Music and Performing Arts Library Small Special Collections

Overview

Scope and Contents

Biographical Note

Subject Terms

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

Small Special Collections

Lawrence Tibbett Music and Papers

Jere C. Mickel Scrapbook and Opera Program Collection

Robert F. Delzell Program Scrapbook

MPAL Program and Playbill Collection



Email us about these papers

Finding Aid for Music and Performing Arts Library Small Special Collections, 1911-1981 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Noah Lenstra, Nolan Vallier, Jonas Kromer Yela, Sandy Kroeker

email Email us about these papers | printer Print this information

Collection Overview

Title: Music and Performing Arts Library Small Special Collections, 1911-1981Add to your cart.

ID: 35/3/81

Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Music and Performing Arts Library (1944-)

Other Creators: Bowen, Dorothy (ca. 1900-1980), Haussermann, John (1909-1986), Howenstein, Marshall (1901-2001), Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960), Lew Williams (1934 -), Magyar, Gabriel (1914-2011), Mickel, Jere C. (1905-1985), Skinner, Frank (1897-1968), Ward, Harriet B. (ca. 1890-1950), Wilkey, Lucille V.

Extent: 4.75 cubic feet

Arrangement: Organized in five series: Series 1, Small Special Collections, Series 2, Lawrence Tibbett Music and Papers, 1919-1929, and Series 3, Jere C. Mickel Scrapbook and Opera Program Collection, 1920-1970. Content of each series is arranged alphabetically. Series 4 is a single item, Robert Delzell's scrapbook, and contains programs from 1940 arranged in no particular order. Series 5 is arranged into 3 subseries: Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois, Chicago Metropolitan Area, and Other Cities. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically by producing organization and chronologically within each organizational grouping.

Date Acquired: 02/23/2010. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Band Concerts, Band Musicians, Bands (Music), Biography, Cage, John, Film Music, Films, Jazz, Military Bands, Music, School of, Opera, Orchestra, Photographs, Radio Broadcasting, Sousa, John Philip, Symphony Orchestras, Theater orchestra music

Formats/Genres: Newspaper Clippings, Sheet music

Languages: English, French, Hungarian

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of small collections of newspaper clippings, sheet music, correspondence, concert programs, biographical sketches, photographs, and radio show scripts documenting music performances by School of Music student ensembles and other nineteenth- and twentieth-century performers and composers. Of particular significance is an original published piano-vocal score of A. Dvorak's Stabat Mater with his hand-written dedication to J. Mandel-Merei.

Biographical Note

The University of Illinois Music and Performing Arts Library was initially founded in the memorial room of Smith Hall in 1943. The school's first music librarian was Jay Allen (1943-1960) and his assistant was Virginia Shirley. In 1963, the University of Illinois received a generous gift from Ellnora Krannert (class of 1912). However, the grant arrived just as the School of Music was planning to construct a new educational building for music on campus. Since Krannert's grant was so substantial, the State of Illinois dropped the budget it had planned for two construction projects: a new library (conceived to alleviate the overcrowded music library in Smith) as well as an addition to Smith Hall. At the time, the library was under the direction of Thor E. Wood (1960-1965). While the new Krannert Center (opened in 1969) contained numerous performance spaces, it did not have space to accomodate the vast library of music books and recordings that had been collected by the School of Music. Funding eventually came in the early 1970s and the School of Music moved into its current location in the Music Building 1114 W. Nevada Street in 1972. The library soon followed, opening in 1974. Head librarian William McClellan (1965-1997) resided over the new library space and quickly began expanding the library's holdings to include not only books and audio recordings but also special collections. Wilma Jean Geil (assistant librarian 1965-1996) collected and processed many of the small special collections. In most cases, if a collection contained published music, LPs, or tape cassettes the items were ingested, cataloged, and dispersed among the circulating library collection. Many of the paper records within special collections acquired by the library remained unprocessed until 2015 when the majority of the special collections were transferred to the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.

Subject/Index Terms

Band Concerts
Band Musicians
Bands (Music)
Biography
Cage, John
Film Music
Films
Jazz
Military Bands
Music, School of
Opera
Orchestra
Photographs
Radio Broadcasting
Sousa, John Philip
Symphony Orchestras
Theater orchestra music

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Accruals:

Ca. 1970 - Dorothy Bowen papers acquired; Ca. 1985 - Hausserman papers acquired from John W. Hausserman, Jr.; 1990 - Marhall Howenstein collection acquired; Ca. 1977 - Gabriel Magyar collection acquired; Ca. 1965 - Songs of France records acquired; Ca. 1980 - Harriet Ward programs acquired; Ca. 1960 - Lucille V. Wilkey music acquired; Ca. 1970 - Lew Williams Jazz Collection acquired. March 20, 2015 - The dePeaux collection (Unisonics score) acquired from Music and Performing Arts Library. May 13, 2015 - The Festival of Contemporary Arts Collection of programs, brochures, and clippings was acquired from the Music and Performing Arts Library.

