Hagan, Kataleen Laurette; José B. Rios.
Manuscript score. 245 x 317 mm. [10] 187, [1] pages. Title page, second leaf with coat of arms, list of musical numbers in elaborate black and gold ink with watercolor illumination. Music inscribed completely by hand on Carl Fischer staff paper, with libretto and lyrics typed in black ribbon, ink while titles, stage directions, and section heads are typed in red ribbon ink. The whole bound in flexible leather. Leather worn from corners and edges, with upper and lower portions of spine perished. All edges gilt. Elaborate manuscript score for musical theater, with libretto and lyrics attributed to Kataleen Laurette Hagan, and the musical score to José B. Rios. Despite the highly sophisticated composition of the operetta (if that is what it is--there are no speaking roles), and the clever lyrics, we find no reference either to any production of Romance at the Wheel or to its composer and librettist. It was obviously written for stage rather than for private performance, as the sheer number of cast members and choruses indicate. In any case, we consider this manuscript, with its highly decorated preliminary pages, a valuable artiffact of New York theater culture of the 1920s.
Bonfils, Felix.
Silver albumen photograph on paper. 275 x 215 mm. Signed and titled in plate. Toned to sepia. Edges a bit chipped in places. Crease across lower right portion of image. Number 149 in the photographer's "Souvenirs d'Orient" series. Felix Bonfils (1831-1885) was an active and prolific pioneer of photography in the Middle East, yet details of his life and work remain obscure. "All we know of Bonfils", said photographic historian Beaumont Newhall, "is that he was a genius." Recent information gathered under the direction of Harvard Semitic Museum curator Carney Gavin shows that Bonfils, a French bookbinder and printer, moved to Beirut with his family in the 1860s. His training in photogravure in France prepared him for his career as photographer in the Middle East, where, together with his wife and son, he enterprisingly produced souvenir photos and books for European travelers. The books were all hand-made, each photograph printed from the original glass negative and pasted into place. This print of a single photograph, never mounted, must have been made for inclusion in a bound volume that never reached completion.
