Scope and Content Note
The Miriam Cole Papers spans the period 1923-1997, with most of the materials dating from 1945-1955. Materials include photographs, programs and promotional materials, business papers, clippings and articles, unpublished writings and notes, and music scores. Together they document a portion of the career of modern dancer and choreographer Miriam Cole. Cole’s programs, scrapbook pages, and photographs from the Martha Graham Dance Company’s 1954 tour to Europe are of particular interest. Cole was also a member of the Wisconsin Dance Group, a company of five graduates of the University of Wisconsin, and her papers contain photographs and other items relating to the Group’s tours. The collection is divided into six series.
The Photographs series consists primarily of numerous color and black-and-white prints and slides of the 1954 European tour of the Martha Graham Dance Company; most are candid shots of company members visiting tourist sites. Other photographs include the Wisconsin Dance Group’s national tour, a Hanya Holm summer workshop, and a Vassar event with John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Cole’s scrapbook pages documenting the 1954 European tour of the Martha Graham Dance Company consist of 425 photographs of traveling, tourist sight-seeing, along with a small number showing dance technique demonstrations and backstage preparations.
The Programs series includes examples of the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1941 to 1987. The 1954 Graham programs document most of the performances during the company's European tour. Cole’s work as a dancer, choreographer, and rehearsal director is represented among the performance programs of Fred Berk’s “Stage for Dancers,” Theatre Dance, Inc., Pearl Lang Company, and others. The collection includes rare programs of “American Dance,” a series of performances in 1953 that featured significant modern dance choreographers such as Graham, Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Nina Fonaroff, Pearl Lang, Helen McGehee, and May O’Donnell; Cole is featured as dancer for both the Graham company and Helen McGehee's choreography. Also present are souvenir programs of the Original Ballet Russe; the Moscow Art Theatre; and ballerina Anna Pavlova. Programs for Cole's performances as a dancer in Broadway musicals Paint Your Wagon and The King and I are included.
The series Clippings and Printed Materials includes reviews and articles (bulk 1950-1955) on Miriam Cole as a dancer and choreographer and on Martha Graham and her dance company. Sources include national newspapers such as the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune, dance publications such as Dance Magazine and Dance Observer, among others. Some clippings lack a date or identification; several from the European tour are in foreign languages. One folder includes materials saved by Cole about Louis Horst, who provided accompaniment and recordings for her choreography and for whose lecture-demonstrations she performed. As some of the articles and scrapbook pages to which clippings were attached were badly deteriorated, record copies have been made to replace originals.
The series Music includes several holograph and manuscript scores, some of which include dance cues, for Miriam Cole’s choreography. A holograph score of the music for Cole’s choreography “Come into the Garden Maud” (1952), arranged by M. Strauss from the Preludes (Op. 34) of Dmitri Shostakovich, is included. Several 33 1/3 rpm and 78 rpm records, including one played by Graham musical director Louis Horst, were transferred to the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound (MBRS) Division.
The Writings by Miriam Cole series contains a hand-written manuscript about Martha Graham and Cole's life, notes for lectures, and choreographic notes for Cole’s work “Come into the Garden Maud.”
Miscellany includes publicity materials and business papers. Publicity items include posters and flyers for dance concerts of the Martha Graham Dance Company and independent choreographers including Miriam Cole, along with material related to benefit events. Business papers are letters of agreement and other formal contracts between Cole and dance companies, unions, and a television production company. The record photocopies made to preserve fragile items are found in this series.