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harry houdini

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Browse Harry Houdini’s Magical Sprapbooks

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THANKS to the digitisation and Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, we can browse scrapbooks owned by the great Harry Houdini  (1891-1926). The University has had the archives in its possession since 1958. But only now are they on the web, and free to view.

 

houdini posters

 

The scrapbooks are full of adverts, stories, and reviews on Houdini’s twin passions: magic and spiritualism. It’s great to think of Houdini and his peers selecting item for inclusion, then sticking them into place, editing the story of magic and live showbiz in the first two decades of the 20th Century.

Everyone should like collecting and sticking things in books with an artistic flourish. These books create wonderful memories of your life and your view of the world. They reveal what delighted you, what you did and what made you think.

 

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Posted: 16th, February 2014 | In: Books, Celebrities, Flashback | Comment