Iraida Viacheslavovna Barry Papers, 1820s-1970s

Summary Information

Abstract

The papers are composed of correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, documents, journals, printed material and photographs. They document the life and work of Iraida Barry (1899-1980), Istanbul-based Russian émigré sculptor, and of her father, Viacheslav Kedrin (1869-1951).

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in six series.

• Series I: Correspondence with individuals
• Series II: Family Correspondence
• Subseries 1: Iraida Barry to Viacheslav Nikonorovich Kedrin (father) and Maria Mikhailovna Kedrina (stepmother)
• Subseries 2: Viacheslav Nikonorovich Kedrin (father) to Iraida Barry
• Subseries 3: Maria Mikhailovna Kedrina (stepmother) to Iraida Barry
• Subseries 4: Iraida (Kedrina) Barry to Elizaveta Vasilievna Muraviova (mother)
• Subseries 5: Elizaveta Vasilievna Muraviova (mother) to Iraida Barry
• Series III: Writings by Iraida Barry
• Series IV: Writings by Viacheslav Nikonorovich Kedrin
• Series V. Writings by others
• Series VI. Photographs

Description

Scope and Content

The bulk of the collection consists of handwritten correspondence and manuscripts. The correspondence predominantly is letters addressed to Iraida Barry from friends, family and acquaintances. Major family correspondences (Barry with her mother, father and stepmother) were arranged in a separate series. Of the non-family correspondence, three individuals - Marcel Carga, Alexei Tsytovich and Dmitrii Zviagintsov - account for nearly half.

A large part of the collection consists of manuscripts and notebooks written by Iraida Barry and her father Viacheslav Kedrin. Barry's writings include hand-corrected typescripts of memoirs, school notebooks, diaries and compositions. Kedrin's writings are primarily handwritten journals and notebooks of poetry and essays. There are about twice as many documents by Kedrin as there are by Barry herself. Barry prepared two indexes of her father's notebooks in which she marked certain passages as particularly noteworthy.

For preservation purposes, the original manuscripts have been placed in acid-free paper and stored in new archival boxes. Photographs have been placed in plastic protectors and are collected at the end.

The materials in this collection document the personal and professional life of Iraida Barry and Viacheslav Kedrin. They are extremely valuable resources for research on the emigre community in interwar Istanbul and the artistic life of the early Turkish Republic.

• Series I: Correspondence with individuals

• Series II: Family Correspondence

• Series III: Writings by Iraida Barry

• Series IV: Writings by Viacheslav Nikonorovich Kedrin

• Series V. Writings by others

• Series VI. Photographs

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located on-site.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Iraida Viacheslavovna Barry Papers; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Papers: Source of acquisition--I.V. Barry. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1956.

Papers: Source of acquisition--I.V. Barry. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1959.

Papers: Source of acquisition--I.V. Barry. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1962.

Papers: Source of acquisition--I.V. Barry. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1965.

Papers: Source of acquisition--I.V. Barry. Method of acquisition--1966; Date of acquisition--1966.

Papers: Source of acquisition--A.I. Perova. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1964.

Papers: Source of acquisition--Admiral Peltier. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1964.

Papers: Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1968.

Papers: Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1975.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Papers Accessioned 1956.

Papers Accessioned 1959.

Papers Accessioned 1962.

Papers Accessioned 1965.

Papers Accessioned 1966.

Papers Accessioned 1964.

Papers Accessioned 1964.

Papers Accessioned 1968.

Papers Accessioned 1975.

Papers processed 1978.

Papers re-processed by Marlow Davis (GSAS), 2017.

Finding aid written by Marlow Davis (GSAS), 2017.

Revision Description

2017-05-20 File created.

2017-05-30 XML document instance created by Catherine C. Ricciardi

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical sketch

Iraida Viacheslavovna Barry (nee Kedrina), born on September 10, 1899, in Sevastopol, Crimea, was a sculptor, writer and member of the Russian emigre community in Istanbul and Paris. From an aristocratic family with ties to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Iraida Barry expected to study sculpture at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Petrograd before the outset of the 1917 Russian Revolution. After Bolshevik purges in Sevastopol claimed the lives of her godfather and a young suitor, she moved to Odessa in 1918 and then to Constantinople in 1919. In 1920-23, she married local dentist Albert Barry, gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and became one of the first three female students at Istanbul's Mimar Sinan State Academy of Fine Arts. Elizabeth's physical disabilities motivated several trips to France and Switzerland to consult specialists during the 1930s, a period during which Iraida Barry studied and exhibited alongside leading European sculptors.

Barry exhibited her work in Paris at the 1930 Salon d'Automne, at the Salon des Independents in 1931 and 1935, and held solo exhibitions there in 1931 and 1939. Hailed as a leading modern artist of the newly-formed Turkish Republic, Barry's work was featured at the opening of the first Turkish Museum of Painting and Sculpture at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. This museum continues to hold several of Barry's sculptures, as do galleries and private collections in Turkey and around the world.

In 1951, Barry completed Silver Ringlet, a memoir of 1916-20 that comprises the first chapter of her unedited, semi-fictionalized, partially epistolary autobiographical collection The Shattered Mirror. In addition to these manuscripts, Barry donated her correspondence, diaries and drafts, family heirlooms, and the writings of her parents to the Russian Archive (now the Bakhmeteff) at Columbia University over a period from the late 1950s into the 1970s.

Iraida Barry died in Istanbul in 1980.