Miss Kitty Lord graced international stages with her singing burlesque acts from
1894 to 1915. She performed in theater programs at the major music halls of
London and toured extensively to Paris, Naples, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo—to
name a few cities—becoming an international “eccentric star.” The postcards
seen here date from her tours to Cairo, Egypt, where she performed at the Théâtre des Nouveautés du Caire
(later called the Folies-Murger, 1911 onwards). Most are addressed either to
her stage address or her personal residence in the rapidly developing theatre
district of Azbakiyya.
Kitty Lord’s postcards offer a
unique micro-history of Egypt during this period. At one level, the collection
illustrates Kitty’s experiences as a foreign female performing abroad, shedding
light on her theatrical audiences in Egypt and her affair with an Egyptian
architect. From an art historical perspective, it invites us to explore the
belle-époque architecture of Egypt’s urban centers, historical tourism of its ancient
and Islamic sites, as well as the imagery of ethnography. This online exhibit explores
these themes as an extended version of its physical counterpart on display at
Harvard Fine Arts Library from Winter 2016 to Spring 2017.
The Kitty Lord Collection is unusual
in that it represents a body of postcards entirely sent to or written by a
single person, complete with almost all of accompanying stamps and dates
provided by both the post and its correspondents. It offers significant views
into this understudied area of Egyptian architecture as well as glimpses of
now-demolished (or heavily altered) historic sites. With this online exhibition
and accompanying bibliography, we aim to inspire others to take a closer look
at Kitty’s life and this rich collection of historical views from Egypt in the
early twentieth century.
Lovers, Audiences, and the Post
Often sent within Cairo to her
residence and theatre of employ, these postcards largely came from her local
admirers, reflecting a dialogue between visiting performers and local
audiences. Although married, Kitty appears to have had some kind of affair with
the most prolific of these postcard writers, M[onsieur Jack] Kouloussy
Bey. His name is likely an improvised Latin-script spelling of Ya‘qūb Khulūsī
Bey. Jack appears as a known Egyptian architect referenced in international
trade journals like Le Béton Armé
up until around WWI. He frequently includes notes that seem to hint at their
romance (i.e. “I come tomorrow, baby” and “I always think of you”). Her other
admirers proved more elusive to locate, signing their cards only as “Alex,” or
“Leon Koffier.” Yet through these material gestures, their postcards to Miss
Kitty give us an impression of theatrical audiences of the period and the
appeal of foreign performers in Cairo to both foreigners and Egyptians alike.
The majority of her postcards are sent and received in Cairo
itself, with a smaller number sent from Qina and Alexandria. Most are written
and sent within the same day. These details reveal a more local use for
postcards, contrasting their current function today as a token souvenir of
distant travel. While we do have a couple international postcards that Kitty
wrote to her mother, relating sites she may enjoy or recognize, for the most
part, we see a use far more akin to that of a modern text message. Users
received messages often within a day or two, which facilitated the exchange of
frequent love notes.
--Gwendolyn Collaço, curator
January 2017
