Allanah Harper
Papers, 1904-1992 (1931-1993) 5 boxes (2.10 linear feet) Acquisition: Purchase, 1995 (Reg. No. 13364)
Access: Open for research
Processed by: Mary Alice Harper, 1998, Laura Gottesman, 1999
RLIN Record ID: Table of Contents
Scope and Contents
Folder List
Index of Correspondents Biographical Sketch Allanah Harper was born in Brighton, England on the 6th of November, 1904. Her father was a highly successful engineering contractor who served as a consultant for the design of the first Aswan Dam in Egypt, and who built the first railway through the Andes in South America. Harper grew up in a privileged household and, due to her father's work, traveled extensively as a child. Destinations included Italy, France, Spain, Egypt, South Africa, and even China where she served as bridesmaid in the wedding of one of her mother's friends. As a child she attended school at Miss Wolf's in London and Miss Douglas' at Queen's Gate, and later studied in France. Her education was also enhanced and certainly influenced by her father who had a great love of poetry. As a young woman in London Harper partook in a rather reckless and carefree lifestyle. She is credited, along with the Jungman sisters, with inventing the "treasure hunt," a rather elaborate game which involved tearing about London in search of items that were dangerously hard to obtain, such as the spectacles of the Archbishop of Canterbury. She was a leading figure in the London social scene of bright, young, and beautiful figures. Her circle of friends included the photographer Cecil Beaton, Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell, and Brian Howard. | |
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