On July 7, 2019, additional materials were found for the Kitty Cheatham Collection (formerly called the Yolande Oglesby Collection) and one folder was removed from Series 1 to be included within the Kitty Cheatham Collection in order to maintain the provenance of the original body of material.

Access Restrictions: None

Use Restrictions: None

Physical Access Note: None

Technical Access Note: None

Acquisition Source: Music and Performing Arts Library

Acquisition Method: Gift

Related Materials:

The Music Library Administrative Records (35/3/68) contains many of the control files for these small collections.

University of Illinois Festival of Contemporary Arts Music and Sound Recordings (12/5/818) and the School of Music Audio Department Sound Recordings, Series 4 Festival of Contemporary Arts (12/5/64) both contain material related to the Festival of Contemporary Arts.

The Gabriel Magyar Papers (12/5/23) contain materials related to the Magyar collection.

Materials from Series 4 and 5 were acquired interfiled with the Allen S. Weller Program Collection (12/1/21) and the materials from Box 1, Folder 5 of the Hunleth Music Store Sheet Music and Photograph Collection (12/9/123).

Processing Information: Based on documents from MPAL's administrative records, the loose programs represented in Series 5 derived from 6 separate collections originally acquired by MPAL: the Harrison Edward Cunningham "Candy Box" Collection, the Hattie F Kaufman Collection, an unnamed collection identified only as "Two Boxes of Photographs," the Radcliffe Collection, the Frank Johnson Collection, and the Prehn Collection. These collections were all interfiled together. It was not possible to separate the programs into their original collections based on the descriptions in MPAL's administrative records.


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Small Special Collections],
[Series 2: Lawrence Tibbett Music and Papers, 1919-1929],
[Series 3: Jere C. Mickel Scrapbook and Opera Program Collection, 1920-1970],
[Series 4: Robert F. Delzell Program Scrapbook, 1940],
[Series 5: MPAL Program and Playbill Collection, 1883-1974],
[All]

Series 4: Robert F. Delzell Program Scrapbook, 1940Add to your cart.
Consists of 1 item: Robert F. Delzell's scrapbook of programs and playbills from 1940 arranged in no particular order.
Box 7Add to your cart.
Item 1: Robert F. Delzell Program Scrapbook, 1940Add to your cart.
Contains programs, Stagebills, dinner menus, promotional flyers and newsclippings from the Chicago area. Items of note include: a dinner menu from the College Inn Panther Room signed by Fats Waller; news clippings, promotional poster, and program for Life with Father at the Blackstone Theatre, starring Lillian Gish and Percy Waram; news clippings and program for Ladies in Retirement at the Harris Theatre, starring Flora Robson; nes clippings and program for musical revue Meet the People at the Grand Opera House, starring Fay McKenzie; news clippings and program for Ice Follies of 1941 musical revue on ice; Chicago Theatre of the Air program signed by Gladys Swarthout; a souvenir booklet from Tribune Tower; program for concert in honor of Irving Berlin by the Chicago Opera Orchestra and Grace Moore, with encores annotated; 2 programs of one-act plays from Northwestern University's Studio Theatre; program for The Knavery of Scapin at Northwestern University; clippings and progrm for Lady in Waiting at the Harris Theatre staring Gladys George; clippings and program for Pygmalion at the Selwyn Theater starring Ruth Chatterton; three booklets advertising the Chicago Opera Company's 1940 Season; flyer and program for Oscar Levant's first Chicago concert, performing Gershwin; program for Here Today at the Selwyn Theatre starring Ruth Gordon; programs and clippings for There Shall be No Night starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne; program for Sonja Henie's Hollywood Ice Revue; program and clippings for Du Barry was a Lady, with lyrics and music by Cole Porter, at the Erlanger Theatre starring Bert Lahr; program for persormance by Angna Enters at the Civic Theatre.

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Small Special Collections],
[Series 2: Lawrence Tibbett Music and Papers, 1919-1929],
[Series 3: Jere C. Mickel Scrapbook and Opera Program Collection, 1920-1970],
[Series 4: Robert F. Delzell Program Scrapbook, 1940],
[Series 5: MPAL Program and Playbill Collection, 1883-1974],
[All]

Page Generated in: 0.139 seconds (using 126 queries).
Using 7.06MB of memory. (Peak of 7.33MB.)

Powered by Archon Version 3.21 rev-3
Copyright ©2017 The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign