Research for the documentary Ida Rolf – Mother of Fascia led to archives on both sides of the Atlantic. Some of what turned up there belongs on the public record, so it lives here, free to read and to check.
Each paper record appears as a scan beside a transcription. Pictures kept by her family, and places tied to her life, appear as photographs. Below them follows what a researcher needs to find the original and cite it. The page grows as permissions arrive.
Typed entries appear in typewriter type, printed text in roman. Handwriting shows in italics, and square brackets hold [editorial remarks].
Chapter I · Around 1900
Childhood
One painting survives from her earliest years, and her family still keeps it.
Undated
Portrait of Ida as a child
Signature
[lower right, in paint] I. Rolf
[The capital I reaches below the line in the manner of the period, so it can also read as J.]
- Object
- Portrait of a small child, painted on canvas, in a carved white and gilt frame
- Sitter
- Ida P. Rolf as a small childAs her family hands it down
- Painter
- Not yet identifiedSigned “I. Rolf” or “J. Rolf”; the signature points to someone in the Rolf family, not to Ida herself
- Date
- UndatedThe lace collar and ribbon follow children’s dress of around 1900, her early childhood. The painting itself may come from later years.
- Held by
- The family of Ida P. Rolf
- Rights
- Status unclear while the painter remains unknownShown here with the permission of her grandson Jean-Pierre Demmerle. Please ask before reusing it.
A small child looks straight out of the canvas, a curl combed high above the forehead, a lace collar spread across the shoulders and a blue ribbon caught by a gold bar pin. Her family knows the sitter as Ida. Who held the brush remains an open question; the signature names a Rolf.
The front gives no year. Before the yearbooks and registers below, it offers the earliest face of her on this page.
Cite asPortrait of Ida P. Rolf as a child, painting on canvas, undated, signed lower right “I. Rolf”, painter unidentified. Family of Ida P. Rolf; photograph courtesy of Jean-Pierre Demmerle.
Chapter II · 1915 to 1917
Barnard College
She studied chemistry at Barnard and graduated in 1916. The yearbooks and the honour society kept track of her.
Barnard yearbook portrait
Transcription
Ida P. Rolf
“Strongly acid but sometimes gives alkaline reactions.”
- Document
- Class portrait with caption, in Mortarboard 1916, the Barnard College yearbook
- Date
- 1915Compiled by the class of 1916 in its junior year, following the dating Barnard Archives gives the series
- Held by
- Barnard Archives and Special Collections, New York
- Reference
- BC12-01 (Mortarboard), volume 1916, printed page 170Page 180 of the digitized volume
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States: published before 1931
The page shows six members of the class of 1916, with Rolf at top right. Each portrait carries a quotation or a joke. Hers comes from the chemistry laboratory.
Cite asBarnard College class of 1916, Mortarboard 1916 (New York, 1915), p. 170. Barnard Archives and Special Collections, BC12-01.
Phi Beta Kappa membership card
Transcription
Dr. [top left]
BARNARD
NAME Ida Pauline Rolf, 1916 [final a of Ida typed over another letter]
Class Year
ADDRESS 710 Oakland Place, New York City.
Space for later Addresses [four dotted lines, left blank]
This will certify that on June 7 1916, the person
named above was made an Undergraduate Alumna Honorary [last two struck through by hand] member of the N.Y. Delta
Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Signed Clarence A. Manning Secretary
[printed pointing hand] Membership card for the permanent records of the United Chapters
- Document
- Membership card of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, completed for the New York Delta chapter
- Date
- 7 June 1916The date of election, as the card states it. The “Dr.” at top left can only date from after her doctorate.
- Held by
- The Phi Beta Kappa Society, Washington, D.C.
- Reference
- Membership records of the United Chapters
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States: a printed form issued before 1931, filled in with facts and a signature, which copyright does not coverReproduced with the approval of the Phi Beta Kappa Society
The card names Columbia University’s chapter, the Delta of New York, chartered in 1869; the word Barnard at its head marks her college. The address, 710 Oakland Place, lies in the Bronx, where Rolf grew up.
