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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 305-305.4

Jănis Muncis papers

Overview

Papers of Latvian set designer Jănis Muncis.

Dates

  • Creation: 1925-1926

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

2 linear feet (1 box, 3 volumes, and oversized items)

Contains 10 set designs by Muncis in watercolor and ink, including 6 designs painted on board for the 1925-1926 season at the Dailes Theatre, Riga, Latvia; typescript manuscripts with revisions of his plays: In the Shadow of Death, and The Shooting Star; notes; sketches; photographs; correspondence; and scrapbooks of photos and clippings.

Biographical / Historical

Muncis was a Latvian set designer who emigrated to Hollywood, California, in the late 1920s. Muncis returned to Latvia for the duration of World War II. His designs won the Grand Prix in the theatre section of the Decorative Arts Exposition, Paris, 1925.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. I. pfMS Thr 305: Designs for the Dailes Theatre
  2. II. pfMS Thr 305.1: Set designs
  3. III. bMS Thr 305.2: Papers
  4. ___A. Compositions
  5. ___B. Letters from Janis Muncis
  6. ___C. Letters to Janis Muncis.
  7. ___D. Letters and compositions by others
  8. IV. fMS Thr 305.3-pfMS Thr 305.4: Scrapbooks

Physical Location

pf, f, b, pfd

Immediate Source of Acquisition

*72M-92. Presented by Professor Albert H. Gilmer, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania; received: 1947 August 19.

*73M-87-88. Gift of Mrs.Zuzanna Muncis, 1155 North Tamarind Avenue, Hollywood, California 90038; received: 1973 December 5.

Title
Muncis, Jănis, 1886-1955. Jănis Muncis papers, 1925-1926: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00777

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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