Scope and arrangement
The Sophie Maslow research materials (1938-2003) were compiled by William Korff in preparation for a biography of Maslow, which was unfinished at the time of his death. The collection spans Maslow's career and contains clippings, photographs, programs, a scrapbook, and promotional material such as dance company brochures and fliers. The collection also contains transcripts of oral history interviews with Maslow and chronologies of her work.
Materials are both originals and copies. The collection includes research files that are arranged chronologically according to the time period in Maslow's life or the choreographic work that they relate to. For example, records related to a 1999 performance of Champion are held in the 1948 file, since Champion was first performed in 1948. The research files contain clippings, programs, fliers, photographs, and other material.
A scrapbook assembled by Maslow's husband, Max Blatt, dates from 1941 to 1948 and concerns her work as part of the Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio. The scrapbook holds letters, telegrams, clippings, and programs. Photographs include contemporary prints and reproductions of prints dating from 1937 to the 1980s. Among the photographs are images of Champion and The Village I Knew, and pictures of Maslow with Martha Graham's company and with the Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio. The collection also includes original art for a slide projection used in Maslow's Poem (1963).
The collection also contains notes and transcripts from interviews with Maslow. The interviews were conducted by Korff and by Muriel Topaz, who continued work on the biography after Korff's death. Some of Topaz's notes and draft chapters for the biography are also present.