Cite asMembership card of Ida Pauline Rolf, New York Delta chapter, 7 June 1916. Membership records of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, The Phi Beta Kappa Society, Washington, D.C.
Phi Beta Kappa roll in the yearbook
Transcription, in part
New York Delta (Columbia University), Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity
Barnard Section
[officers, charter members and honorary members follow, then:]
Class of 1916
Daisy Marie Appley · Dorothy Marguerite Blondel · Ida May Blount Cheatham (Mrs. E. E.) · Betta Alexander Davis (Mrs. E.) · Madeleine Dillay · Eleanore Dixon Elliott · Jeanne Harry Jacoby · Margaret Christina King · Theresa Levy · Carol Ramey Lorenz · Mary Louise Whitney Powell · Ida Pauline Rolf · Gertrude Schuyler · Emma Seipp · Louise Talbot · Eleanor Newton Wallace · Mabel Weil
[set in two columns; read here left column first]
- Document
- Members of the Barnard section of Phi Beta Kappa, in Mortarboard 1918, the Barnard College yearbook
- Date
- 1917Compiled by the class of 1918 in its junior year, following the dating Barnard Archives gives the series
- Held by
- Barnard Archives and Special Collections, New York
- Reference
- BC12-01 (Mortarboard), volume 1918, printed page 130
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States: published before 1931
A year after her election, the yearbook of the class of 1918 printed the roll of the Barnard section. Rolf appears in the list of seventeen from her own class. The card above records the election itself; this page carries it into print.
Cite asBarnard College class of 1918, Mortarboard 1918 (New York, 1917), p. 130. Barnard Archives and Special Collections, BC12-01.
Chapter III · 1921 to 1922
Chemist in New York
Within a year she married in secret and saw her doctoral work bound under her own name.
A wedding kept secret
Transcription
STONY BROOK [column heading, front page]
[eight items on other residents and visitors, then:]
Friends here of Miss Ida Rolf were surprised last week to hear of her marriage, last May, to Walter Demerle of New York City. The happy event was kept a complete secret by Mr. and Mrs. Demerle until last week.
- Document
- Local news item in the “Stony Brook” column of The Port Jefferson Echo, a weekly paper of Port Jefferson, Long Island
- Date
- Saturday, 22 October 1921The wedding itself took place in May 1921
- Held by
- NYS Historic Newspapers, digital collection
- Reference
- The Port Jefferson Echo, vol. 30, no. 17, 22 October 1921, p. 1Library of Congress control number sn88075686
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States: published before 1931
Stony Brook lies on the North Shore of Long Island, a few miles west of Port Jefferson. The column counts her among its own: friends there learned of the wedding only months after it happened.
The paper spells the groom’s name Demerle. His headstone, at the foot of this page, gives the spelling the family kept: Walter F. Demmerle, born 11 November 1893.
Cite as“Stony Brook,” The Port Jefferson Echo (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.), 22 October 1921, p. 1. NYS Historic Newspapers.
Title page of her dissertation
Transcription
THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHEMISTRY OF THE UNSATURATED PHOSPHATIDES
BY
IDA PAULINE ROLF
Preface
Lecithin. 1. Lecithin of the Brain
2. The Saturated Fatty Acids of Lecithin of the Egg Yolk
Cephalin. The Glycerophosphoric Acid of Cephalin
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Pure Science of Columbia University
Reprinted from The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vols. XL, No. 1, November, 1919; XLVI, No. 1. March and No. 2, April, 1921
[degree statement and reprint note set in small capitals; no place or date on the page]
- Document
- Doctoral dissertation, bound from offprints of three journal papers written with P. A. Levene
- Date
- 1922The page names no year. The Library of Congress dates the printing [1922]; the last paper appeared in April 1921.
