Natalie Paley photograph albums, photographs, and correspondence

Three photograph albums documenting vacations and activities in Europe and southern California and Connecticut, loose photographic prints, and correspondence of Natalie Paley, circa 1930-1966

Two albums contain photographs of locations in Europe document the marriage of Paley with Lucien-Camille Lelong as well as their circle of friends, 1930-1932. Friends include actress Lady Iya Abdy (formerly Iya De Gay) and fashion model Liliane de Faucigny-Lucinge, also known as Baba de Lucinge, as well as art patrons Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles and Arthur Anne Marie Charles, Vicomte de Noailles. One of the European albums also documents her relationship with Russian dancer Serge Lifar, and includes images from a vacation by Paley, Lelong, and Lifar in Venice, Italy, as well as two portrait drawings of Paley by stage designer Oliver Messel, 1931. The other album includes images of a vacation to Biarritz, France, and a skiing vacation. The European albums also include photographic prints and halftone images from society magazines

A series of loose photographic prints by Studio Dorvyne documents a masquerade ball hosted by Comte Étienne de Beaumont and his wife, Comtesse Edith de Beaumont, during the summer of 1931, with portraits of individuals in costume that include the Beaumonts, Liliane de Faucigny-Lucinge, Nimet Eloui Bey, Coco Chanel, Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, Serge Lifar, Natalie Paley, Howard Sturges, and Julian West, as well as Cole Porter and his wife, Linda Lee Thomas Porter

An album of locations in Hollywood, California and Connecticut documents the activities of Paley and her friends, 1935-1938. The album includes images from the set of the movie, Sylvia Scarlett (1935), in which she had a role, and includes images of Paley, actors Brian Aherne, Cary Grant, Edmund Gwenn, and Katharine Hepburn, as well as director George Cukor and producer Pandro S. Berman. Images of her friends in informal settings, probably parties hosted by Cukor, include Cukor, his parents Victor F. Cukor and Helen Gross Cukor, Hepburn, Zoë Akins, Freddie Bartholomew, Cecil Beaton, Ethel B. Borden, Ina Claire, Constance Collier, Gary Cooper, Lily Damita, Liev de Maigret, Marlene Dietrich, Tom Douglas, Peggy Fears, Winsor French, Clark Gable and his wife (Ria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham Gable), John Gilbert, Frances Howard Goldwin, William Haines, Rowland Leigh, Louis Mason, Oliver Messel, Carmel Myers, David Niven, Merle Oberon, Louella Parsons, Margaret Perry, Basil Rathbone, Dolores del Río, Ruth Selwyn, James Shields, Hugh Walpole, Victor William (Peter) Watson, Clifton Webb, and Julian West. There is a series of images of John Chapman Wilson, the second husband of Paley, and the business manager and confidant of Noel Coward, at the Fayreways estate on Sasco Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut, circa 1937-1938

Loose photographic prints include portraits of Serge Lifar by Studio Lipnitzki, Paris, France, and portraits of Natalie Paley and Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge Baba d'Erlanger, by Foto Giacomelli, Venice, Italy, 1931, as well as promotional photographic prints from movies that include images of Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer in Break of Hearts (1935), and Hepburn and Brian Aherne for Sylvia Scarlett (1935).

Correspondence in the collection consists of a letter to Paley from an unidentified correspondent in French, May 194?; a condolence letter from Boris Kochno on the death of her husband, November 1961; and a letter from Noel Coward, April 17, 1966