Katherine Dunham collection, 1935-2002.

2.13 linear feet (3 boxes)

English; French; Japanese

Chiefly in English; some materials in French, Italian, and Japanese.

Arranged by type of material.

This material is open for research.

Katherine Dunham (1909-2006), dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist.

The collection includes materials which document Katherine Dunham's dance career. Correspondence between Katherine Dunham and her friend Dorothy Gray is in Box 1. In the letters, they occasionally refer to each other as Calf and Dorf. The letters are addressed from all over the world while Dunham was performing. Also included are photographs of Dunham and other dancers, financial agreements, correspondence mostly about Dunham's touring schedule, a Langston Hughes autograph, canceled checks, a sketchbook with Dunham's diary entries from her 1958 residency in Tokyo, and programs from Katherine Dunham's performances in Box 2. Oversized dance performance broadsides, photographs, and an illustrated map are in Box 3. Starkenfirst, a book written by Raphael Tardon, published in 1947, and Music in African Cultures written by J.H. Kwabena Nketia, published in 1966 are in Box 2. Additional twelve letters between Dorothy Gray and Katherine Dunham are included in Box 1. Also included is an invitation to Habitation Leclerc, a resort owned by Katherine Dunham in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a letter from Katherine Dunham to her husband, and a reciept.

Archives or Manuscripts / Images

May 27, 2021

Katherine Dunham Collection. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Katherine Dunham Collection. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Dancers United States 20th century.