This collection includes an extensive number of original photographic prints (1913 – c. 1951) by leading photographers, such as E.O. Hoppé, August Bert, J.W.Debenham, Gordon Anthony and Lenare. Many images are of Turner, and some are of Larsen, but there are a large number which feature dancers of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes and many English companies and dancers from the 1920s onwards. There is also a range of other material in the form of costume designs, music manuscripts, posters, news cuttings and programmes relating to Harold Turner and Gerd Larsen's careers as ballet dancers. The emphasis is on Turner’s career as a Principal dancer with the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Sadler’s Wells Ballet and The Royal Ballet) and the Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert and Rambert Dance Company).
Costume designs found in this collection include a series of three designs by [Thomas] P. Lloyd for a production of The Bartered Bride (1935) and several unidentified costume designs. The series of music manuscripts includes The Blau (undated) for solo and orchestra by Anthony Collins; an orchestral score of Galop Russe (undated), possibly by Scznetski, and a manuscript of a dance band arrangement of the Cossack Dance (undated). It also contains a printed music score for ballet variations signed by Harold Turner and Rudolf Nureyev (undated).
Photographic series of prints featuring Turner and Larsen, individually or with different dance partners, in a number of ballets with the Vic-Wells Ballet, Ballet Club and other companies (c. 1927 – 1951). In particular, Turner is pictured with Ruth French in the Giselle pas de deux (undated), with Mary Honor in the Bluebird pas de deux (c. 1939) and with June Brae and Pamela May in Checkmate (c. 1937). Other ballets featured include Le Baiser de la fée, Barabau, La Boutique fantasque, Cleopatra, Façade, L’Après-midi d’un faune, Giselle, Job, Le Leçon apprise, Les Matelots, The Quest, Les Patineurs, The Rake's Progress, Les Rendezvous, The Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides, The Three-Cornered Hat and others.
There is an extensive series of original print photographs (many are inscribed to Harold Turner by their subjects) featuring prominent ballet dancers and artists from the 1920s to 1950s. They include Mary Honor, Ailne Phillips, Alexandra Danilova, Alexis Rassine, Alicia Markova, Avril Navarre, Constant Lambert, Diana Gould, Frederick Ashton, Harriet Hoctor, Jeanne Artois, Leila Russell, Louise Browne, Lydia Sokolova, Margaret Dale, Margot Fonteyn, Marie Rambert, Michael Somes, Moira Shearer, Moyra Fraser, Ninette de Valois, Pamela May, Pauline Clayden, Pearl Argyle, Ruth French, Stanislas Idzikowski, Tamara Karsavina, Vera Volkova, Violetta Elvin, Walter Gore, William Chappell and others. There are also several unattributed photographs taken during performances of Le Lac des Cygnes, The Sleeping Beauty and Les Sylphides (Sadler’s Wells Ballet, undated).
It also includes an album of studio photogravures from Studies from the Russian Ballet (1913) by E.O. Hoppé and August Bert: studio portraits of Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky and Adolph Bolm in ballets performed by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes between 1909 - 1913.
A scrapbook contains press cuttings mainly relating to Harold Turner and the Vic-Wells Ballet (November 1935 - June 1941). Illustrated articles relate to performances of ballets in which Harold Turner performed with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, including Le Baiser de la fée, Barabau,Checkmate, The Gods Go A-Begging,Le Rois nu,Perseus,Serenade; also of The Sleeping Princess Gala Performance before Queen Mary at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (02/02/39). There are several items recording his work with the International Ballet, the Arts Theatre Ballet and Ballet Club. It contains press announcements of Turner's marriage to Mary Honor (1938). The scrapbook also contains a watercolour sketch of Harold Turner by Lindsay [first name unidentified] entitled 'Harold Turner in his Studio / Hampstead / Jan 1938'.
Ephemeral material includes a poster for the Association of Operatic Dancing performances at Crane Hall, Liverpool (23-24 October 1931); four programmes including A Christmas Season of Ballet by The Marie Rambert Dancers (1931); two programmes for The Sleeping Beauty by the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House (20 February 1946 and 4 March 1946); also a souvenir programme for Edmund Russo's season for Anna Pavlova (undated).