Series III: Photographs and Graphics

The photographs and graphic materials series provides documentation of several stages in the lives of Jay Leyda and Si-Lan Chen. It is particularly strong in childhood and family snapshots of each including a small photograph album from each family. There are portraits and snapshots of the pair in the 1930s when they first met. Other highlights in the collection are a series of photoprints by Jack Chen, Si-Lan's brother, taken in China, probably during the mid-40's; an article with photographs in the War Worker (May 1944, Los Angeles) about Si-Lan Chen's dancing; photoprints of the 1964 "Bartelby" production at Oberlin (Leyda wrote the libretto for Aschaffenburg's opera); studio performance and movie production shots of Si-Lan; a snapshot of Luis Bunuel and his sister, Conchita in 1969 at a cottage near Madrid; and a group of graphics and photoprints collected for "Dianyang."