Scope and arrangement
The Elizabeth Anderson-Ivantzova research materials (1910s-2006) were compiled by Lawrence Sullivan in the preparation of his book, Elisabeth Anderson-Ivantzova: A Bolshoi Ballerina Abroad (2006). The collection contains photographs, correspondence, official documents, and programs. Some of the research materials are original; many are photocopies or prints of materials dating from 1890 (Anderson-Ivantzova’s birth certificate) to the 1960s. The collection also holds letters and notes from those who assisted Sullivan in his research in the 1980s and 1990s. Sullivan added brief notes identifying some of the materials in 2006.
Most of the photographs in the collection are prints of photographs that were originally taken in the 1910s and 1920s, though a few of the photographs date from the 1930s to the 1960s. These pictures show Anderson-Ivantzova as she appeared in various ballets, and with family, friends, and colleagues. Images of costume and set designs for Les Noces and other productions are present.
Documentation of Anderson-Ivantzova’s life and career includes documents such as passports and a certificate of divorce; copies of papers from her personnel file at the Moscow Imperial Theatres; a 1917 program for the Bolshoi performance of Don Quixote; a leaflet for her ballet school in New York City; and copies of her letters and postcards to her husband in 1923 and 1924. Most of the Russian-language documents are accompanied by translations. The collection also holds a publicity leaflet for Ivan Ivantzoff, and his passport from 1919.