No one would expect such a collection to be here.
I am Beth Kilmarx. I am the curator of rare books and special collections at the Binghamton University libraries.
And, Tilly Losch is one of the archival collections that I've been working with . . .
And, it was just by luck that we found the whole connection was between her and Downton Abbey, last spring.
Tilly Losch had been married to the 6th Earl of Carnarvon, the owner of Highclere Castle, which is known as Downton Abbey.
Tilly was born in Vienna in 1903 and was a ballet dancer.
She was a dancer for at least 10 years before she ah, made her debut.
And, being in the theatre world, she caught the eyes of you know, various theatre directors and producers.
She met Max Reinhardt in Vienna.
He had worked with her as a dancer and had used her as an actress in his famous "Miracle" play.
Max Reinhardt's materials came here in the early 70s and then shortly before her death, she put in her will . . .
that her collections of manuscripts and photographs and artworks would also come to special collections . . .
because of the Max Reinhardt Collection.
We have materials, basically from the late 1930s, up until her death.
We have correspondence letters.
We have found many instances that truly parallel Downton Abbey and Highclere Castle.
During the war, valets and butlers left the estate to go to fight the war and so you have that letter from Tilly . . .
where she asks Porchey, you know, "What are you going to do without your manservant?"
You also see um, with the housekeeper Mrs. Hughes.
She suffers cancer and has to go to London, ah, for treatment.
Um, Highclere Castle's housekeeper, Mrs. Sanderson, um, suffered from Hodgkin's Disease . . .
And, had to go to London for treatment.
During the wars, slum children were evacuated to Highclere Castle.
And, in Downton Abbey, you see um, the castle, turned into a hospital.
So, the more we delve into the collections, the more that we see um, the high number of coincidences . . .
between actual life and the show.
The correspondence also shows that she knew everybody in Hollywood.
There wasn't a famous person that Tilly didn't know.
And, correspondence that we don't have from that person, starting with Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando . . .
All the way through the alphabet, to um, Orson Welles.
I mean the wealth of old Hollywood, that's in the correspondence is just another aspect to study that people can look at.
Now, in addition to the correspondence in the collection, we have photographs.
Photographs taken of her by famous photographers, such as Cecil Beaton.
We have also, over 350 paintings of hers in the collection.
Tilly had a very traumatic divorce from her first husband, Edward James.
And, it was after the divorce that she suffered from severe clinical depression and she spent time in a sanitarium.
And, that is where she picked up painting.
I would say that 90 percent of the paintings we have of her in Binghamton, do represent her life.
At first when we had the collection, um, it's not well used . . .
But, just the wealth of information and research that's available at Binghamton University today . . .
is, is, is . . . just waiting to be discovered.