- Printer
- The Waverly Press, BaltimoreAs the Library of Congress records it
- Held by
- Columbia University Libraries; a further copy at the Library of Congress, QP801.P45 R6
- Digital copy
- HathiTrust, nnc1.cu56097450, image 5
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States: published before 1931
Columbia asked every doctoral candidate for printed copies of the dissertation. Here offprints of three papers from the Journal of Biological Chemistry serve, bound under one title page. Inside, the papers carry Levene’s name beside hers; the title page names her alone.
Its degree line settles a detail often blurred: she took her doctorate in Columbia’s Faculty of Pure Science.
Cite asIda Pauline Rolf, Three Contributions to the Chemistry of the Unsaturated Phosphatides, PhD dissertation, Faculty of Pure Science, Columbia University (Baltimore: Waverly Press, [1922]). Columbia University Libraries; HathiTrust nnc1.cu56097450.
Chapter IV · 1926, recalled in 1978
Zurich
A year of physics abroad, written down twice: by ETH in its register, and by Rolf herself half a century later.
ETH Zurich register of auditors
Reading of entry 63
| Entry | 63 |
|---|---|
| Name | Rolf-Demmerle, Ida |
| Year of birth | 1896 |
| Place of origin (Heimatort) | New York City |
| Address in Zurich (Wohnung) | Ebelstrasse 29 |
| Lectures, by number and lecturer | 283 Plancherel, 64 Debye, 164 Hückel, 347 Scherrer |
| Student of the University (Stud. der Universität) | [left empty] |
- Document
- Verzeichnis der Fachhörer [register of auditors], 1926, entry 63
- Held by
- ETH-Bibliothek, Hochschularchiv der ETH Zürich
- Reference
- EZ-2.1/08
- Rights
- Administrative recordETH Zurich confirmed in writing in October 2026 that publishing its registers of auditors raises no copyright concerns
- Commons
- ETH Zurich register of auditors 1926, entry 63Column headings and entry 63 from the same page, joined at a dashed line
An auditor, or Fachhörer, attended chosen lectures without enrolling for a degree. The register lists her under her married name and names each lecturer by surname. Peter Debye and Paul Scherrer taught physics, Michel Plancherel mathematics. Erich Hückel, Debye’s assistant, had qualified as a lecturer at ETH in December 1924.
The column for students of the University of Zurich stays empty in her row.
Cite asETH Zürich, Verzeichnis der Fachhörer, 1926, entry 63 (Rolf-Demmerle, Ida). ETH-Bibliothek, Hochschularchiv der ETH Zürich, EZ-2.1/08.
Her own account of Zurich
Fifty-two years after her ETH lectures, at a conference in Los Angeles, an interviewer asked Rolf about her time in Europe. The passage below follows the recording word for word.
- 35:38
[Asked whether she studied in Europe]
“Oh yes, oh yes. I studied in Europe, but that wasn’t my elementary study.”
- 35:54
“I probably learned less from Schrödinger than I did from Debye, who was a physicist. And what I learned from Schrödinger was how to understand the physicist Debye.”
- 36:10
“Debye was teaching at that time in Zurich, and I was on a leave of absence from the Institute.”
- 36:34
[Asked how long she stayed]
“probably the best part of the year, from January to October.”
- 36:42
[She places her return first in the late 1920s, then in “the early 30s”.]
- Recording
- Ida P. Rolf, “Structure: A New Factor in Understanding the Human Condition,” lecture and interview, Explorers of Humankind conference, Los Angeles, 1978
- Passage
- 35:38 to 36:45, of 64 minutesThe lecture ends at about 27:10; questions follow
- Copy
- An audio copy rests with the productionThe rights holder remains unidentified, so this page quotes only the passage on Zurich
Erwin Schrödinger taught at the University of Zurich, a separate institution from ETH. The register records ETH alone, so her contact with him rests on her own account. Her dates waver, as memory does after half a century; the register fixes the year of her ETH lectures.
Cite asRolf, Ida P. “Structure: A New Factor in Understanding the Human Condition.” Lecture and interview, Explorers of Humankind conference, Los Angeles, 1978. Audio recording, 35:38–36:45.
