Showing 1 results

This archive contains the personal papers of the Austrian-British artist and designer Margarete Berger-Hamerschlag. Just over half the collection consists of her artwork, which includes designs and sketches for costumes for theatre or dance performances or as fashion wear; handmade picture books and illustrated poetry books; sketches and pastel drawings of theatre scenes sketched either during performances or from memory; and portraits and illustrations for her own and other writers' stories. Notable theatre costumes include designs for the Schauspielhaus in Vienna in 1928; the Teatro degli Indipendenti in Rome in 1928 and 1930; the pioneer of modern Israeli dance, Yardena Cohen in 1935; Italian revue theatre in 1954; Austrian choreographer Gisa Geert in 1954; and the Austrian exile puppeteer Bruno Tublin. There are also a number of fashion designs for the actor Elisabeth Bergner. In addition to the artwork, there are over two boxes of typescripts and manuscripts of MBH's writing, most of which remained unpublished. This includes her children's stories such as 'The Bungalow at Boxhill' and 'The Lost Tune', stories incorporating elements of MBH's autobiography, and a large number of poems reflecting on her experiences in Palestine in the 1930s and her life in the UK after 1936. There is also a set of paintings depicting key moments of MBH's childhood and an autobiographical text covering the period 1902-1918. As well as her artwork and literary writing, there are 14 folders of correspondence, the majority of which is that exchanged by MBH and her husband, Josef Berger, during the numerous periods when they were separated, including his internment as an enemy alien in 1940. There are also some letters to and from other members of the Berger family and various friends and officials, particularly concerning Berger's release from internment. The archive also contains a small number of official documents and fragments of MBH's diaristic writing.