Scope and arrangement
The Charles Payne collection documents the performances and activities of the American Ballet Theatre as well as other well-known ballet companies from 1929 to 1983. The collection is arranged alphabetically in three series: Photographs, Promotional Materials, and Designs. The items in this collection were collected by Charles Payne throughout his career at the American Ballet Theatre. The photographs, designs, and mock-ups contained in this collection now serve as an important pictorial history of the company.
Series I, Photographs, predominantly represents the American Ballet Theatre's repertory and a broad range of its dancers and personnel, but also includes a small portion of photographs of other American and European companies such as Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, National Ballet of Canada, and Royal Ballet of England. Photographic formats included are prints, black and white negatives, transparencies, slides, and contact sheets. The photographs were produced by a number of notable 20th century photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Gjon Mili, George Platt Lynes, and Richard Avedon; as well as photographers who specialized in dance photography such as Fred Fehl, Martha Swope, Kenn Duncan, Jack Mitchell, Maurice Seymour, and Bruce Marks.
Series II, Promotional Materials, contains printed matter pertaining to the publicity and promotion of the American Ballet Theatre. This includes souvenir programs, posters, ephemera, and newspaper clippings. Also included are the publication awards which were presented to Charles Payne for the souvenir programs he produced each season of the Ballet Theatre.
Series III comprises designs for publicity and advertising, costumes, and sets and scenery. The advertising and publicity designs include mock-ups, original collages, and artwork that was used in Payne's award-winning publications for the American Ballet Theatre. Additionally, there are both facsimile and original sketches for costumes and sets in a variety of visual media such as ink, pencil, and watercolor.