Scope and Content Note
The Katherine Dunham Collection consists of a large set of Subject Files related to people and organizations related to Dunham's career, Photographs of personal and professional subjects, Correspondence both formal and informal, records of special Awards and recognition of Dunham's achievements, Writings by Dunham herself and by others, Production Materials and Clippings that document her creative work, moving images and sound recordings purchased by the Library of Congress as part of the Katherine Dunham Legacy Project, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. These materials, which date from the mid-1930s, were received between 2002 and 2004 and contain examples of Dunham’s original field research in the Caribbean, numerous performances, and tapes of the Dunham Technique seminars. After Dunham’s death in 2006, manuscript materials that were found in her New York City apartment were transferred to the Library of Congress. Most of the manuscript materials that document Katherine Dunham’s career had been transferred during the 1960s and 1970s to the Missouri Historical Society and the University of Southern Illinois.
Highlights of the Katherine Dunham Collection include moving image footage from Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique, and Jamaica (mid-1930s); and Dunham works Primitive Rhythms (late 1980s); Floyd’s Guitar Blues (no date); Casbah and Star Spangled Rhythm (no date); rehearsals of Southland (1981); Mambo (1950); and numerous examples of Dunham in performance and interviews with Dunham.
Other materials housed in the Collection include original photographs; the U.S. State Department’s reaction to Dunham and her trip to Senegal in 1966 (obtained via the Freedom of Information Act); and numerous manuscript examples of Dunham’s writing. The Collection also documents the activities conducted as part of the Library of Congress Katherine Dunham Legacy Project, undertaken with a $1 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Almost all of the moving image and sound recordings were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. One exception is a personal set of VHS-format Videotapes donated after the Legacy Project was completed; these were retained in the Collection for the convenience of the library patron.