Biographical/historical: Loie Fuller was an American dancer and choreographer.
Content: Chiefly comprised of two notebooks (ms., ink). The first is entitled "Lecture on radium" by Loie Fuller (59 leaves); also includes a draft letter to a friend (20 p. at end of vol.), signed and dated Jan. 24, 1911, including mention of the success of Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky in Paris. The second notebook contains a draft of the lecture on radium (25 leaves) and extensive notes (25 leaves) about visiting Thomas Edison in his laboratory, light, phosphorescence, radium, Madame Curie's discovery of radioactive matter, stage lighting, the work of the English scientist William Crookes, barefoot dancing, the problem of deformed feet, etc., 1911.
Funding: National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Project.
Content: The collection also includes a corrected typescript of Fuller's autobiography, "Fifteen years of my life" (202 leaves); three letters, one of them from Fuller to a friend (6 p.), written on the verso of a letter from impresario Henry Russell (1909), in which she details problems with Russell and the Boston Opera Company; and other associated material including three photographic postcards of Fuller and a holograph essay entitled "Light" (6 leaves), all recovered from the Rowntree Theatre, York, ca. 1948.
Exhibitions: Treasures of the American Performing Arts, 1875-1923