
.
Access
Collection is open for research. Researchers must use microfilm or photocopies of fragile restricted items in boxes 3 and
4.
Publication Rights
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.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Albert Dukow via Professor James Penrod in 1971 or 1972.
Processing History
Preliminary processing by Special Collections staff; completed by Laura Clark Brown in 1997.
Biography
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.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographic prints
Artifacts
Modern dance -- History -- Sources
Dance cards
Choreographers.
Dancers.
Dance -- Archives
Duncan, Isadora -- Archives
Online Archive of California
1. Correspondence
Series Scope and Contents Summary
Series is organized in three subseries which are arranged chronologically. Items date from ca. 1921 to 1930. Many correspondents
did not sign full names, and brackets indicate unidentified persons and conjecture by staff. The series includes two letters
from Duncan to Desti expressing her need for funds to keep her dance school in operation. Other letters are addressed to previous
hit Desti from Duncan's friends, including Mary next hit Fanton Roberts, Ruth Mitchell, Mercedes D'Acosta, and French actress
Lottie Yorska, all revealing aspects of Duncan's personality and business dealings during the later years of her life. Telegrams
primarily express the condolences of friends to Desti upon hearing of Duncan's death.
1.1. Letters to Isadora Duncan
box 1, folder 1
William Aspinwall Bradley
(1927)
1.2. Letters to Mary Desti
box 1, folder 2
Isadora [Duncan] and
(1925 undated)
box 1, folder 3
Louis La Chard
(August 5, 1927)
box 1, folder 3
Louis K. Anspacher
(August 23, 1927)
box 1, folder 3
Mary [Fanton Roberts]
(September 2, 1927)
box 1, folder 4
Juliet B. Rublee
(September 10, 15, 23 and 24, 1927)
box 1, folder 4
Eddy [?]
(September 15, 1927)
box 1, folder 4
Glenway W[estcott]
(September 16, 1927)
box 1, folder 5
Elizabeth Henderson Fischer
(September 17, 1927)
box 1, folder 5
Hottoi [?]
(September 17, 1927)
box 1, folder 5
Marion Spigarn
(September 21, 1927)
box 1, folder 5
Tommy S. Bradley
(September 21, 1927)
box 1, folder 5
"Dougie" [Allan Ross Macdougall]
(September 23, 1927)
box 1, folder 6
R. Sornin
(September 25, 1927)
box 1, folder 6
Lottie Yorska and
(September 28 and 30, 1927 undated)
box 1, folder 6
Jose Clara
(September 29, 1927)
box 1, folder 7
Alice Spicer and
(1928 undated)
box 1, folder 11
Form letter from Les Amis d'Isadora
(1927)
box 1, folder 12
[Mary Desti] to [?]
(1930)
box 1, folder 13
Isadora Duncan
(July 28, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
Paris Singer
(July-September 1927)
box 1, folder 13
Telegrams dated
September 15, 1927
box 1, folder 13
Dougie [Allan Ross Macdougall]
box 1, folder 13
Telegrams dated
September 16, 1927
box 1, folder 13
Mercedes [D'Acosta]
(September 18, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
Kerstrat
(September 24, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
[Juliet] Rublee
(September 24, 1927).
box 1, folder 13
Louis [?]
(September 26, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
To Raymond Duncan
(September 15, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
To Ruth Mitchell
(September 15, 1927)
box 1, folder 13
From Boncour to "famille Isadora Duncan"
(September 15, 1927)
2. Printed Items
Series Scope and Contents Summary
Series is organized in three subseries which are arranged chronologically. Newspaper clippings and a scrapbook of clippings
(many from French, New York and European newspapers) illustrating public response to Duncan's performances and career, as
well as reporting her death; items date from 1901 to 1929. A small group of programs document several Duncan performances
in Europe, including her last dance recital at the Théatre Mogador in Paris (July 8, 1927) and a memorial recital danced by
Maria Theresa. Items date from 1908 to 1927, and a few are undated. Other printed items include a brochure in Russian (presumably
for Duncan's dance school), an article proposing a Duncan monument, and a pamphlet concerning Duncan's brother Augustin Duncan.
