The Huntly Carter Papers

Bulk 1925 to 1938. Around 2,000 items; 14 containers; 10 linear feet.

Huntly Carter (1862-1942) was a British theater and art critic, who wrote numerous articles and books on the Soviet performing arts and on the development of avant-garde theater and cinema.

Acquired as part of the Herbert P. J. Marshall Papers, the collection comprises Carter's research materials, published and unpublished manuscripts on Soviet and European theatre, responses to Carter's questionnaire sent to Soviet theaters regarding their repertoire and new approaches to performance and dramaturgy, as well as substantial correspondence with British, European, and Soviet actors, theater and film directors, cultural officials, publishers, and translators. Correspondents include: Sir John Martin-Harvey, Charles Cochran, Sidney Bernstein, Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Tairov, Alexander Granowsky, Genrietta Pascar, Konstantin Stanislavskii, and Vsevolod Meyerhold. During his travels in Europe and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, Carter assembled a collection of playbills and theatrical broadsides, photographs of original productions in Germany, France, Great Britain, Poland, and the Soviet Union, as well as snapshots of theaters, actors and directors. In addition to the theater and film ephemera, the collection includes photographs of Soviet architecture, scenes of everyday urban life, the celebration of Soviet holidays, and portraits of ordinary people in Siberia and Central Asia.

MSE/MN 5000