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Creator
De Mille, Agnes
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 37
Physical description
1696 folders in 49 boxes
Language
English
Preferred Citation

de Mille, Agnes, 1905-Collection, (S) *MGZMD 37, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The Agnes de Mille Collection primarily documents the professional life of Agnes de Mille in the period from the 1940's to the 1980's. The Collection contains over 3,700 items of correspondence to and from other dancers, choreographers, artists, and writers, as well as other personal and professional friends. However, very few of the letters in the latter category are of an entirely personal nature. As de Mille kept a carbon copy of most of her typed letters, many of the files are a complete sequence of letters to and from the correspondent. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent in folders which are in turn arranged chronologically.

Biographical/historical information

Agnes George de Mille, dancer, choreographer, writer and spokesperson for the arts, was born September 18, 1905 in New York. She was the daughter of playwright William Churchill de Mille (1879?-1955) and Anna George de Mille (1878-1947), who was in turn the daughter of writer and single-tax advocate, Henry George (1839-1897). Agnes' uncle was the film producer/director, Cecil B. de Mille (1881-1959). She had a younger sister, Margaret (1908-1978).

In 1914, the de Milles moved to Hollywood where William was joining forces with Cecil in the motion picture industry. Agnes attended the Hollywood School for Girls, graduating in 1922, and went on to graduate from University of California in 1926 with a degree in English. William and Anna separated that year, being divorced in 1927, and Agnes spent that summer after graduating traveling in western Europe with her mother and sister. William married Clara Beranger, a colleague in the movie industry, in 1928 and lived with her in California for the remainder of his life.

Agnes' formal dance training did not begin until early adolescence in California with Theodore Kosloff. She did some performing in college shows although she did not train continuously during her college years. Soon after graduating, she began to give solo recitals and later with Warren Leonard in her own works. Her mother helped her produce these and accompanied her to concerts in various cities in the United States and in Europe. During this period, she settled once again in New York, at first living with her mother and sister, and then on her own.

Agnes moved to England in 1932 where she continued her dance training in ballet with Marie Rambert. She performed in her own work and those of her peers such as Antony Tudor under the auspices of Rambert.

Upon her permanent return to New York ca. 1939, she met Walter Prude (1909-) through Martha Graham who was under Prude's management. Agnes and Walter were married on June 14, 1943, in Hobbs, New Mexico during the time when Prude was in military service. The two were separated-except for infrequent visitsdue to the war until 1945. Their son, Jonathan de Mille Prude, was born in 1946.

It was in this time in the early 1940's that de Mille's work as a choreographer began to be recognized in the United States. Her ballet “Rodeo” in 1942, created for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, brought her immediate acclaim and popularity as did her choreography for the Broadway show “Oklahoma!” the following year. She worked steadily for the next two decades both on Broadway and in the ballet, creating over a dozen works in each field. She had a long-enduring relationship with Ballet Theatre (American Ballet Theatre) and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, for whom she created many of her ballets.

In 1953 she formed the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre (Heritage Dance Theatre), which functioned most actively in 1953-1954 and 1973-1975. She strove to represent in its repertoire indigenious American dance forms by native choreographers and composers as well as folk forms.

On the eve of a major New York performance of her company in her lecture/performance of “Conversations About the Dance,” she suffered a serious cerebral hemorrhage. From the day of the stroke, May 15, 1975, onward, she has remained partially paralyzed on the right side of her body although she recovered from some of the other initial losses of her faculties. On November 9, 1977, she went on stage to realize the performance of “Conversations About the Dance,” and resumed an active, if limited, life in dance.

Agnes de Mille has long been a dominant figure in dance and the arts-as a creator as well as a spokesperson and writer. Before and since her appointment as a founding member of the National Council for the Arts in 1965, she took the cause of dance and the arts to millions of readers and viewers, hundreds of organizations and political conventions. She continues to do so.

In 1980, Agnes de Mille received the Kennedy Center Award - the highest nonmilitary award in the United States.

