In honor of World Theatre Day, we present fabulous Miss Kitty Lord.
Miss Kitty Lord graced international stages with her singing burlesque acts from 1894 to 1915. She performed in theater programs at the major music halls of London and toured extensively to Paris, Naples, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo—to name a few cities—becoming an international “eccentric star.” The postcards seen here date from her tours to Cairo, Egypt, where she performed at the Théâtre des Nouveautés du Caire (later called the Folies-Murger, 1911 onwards). Most are addressed either to her stage address or her personal residence in the rapidly developing theatre district of Azbakiyya.
Kitty Lord’s postcards offer a unique micro-history of Egypt during this period, and they also act as what we know now as social media. Postcards played a critical role of transmitting “what’s happening” around the world.
At one level, the collection illustrates Kitty’s experiences as a foreign female performing abroad, shedding light on her theatrical audiences in Egypt and her affair with an Egyptian architect. From an art historical perspective, it invites us to explore the belle-époque architecture of Egypt’s urban centers, historical tourism of its ancient and Islamic sites, as well as the imagery of ethnography.
Miss Kitty Lord was a pioneer female performer abroad, creating life on her own term, as you might get a glimpse of her affairs with a few of her admirers from these postcard correspondences. Brave and graceful, Miss Kitty Lord would’ve been a phenomenon if people back then had a smartphone.