box 2, folder 13
Microfilm of scrapbook of newspaper clippings
(1901-1911)
box 4 RESTRICTED, folder 13
Original scrapbook of newspaper clippings
(1901-1911)
Conditions Governing Access note
[Restricted due to extreme fragility; researchers must use microfilm in box 2.]
box 4 RESTRICTED, folder 13
Newspaper clippings from Argus de la Presse agency (photocopies for researcher use)
box 1, folder 21
and
1927, October 21-1929 undated
box 3 RESTRICTED, folder 1-6
Original clippings of photocopies in box 1, folders 14-21. and
(1909-1929 undated)
Conditions Governing Access note
[Restricted due to fragility; researchers must use photocopies in box 1.]
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan in her "Celebrated Classical Dances" at the Criterion Theatre
(1908)
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan Dress Rehearsal
(November 1916)
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan
(March 1917)
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan and pupils of her school
(April 1917)
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan Dancers
(April 1920)
box 1, folder 22
Programm der tänze, Miss Isadora Duncan
box 1, folder 22
Isadora Duncan walzer mit Begleitung von Orchester und Klavier
box 1, folder 23
Récital Listz donné par Isadora Duncan and Irakli Orbeliani
(1926)
box 1, folder 23
Récital Isadora Duncan et Albert Wolff at Théatre Mogador
(July 1927)
box 1, folder 23
Dance festival in memory of Isadora Duncan ... danced by Maria Theresa
box 1, folder 24
Brochure
Isadora Duncan (in Russian) with illustration by Van Deering Perrin
(1921)
box 1, folder 24
Book of verse (in Russian,
1923)
box 1, folder 25
"There Should be a Duncan Monument,"
Dance Magazine
(1928)
box 1, folder 25
Advertisement for
Isadora Duncan by José Clarã and Georges A. Denis
(1928)
box 1, folder 25
Card for Studio d' Isadora Duncan, Nice
box 1, folder 25
Pamphlet concerning Augustin Duncan and play,
The Breaks
3. Other Materials
Series Scope and Contents Summary
Fragments of a dress and a shawl, reputedly worn by Duncan at the time of her death, as well as the last note she wrote before
her death (reproduced in Desti's biography of Duncan). Two photographs depict Duncan alone and with young students. Other
items are manuscript notes and ephemeral items.
box 1, folder 26
Photograph of Isadora and young students
box 1, folder 26
List of charges at Le Grand Hotel, Juan-les-Pins
(August 1927)
box 1, folder 26
Printed card to Studio d'Isadora Duncan, Nice, containing (on verso) the last note written by Isadora Duncan. Reproduced as
illustrations in Desti's
The Untold Story, p. 278.
(ca. 1927)
box 1, folder 26
Manuscript note with caption: "Semaine memoriale Isadora Duncan. Paris, Printemps"
(1928)
box 1, folder 26
Photograph: snapshot of Isadora Duncan in dress given her by Desti. Inscribed by Isadora: "Thank you for the lovely dresses
and shawl."
box 1, folder 27
Manuscript note indicating persons possessing parts of Isadora Duncan's memoirs: Madame Sartoris, Mr. Bradley, Hughes Massie,
D. Nickson. Stationery has printed heading: Studio-Appartments Hotel, Paris
box 1, folder 27
Manuscript note on verso of blank hotel receipt
box 1, folder 27
Manuscript note (by Desti?) on cardboard
box 1, folder 27
Ephemera from restaurants in France
box 1, folder 28
Envelopes containing fragments of dress and shawl, reputedly those worn by Isadora at the time of her death
box 1, folder 28
Scarf fragment (Reputedly the scarf that strangled Isadora; published descriptions of the scarf do not coincide.)
