| The Baron Missakian Collection | |||
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The Baron Missakian Collection is in the Special Collections Department http://www.umkc.edu/lib/spec-col/index.html of Miller Nichols Library http://www.umkc.edu/lib/index.html at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. The collection contains over 350 photographic portraits of great beauty and creativity.
Baron ("Mister") Missakian, a Turkish immigrant of Armenian descent, immigrated as a young man with his parents to America. During army service in World War I he often sang in Liberty Bond campaigns. After the war, he managed a Chicago portrait studio, later moving to Kansas City. Known as a "creative photographer," Missakian captured the images of Kansas City's resident and visiting performers during the Jazz Age, a time when Kansas City was one of the most dynamic arts centers in America. His camera documented the worlds of classical music and dance, but also the new popular entertainments, vaudeville and the movies. By 1926 he was well-established and garnered awards for his studio portraits. Among those photographed were Missakian's friend and neighbor Walt Disney, Milton Berle during his Kansas City visits, Count Ilya Tolstoy, and Sir Carl Busch, founder of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and for fifty years Kansas City's most noted musician. The photograph shown here is a studio portrait of the very lithe dancer Helen Burwell, ca. 1927, who taught dance at the Horner Institute in Kansas City and later became dance director at the Kansas City Conservatory. Acknowledgments: The University of Missouri-Kansas City University Libraries are grateful for the assistance with this web project provided by the University of Missouri-Library Systems Office, especially by Kurt Kopp, Assistant Director, Electronic Resources, Library Systems Office, and George Rickerson, UM Assistant Vice President for Library Systems and Executive Director, MOBIUS Consortium. Contact Send us your comments and questions on this collection: Contact the University of Missouri – Kansas City Libraries. Brief Collection Info Additional information Search Multiple Collections Select a group of collections to search simultaneously. Search this collection together with others. |
