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Items Dancers' accidents

Dancers' accidents

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Library division & collection with this item:

LIBRARY DIVISION
Jerome Robbins Dance Division

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COLLECTION
Prints depicting dance

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SUB-COLLECTION
Theatrical dancers, singly or in pairs

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This Item

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Title
Dancers' accidents
Additional title: Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig, Germany)
Names
Johannot, Tony, 1803-1852 (Artist)
Collection

Prints depicting dance

Theatrical dancers, singly or in pairs

Dates / Origin
Date Issued: 1849 - 1860 (Questionable)
Table of Contents
Mademoiselle Marie im Ballet: "Die Eilandsnymphe"; Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 297 -- Neues Pas der Mademoiselle Marie im "Befreiten Jerusalem"; Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 297 / gezeichnet von Tony Johannot -- Terrible accident at the Volks Garten, Bowery, N.Y. Burning of Josephine Farren while performing on the tightrope.
Library locations
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Shelf locator: *MGZFX Acc 1-2
Topics
Farren, Josephine
Dancing injuries
Genres
Prints
Illustrations
Clippings
Notes
Title devised by cataloger.
For more information on Josephine Farren, see Mary Grace Swift's "Dancers in flames," Dance chronicle, vol. 5, no. 1, 1982, p. 1-10. A version of the print in this collection is reproduced on p. 5.
Acquisition: Gift; Lillian Moore.
Biographical/historical: In a time when stage lighting consisted of open flames fueled by oil or gas, the danger of catching fire and burning to death was a real threat to nineteenth-century ballet dancers. Perhaps the best-known case was that of Emma Livry, 1841-1862, whose brilliant future was tragically cut short when her costume caught fire at the Paris Opéra in 1862. Josephine Farren, the dancer illustrated here, also died of her injuries.
Physical Description
Wood engravings
Extent: 3 prints (2 sheets) : wood engraving, b&w ; 37 x 29 cm. or smaller.
Description
Illustrations from nineteenth-century periodicals, reporting mishaps that befell ballet dancers onstage. In a wood engraving from the German periodical Illustrirte Zeitung, ca. 1849, a dancer called Mademoiselle Marie appears to plunge over the footlights and into the orchestra pit. A more horrific accident is represented in a wood engraving from an American periodical, depicting the tightrope dancer Josephine Farren as her costume catches fire at the Volks Garten theatre in the Bowery, New York, in 1860. The sheet from the Illustrirte Zeitung also contains a print of Mademoiselle Marie in a calmer moment as she dances with a male partner in the ballet Die Eilandsnymphe.
Type of Resource
Still image
Text
Languages
German
English
Identifiers
RLIN/OCLC: 825562923
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b19759944
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 1c214390-ada1-0133-13da-00505686a51c
Rights Statement
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries. Though not required, if you want to credit us as the source, please use the following statement, "From The New York Public Library," and provide a link back to the item on our Digital Collections site. Doing so helps us track how our collection is used and helps justify freely releasing even more content in the future.

Item timeline of events

  • 1803: Creator Born
  • 1849: Issued (Approximate)
  • 1852: Creator Died
  • 2019: Digitized
  • 2025: Found by you!
  • 2026

MLA Format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. "Dancers' accidents" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1849 - 1860. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/10fdd290-ada2-0133-5776-00505686a51c

Chicago/Turabian Format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. "Dancers' accidents" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/10fdd290-ada2-0133-5776-00505686a51c

APA Format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. (1849 - 1860). Dancers' accidents Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/10fdd290-ada2-0133-5776-00505686a51c

Wikipedia Citation

<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/10fdd290-ada2-0133-5776-00505686a51c | title= (still image) Dancers' accidents, (1849 - 1860) |author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=January 28, 2025 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref>

Dancers' accidents