Underwood & Underwood ~ Olympic champion swimmer Martha Norelius in a dance pose, May 1925 | src worthpointReverse of the press photograph above, with credit stamps and snippet
Irene Castle pictured here with one of her pups in a 1915 photo by Underwood & Underwood | Cornell fashion coll. on IG
Ballroom dancer. Silent film star. Fashion designer. Animal rights advocate. Irene Castle wore many hats – and donned countless dazzling costumes – as a celebrity during the early twentieth century.
Irene Castle as Patria Channing in the serial Patria (1917). Only episodes 1 to 4, & 10 survive at the MoMA
Irene Castle was known for playing strong and stylish female leads such as the title character in the serial “Patria,” a swashbuckling, gun-toting munitions factory heiress who helps thwart a foreign invasion. Off-screen, Castle was also a pioneering entrepreneur who designed many of her own costumes and skillfully cultivated her image to become a household brand […]
“She was a very astute businesswoman,” Green said. “She knew the value of her name as a brand and so she branded all of her fashion innovations.” In 1917, Castle collaborated with Corticelli Silk Mills to develop “Patria”-themed fabrics, and started her own clothing line, Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions, in 1923. She also applied her moniker to everything from her “Castle Bob” haircut in 1913 that sparked a trend in the ’20s to the “Castle Band” of jewelry around her forehead that later resurfaced in hippie fashions of the ’60s, according to Green. / quoted from Cornell news
Silent film actress, dancer, and fashion icon Irene Castle, from the Irene Castle Photographs and Papers Coll. | src Cornell news
Nearly a mile straight down and only a step–from Glacier Point, Yosemite valley, ca. 1902 [detail]Nearly a mile straight down and only a step–from Glacier Point (N.W.) across valley to Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, Cal.,ca. 1902. Underwood & Underwood. Half stereo card.
Original title: Nearly a mile straight down and only a step–from Glacier Point (N.W.) across valley to Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, Cal. [Description: Woman standing on cliff overlooking deep valley.]. Underwood & Underwood, publishers, New York, ca. 1902. Digital file from original photo : photographic print on stereo card : stereograph. [scanned half stereo] | src Library of Congress
Underwood & Underwood :: Woman standing on cliff overlooking deep valley, 1900-1910B&W film copy negative from original stereo card | src Library of CongressView of woman standing on an overhanging rock at Glacier Point with Yosemite Falls seen in the distance. | src ALMA repository
Dancer Frieda Berkoff during a leap in the air. Underwood & Underwood. 1920s | src catawikiDancers Louis and Frieda Berkoff during a leap in the air. Underwood & Underwood. 1920s | src catawikiDancers Louis and Frieda Berkoff during a leap in the air. Underwood & Underwood. 1920s | src catawiki
Press Agency / Newspaper Stamp on the reverse reads: S/644A309 By Underwood and Underwood. / Louise and Frieda Berkoff. Here’s action: How many can do this? / For once in his life “Old Man Gravity”, the well known friend of Isaac Newton, came out second best when Louis and Frieda Berkoff prectised these spectacular flying “steps” of a new Russian dance on the lawn of the Carthay Circle, a Los Angeles suburb. Photo shows: brother and sister “Up in the air”. An exclusive Underwood photograph. Watch your credit line
“The idea of Pan inspires the Greek dancer with a charming variety of interpretations of a lyrical, as well as of a sprightly and mischievous, character.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Möller’, 1918. Page 110. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“An adaptation of the classic idea of Pan — three manifestations emphasizing the gay and mischievous attributes of that minor deity of the Arcadian woodland.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Möller’, 1918. Page 28. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“All true physical expression has its generative centre in the region of the heart, the same as the emotions which actuate it. Movements flowing from any other source are aesthetically futile.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 96. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Both of these Bacchante figures exhibit original interpretations in which beauty of line is sustained in connection with appropriate gestures and facial expression.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 81. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Bacchante. Showing the moment of lustful anticipation of delight in the intoxicating product of the fruit — as though hardly to be restrained from seizing and devouring at once.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 102. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Woodland interpretation. The ocean-born Aphrodite being adorned by Goddesses of the Seasons for her first appearance among her peers on Olympus.” Helen Moller and Curtis Dunham :: ‘Dancing with Helen Moller; her own statement of her philosophy and practice and teaching formed upon the classic Greek model, and adapted to meet the aesthetic and hygienic needs of to-day’, 1918. Page 112. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Many of the photographs reproduced in this book were taken by the author herself. For the privilege of reproducing other fine examples of the photographer’s art, she desires to express her grateful acknowledgments to Moody, to Maurice Goldberg, to Charles Albin and to Underwood and Underwood; also to Arnold Genthe for the plate [lost plate] on Page 36; and to Jeremiah Crowley for his admirable arrangement of the entire series of illustrative art plates. [quoted from source]
