An archive that preserves and triggers memories
I read with great interest your article about the Carson Brierly Giffin Dance Library in the recent University of Denver Magazine (Winter 2021). I had occasion to use the library back in the days when it was still on the Women’s College campus and I was doing some research on dance in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Soon thereafter, I continued my research in Germany and a librarian there noticed a pamphlet that I had Xeroxed before leaving Denver and he inquired where I found it. He said that the pamphlet was quite rare, as the entire archives of dance in Munich had been bombed and destroyed during WWII, when they lost most of their ephemeral materials on the early 20th century. This research became a small part of an article on Gustav Klimt that I published in The Art Bulletin (March 1992). I also taught a graduate seminar once on “Art About Music and Dance,” and our art history grad students also benefited from [the] collection. I know what a valuable resource it is!
So, thanks again for those memories!
M.E. Warlick
Professor Emerita
School of Art and Art History