Scope and arrangement

The Agnes de Mille Collection primarily documents the professional life of Agnes de Mille in the period from the 1940's to the 1980's. The Collection contains over 3,700 items of correspondence to and from other dancers, choreographers, artists, and writers, as well as other personal and professional friends. However, very few of the letters in the latter category are of an entirely personal nature. As de Mille kept a carbon copy of most of her typed letters, many of the files are a complete sequence of letters to and from the correspondent. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent in folders which are in turn arranged chronologically.|||Substantial series of letters are to be found with Ted Weeks and Atlantic Monthly Press, her editor and publisher respectively, Mortimer Becker, her legal counsel, writers Catherine Drinker Bowen, Walter and Jean Kerr, Senator Jacob Javits, Marie Rambert, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Rebecca West, Robert Lindgren and the North Carolina School of the Arts, her mother, father, and her son. Files with fewer items but of interest include those of Aaron Copland, Martha Graham (also in Anna George de Mille and Walter Prude correspondence series), Alan Hovhaness, Lincoln Kirstein, Bella Lewitzky, José Limón, Frederick Loewe, Bill Schuman, Sybil Shearer, Oliver Smith, Benjamin Britten, Cecil B. de Mille, Morton Gould, Carmelita Maracci, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Rubenstein, Richard Rodgers, Lorin Maazel, and The White House.|||The section of letters from her father, William de Mille, to her mother, Anna George de Mille of 249 items, covers the years 1901-1943 but is concentrated in those years prior to 1927. These in part chronicle the years of Hollywood in the 1910's when William preceded his family in moving there. Authentication of Agnes de Mille's birth date is also to be found in this section in a letter in September 1910 referring to her fifth birthday.|||The series between de Mille and her husband, Walter Prude, of over 400 items in the years 1942-1978, predominantly comprises letters written in the 1940's during World War II when they were apart. These letters are closed to the public until the earlier to occur of the death of both de Mille and Prude or the year 2004.|||Miscellaneous correspondence includes several items of note such as a letter from President Grover Cleveland to Henry George and several items to and from George Bernard Shaw.|||The writings of de Mille represent the second largest section of the collection. They cover her early diaries and writings as a school girl and college student to those written throughout her professional career documenting her importance as a national spokesperson and writer for the arts and dance. Six of her books are to be found in manuscript form catalogued separately (see separation list).|||Of her choreographic notes, three works are extensively recorded and noteworthy: American Suite (1933-1934), Three Virgins and A Devil (1941), and Rodeo (1942).|||The records of the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre (1953-1978) are principally financial and of a business rather than artistic nature.|||Certain non-manuscript materials received with the original purchase have been removed from the Agnes de Mille Collection. All newspaper and magazine articles, programs, posters, photographs, three-dimensional objects, audio tapes, and art works have been dispersed throughout the Dance Collection. A separation list, located at the end of the folder list, indicates the nature and disposition of these items.|||The following abbreviations are used in the folder list:

  • AdM: Agnes de Mille
  • AGdM: Anna George de Mille
  • WdM: William de Mille
  • WP: Walter Prude

An earlier gift made by Agnes de Mille to the Dance Collection, which covers some of the same years and correspondents and works, may be used in conjunction with or to augment this collection. Written permission from Agnes de Mille is required to use the collection.|||Material is in English with some German.

The Agnes de Mille collection is arranged in nine series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchase, 1984. Agnes de Mille. Received: 1984.

Processing information

Processed by Diane Coburn Brüning.

Separated material

The following material was received with the original purchase but has been separated from the manuscript collection. The current location of the material (as of February 1985) is indicated. All materials have remained in the possession of the Dance Collection.

  • Art works
    • Engravings by Thomas Piroli, 9 items including title page - Location: for print cataloging
    • Fanny Elssler colored lithograph in “Shadow Dance” by N. Currier, 1 item - Location: for print cataloging
  • Audiotapes
    • 4 tape cassettes of correspondence dictated by de Mille and miscellaneous conversations - Location: *MGZTC 3-744; *MGZTC 3-745; *MGZTC 3-746; *MGZTC 3-747
  • Book manuscripts - Location: Basement
    • America Dances - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4264
    • And Promenade Home - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4265
    • Dance to the Piper - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4268
    • Lizzie Borden: Dance of Death - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4266
    • Reprieve - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4262
    • Where the Wings Grow - Location: *MGZMB-Res 84-4263
  • Clippings and magazine articles (1 box) - Location: Clipping file, *MGZR
  • Photographs (2½ boxes) - Location: for photograph files
  • Posters - Location: poster drawers
  • Programs (½ box) - Location: for program file, *MGZB de Mille, etc.
  • Three-dimensional objects - Location: four boxes above the 3-D cabinets
    • American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society Fellow, scroll, 1982
    • Arts Hall of Fame, booklet, 1974
    • Birmingham, key to city
    • Birmingham Centennial coins, 1971
    • Birmingham Festival of Arts Hall of Fame, plaque, 1974
    • City of New York Certificate of Appreciation, 1980
    • Dance Educators of America, 1950 Award, plaque
    • Dartmouth College Honorary Doctorate, scroll and citation, 1984
    • Duke University Honorary Doctorate, diploma, citation, program, 1975
    • Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence, plaque, 1984
    • International Society of Performing Arts Administrators Award, plaque, 1977
    • Newspaper Guild of New York, Page One Award, printing block, 1944
    • North Carolina School of the Arts, Honorary Doctorate, medallion 1980
    • Professional Dancers Society, plaque, 1984
    • United States National Ballroom Championships, citation, 1981
    • University of California, achievement award, plaque, 1953
    • William de Mille's Columbia University athletic belt (metal)
    • Women's Committee of Washington Performing Arts Society, plaque
    • Women's Division, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Spirit of Achievement Award, plaque, 1958

Related Material

Collection guide available at Dance Division reference desk or on Internet

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Access restrictions

Walter Prude and Agnes de Mille correspondence, boxes 4 - 7, until the earlier to occur of the death of both de Mille and Prude or the year 2004.