“The race, adapted from the classic Greek games, is useful in dance interpretations combining grace and swiftness of movement. The silhouettes compare fantastic with natural grace of movement.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 106. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Drigo’s Serenade — showing how modem music of this character inspires the creation of dance movements and figures adapted from the purest Greek models. The beginning of the interpretation is shown in the small plate.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 74. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“A playful Spring movement — flowers and ribbons, and lightness of movement which seems almost to defy the force of gravitation. The small Tanagra figures suggest the same spirit.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 42. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Here the dancer, erect and recumbent, realizes in living movement the classic sculptor’s sense of the aesthetic value of simple draperies.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 48. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“The ocean beach, upon which the surf rolls rhythmically, or is broken upon half submerged rocks, incites to the most open free and vital dancing expression.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 86. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Reacting to the breath of Spring — the most compelling of all impulses to dance, and provocative of the most joyous physical expression.” Helen Möller and Curtis Dunham :: From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller; her own statement of her philosophy and practice and teaching formed upon the classic Greek model, and adapted to meet the aesthetic and hygienic needs of to-day’, 1918. Page 88. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Many of the photographs reproduced in this book were taken by the author herself. For the privilege of reproducing other fine examples of the photographer’s art, she desires to express her grateful acknowledgments to Moody, to Maurice Goldberg, to Charles Albin and to Underwood and Underwood; also to Arnold Genthe for the plate [lost plate] on Page 36; and to Jeremiah Crowley for his admirable arrangement of the entire series of illustrative art plates. [quoted from source]
“Votive incense, as from a novice to the Priestess of the Temple — an attitude of graceful humility combined with pride in serving.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 62. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Expressing wistful expectation — the hands in an upward receptive gesture and the countenance as of hope for some yearned-for gift from above.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 22. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Atalanta. Depicting the classical moment of the most intense physical and mental concentration upon two opposing motives — to win the race, yet pause to seize the prize.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 24. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Example of a very young dancer unconsciously coordinating movements of arms and torso with remarkably true and forceful expression of countenance.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 38. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive “Children are quick to feel the impulse to rise upon the ball of the foot even when that limb is sustaining the body’s entire weight — one of the principal requisites of Greek dancing.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 32. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive“Representing joyous abandonment to an impulse of Nature’s gently persuasive mood — as of floating forward borne upon a Summer breeze.” From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller’, 1918. Page 90. University of California Libraries. | src internet archiveArms outstretched, and raised together, in movements which avoid unaesthetic angles, even in the energetic action shown on the left. The open, raised bust in the large figure illustrates the hygienic value of adhering to the heart centre of all true physical expression.” Helen Moller and Curtis Dunham :: From ‘Dancing with Helen Moller; her own statement of her philosophy and practice and teaching formed upon the classic Greek model, and adapted to meet the aesthetic and hygienic needs of to-day’, 1918. Page 92. University of California Libraries. | src internet archive
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Many of the photographs reproduced in this book were taken by the author herself. For the privilege of reproducing other fine examples of the photographer’s art, she desires to express her grateful acknowledgments to Moody, to Maurice Goldberg, to Charles Albin and to Underwood and Underwood; also to Arnold Genthe for the plate [lost plate] on Page 36; and to Jeremiah Crowley for his admirable arrangement of the entire series of illustrative art plates. [quoted from source]
Halloween Girl and Her Pumpkin: A young girl in the mouth of a cut out pumpkin on Halloween, mid to late 1920s. (Photo by Underwood Archives) | src Getty Images
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