Chapter V · 1955 to 1976
Teaching the work
Her method finds its listeners among physicians and osteopaths, and a kindred spirit in Moshe Feldenkrais.
Lecturing to physicians
Transcription, in part
• ’16
Class Correspondent: Evelyn Haring Blanchard (Mrs. Donald D.), 86 Mountain Ave., New Rochelle, N. Y.
[a note on Margaret King Eddy, then:]
Other professional activities: Dr. Margaret E. Fries has a private psychiatric practice […] . . . Ida Rolf is busy lecturing to M.D.’s, osteopaths, and others on a system of Postural Dynamics that she has formulated. . . .
- Document
- Class notes for 1916, in The Barnard Alumnae Magazine
- Date
- March 1955The page announces a class party for Saturday, 19 March, and looks back to “our January issue”
- Held by
- Barnard Archives and Special Collections, New York
- Reference
- The Barnard Alumnae Magazine, vol. XLIV, no. 3, March 1955, printed page 20
- Digital copy
- Barnard Digital Collections
- Rights
- Published in 1955Its status in the United States turns on a copyright renewal in 1982 or 1983, a check still open. The page shows the class notes alone.
Thirty-nine years after graduation, Rolf turns up in her class notes between a psychiatrist and a buyer for specialty shops. The note fixes two things. By early 1955 she taught physicians and osteopaths, years before Esalen. And it calls her method Postural Dynamics, where Eric Jacobson gives Structural Dynamics for those years. A classmate passing on news may have slipped, or Rolf tried more than one name.
Two classmates named in the same column, Margaret King and Dorothy Blondel, stand beside her on the Phi Beta Kappa roll of 1917.
Cite asEvelyn Haring Blanchard, class correspondent, “’16,” The Barnard Alumnae Magazine 44, no. 3 (March 1955): 20. Barnard Archives and Special Collections.
A birthday letter from Moshe Feldenkrais
Some seven weeks after Rolf turned eighty, Moshe Feldenkrais wrote to her from San Francisco. Between the birthday wishes he recalled where they first met.
- Para. 3
“We first met many years ago in Coomb Springs, Kensington, if my memory does not fail me, when Pat Subud came to England. You rolfed Mrs. Subud and one day you demonstrated your work to a large audience. I was in the theatre to see something that promised to be interesting.”
- Para. 4
[She called on him by name to observe and comment for the audience, and told him she knew him from his earliest book. He answered by asking her to rolf him. Then:]
“At the time, rolfing was not yet a verb, but your rolfing was a revealing and unforgettable experience for me.”
- Para. 6
“Structural Integration and Functional Integration have more in common than the word that connects them.”
- Document
- Letter from Moshe Feldenkrais to Ida P. Rolf, headed “Lone Mountain, San Francisco, Cal.”A retyped copy: the closing reads “Signed/Moshe’ Feldenkrais”, and a printed note “About the Author” follows the text
- Date
- 10 July 1976Rolf turned eighty on 19 May 1976. Feldenkrais spent that summer at Lone Mountain College, teaching the second year of his first American training.
- Photograph
- A halftone above the greeting: Rolf in a garland, with Feldenkrais beside herA fuller print of the same scene, shown above, identifies him. Photographer, date and place unknown.
- Copy
- An image copy rests with the productionThe signed original and the publication that printed the letter remain untraced. A scan also appears on feldenkraismethod.com, a tribute site.
- Rights
- Copyright in the letter rests with the heirs of Moshe Feldenkrais (1904–1984)Shown here for research and documentation. The page will take the scan down at the rights holder’s request.
Feldenkrais wrote from memory and says so. Coombe Springs, the estate of J. G. Bennett, lay in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, not in Kensington, and Bennett’s institute there taught the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff. “Pat Subud” stands for Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, known as Pak Subuh, who founded the Subud movement and first came to Coombe Springs in 1957. His wife, Ibu Siti Sumari, travelled with him, so “Mrs. Subud” most likely means her.
