Eleonora Duse - Study Centre Theatre and Drama - Archivio digitale della Fondazione Giorgio Cini Onlus

The archive of Eleonora Duse (Vigevano, 3 October 1858 - Pittsburgh, 21 April 1924) is the largest and most complete collection of documents on the life and art of the great Italian actress. The collection contains various kinds of material: autographs, including letters and scripts, photographs, administrative documents, clothing and memorabilia.
The archive is made up of various donations made between the 1970s and 1980s that gave rise to additional archive collections.

- Sister Mary of St. Mark Collection: donated by Eleonora Duse's niece, Eleonora Ilaria Bullough, Sister Mary of St. Mark, this is the largest and most heterogeneous donation of those that have come to the Fondazione. The rich documentary collection contains a considerable number of letters, scripts, clothes and personal objects. The actress's numerous correspondents included some well-known names of the literature and theatre of the time, such as Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Papini, Grazia Deledda, Ada Negri, Natalia Gontcharova and Yvette Guilbert. The scripts are an irreplaceable source for the study and reconstruction of the actress's performances, most of which are glossed with notes, cuts and actual direction notes by the actress. The scripts include some Shakespearean texts in the Arrigo Boito translation; the Gabriele D'Annunzio's plays Sogno di un mattino di primavera, La Gloria, La città morta, La figlia di Iorio and Francesca da Rimini; some of the most important titles by Henrik Ibsen. An important section of the Sister Mary Collection is that of the clothing from the actress's private wardrobe, designed and made in the early years of the twentieth century by some of the leading stylists of the period, among whom the names of Mariano Fortuny and Jean-Philippe Worth stand out.
- Signorelli Collection: contains materials collected by Olga Signorelli, Duse's friend and first biographer, over long years of work and research. Along with a rich iconographic collection on the actress, there is also a considerable section of correspondence, including some letters to Gabriele D'Annunzio, Giovanni Papini, Emma Garzes and the actors Adolfo De Bosis and Febo Mari.
- Agostini Collection: donated by Pina Agostini in 1965, it contains 130 letters addressed to Lucia and Pietro Casale; of these, 114 were written by Eleonora Duse between 1912 and 1923.
- Carandini Albertini Collection: this came to the Foundation thanks to Elena Carandini Albertini and consists of the correspondence between Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito. The bulk of the letters dates from 1884 to 1890.
- Valdoni Collection: donated by Vera Valdoni with the mediation of Vittorio Cini, it consists of 77 handwritten letters sent by the actress to Olga Ossani Lodi between 1884 and 1922.
- Cervi Collection: donated by Tersilla Cervi, it consists of a core of letters written by the actress to the poet Annunzio Cervi in the years of the First World War.
- Nardi Collection: donated by Piero Nardi, it contains letters from the actress to various correspondents.
- Lee Strasberg Collection: this came to the Foundation thanks to Anne Strasberg and consists of a range of materials collected by Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio in New York and a great fan of the famous Italian actress. It includes handwritten documents, photos, theatre programmes and playbills.