The letter thus dates the first meeting of Rolf and Feldenkrais to 1957 or later. It fits Eric Jacobson’s history of her method, which has her teaching summer courses in England in the late 1940s and 1950s, latterly at an institute in Surrey devoted to Gurdjieff, and names Feldenkrais among her influences. Which “earliest book” Rolf meant, the letter leaves open. Jacobson cites Body and Mature Behavior (1949).
Cite asMoshe Feldenkrais to Ida P. Rolf, Lone Mountain, San Francisco, 10 July 1976. Retyped copy, research files of Ida Rolf – Mother of Fascia.
Chapter VI · 1979
Farewell
A stone in the Bronx, and a friend’s words when the news reached him.
Headstone at Woodlawn Cemetery
Inscription
[carved cross]
WALTER F · DEMMERLE
NOV · 11 · 1893 MARCH · 16 · 1947
IDA P · ROLF DEMMERLE
MAY · 19 · 1896 MARCH · 19 · 1979
[cut in capitals, with dots between the words]
- Object
- Headstone shared by Ida P. Rolf and her husband, Walter F. Demmerle
- Place
- Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York
- Rights
- The inscription records names and dates, which copyright does not coverPhotograph by Aleš Urbanczik, free to reuse under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence
She outlived her husband by thirty-two years and came to rest beside him. The stone calls her Ida P. Rolf Demmerle, close to the name she gave in Zurich in 1926, and spans her life from 19 May 1896 to 19 March 1979: eighty-two years.
Cite asHeadstone of Walter F. Demmerle and Ida P. Rolf Demmerle, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.
Feldenkrais on her death
Within weeks of her death, Feldenkrais wrote to a friend. The friend cut out the passage about Rolf and passed it on under a short note.
Transcription, in part
[forwarding note, in another hand] Here is a part of a letter I just received from Moshe. D[on?]
[pasted passage, in Feldenkrais’s hand] I am really moved by the news of the extinction of Ida Rolf, a very good friend of mine and a formidable woman who would be an honour to any nation. U.S.A is lucky to had [sic] grow on her social soil.
[two short paragraphs follow, on his recovery from an eye operation and on a journey to the United States in May, then:]
Wishing further delights
Yours Moshé
- Document
- Passage cut from a handwritten letter by Moshe Feldenkrais, pasted below a forwarding note and photocopiedThe note sits on paper headed by a small emblem of a leaping deer, with a line of Hebrew at top right
- Date
- Spring 1979After her death on 19 March 1979 and before 9 May, the day he planned to meet “some senator at the capitol”
- Copy
- A photocopy reached the production through a friendIts origin remains unknown. Part of the passage also appears on feldenkraismethod.com.
- Rights
- Copyright in the letter rests with the heirs of Moshe FeldenkraisThe forwarding note belongs to its unidentified writer. Shown here for research and documentation; the page will take the scan down at a rights holder’s request.
“Extinction” stands where a native speaker would write “death”: Feldenkrais learned English as an adult. The warmth needs no translation. With his birthday letter of 1976, these lines frame a friendship of more than twenty years, from Coombe Springs to her death.
Cite asMoshe Feldenkrais, letter, spring 1979, passage on the death of Ida P. Rolf, forwarded with a note signed “D[on?]”. Photocopy, research files of Ida Rolf – Mother of Fascia.
About these records
The research team of Ida Rolf – Mother of Fascia, a documentary directed by Aleš Urbanczik, compiled this page. His ties to Structural Integration appear in the disclosure on the director’s statement.
Public-domain scans may travel freely; a credit to the holding archive helps the next researcher find the original. The childhood portrait, by an unidentified painter, appears by leave of her grandson Jean-Pierre Demmerle. Moshe Feldenkrais’s letters remain under copyright and appear here for documentation; the page removes them at a rights holder’s request. The photograph of the headstone carries a free licence on Wikimedia Commons. Please send corrections and additions to info@
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