Finding Aid for Della Perrone Photographs, 1945-2015 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Scott Schwartz

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Collection Overview

Title: Della Perrone Photographs, 1945-2015

ID: 12/9/140

Extent: 3.5 cubic feet

Arrangement: Organized in three series: Series 1, Music Photography, which is organized in two subseries: Sub-series 1: Studio Photography and Promotional Work, and Sub-series 2, Stage and Candid Photography; Series 2, Family Photography; and Series 3, Audiovisual Materials.

Date Acquired: 12/22/2014. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Music, Popular Music--Illinois--Urbana-Champaign, Rock Music, Rock musicians United States

Languages: English

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of photographs, negatives, and film slides documenting Della Perrone's candid and studio photography with several Champaign-Urbana musicians in the 1980s, such as Adrian Belew, The Bears, The Rave, The Martyrs, Steps, Nick Rudd and Turning Curious, Nix 86, and The Elvis Brothers, as well as national acts including The Ramones, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and U2. Outside her studio, Perrone captured performances at local venues including Mabel's, University of Illinois Auditorium, Virginia Theatre, Chico's, Panama Red's and the Aragon Ballroom. A selection of these photographs were displayed during the exhibition "Live from the Crossroads: A Snapshot of Urbana-Champaign's Local Music Scene 1981-1986" that was held at the University of Illinois' Sousa Archives and Center for American Music between 2013 and 2014. The collection also includes audiovisual recordings from the 1980s, and family photographs and negatives from the 1920s-1940s.

Biographical Note

Della Perrone's career as a photographer is closely tied to the Urbana-Champaign community where she grew up, and is tied closely to its vital local music scene. Perrone's maternal grandparents, mother, father, and two uncles were photography enthusiasts for decades and made frequent use of their cameras to capture family events and other activities within their community. When Della was in her early 20's she purchased her first camera in the summer of 1980, a CanonAT1, and continued the family's photographic legacy. Perrone first photographed the Elvis Brothers at Chico's on September 26, 1981, and the members of the band immediately felt that her photographs captured the essence of their music ensemble at the time. According to Perrone, her photographic approach was a match to the band. The following month, the Elvis Brothers asked her to take promotional photos of them, and on October 22, Della set up her first studio shoot in her home. Between 1981 and 1989, Perrone photographed live concerts of local bands and national acts performing in such Urbana-Champaign venues as Chico's, Mabel's, and the University Auditorium, as well as other performance spaces throughout the Midwest. The musicians and music groups she photographed included Adrian Belew and the Bears, John Kellogg and Combo Audio, Captain Rat, George Faber, The Rave/Invaders, Smokehouse, Mystery Dots, B-Lovers, the Vertebrats, Nix 86, U2, the Ramones, Jason & the Scorchers, Robin Trower, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Brian Setzer, and Wendy O. Williams. Throughout these years, Perrone's photographs artfully capture the on-stage, and sometimes back-stage, and off-stage exploits of these groups' performances and provide a vivid illustration of Urbana-Champaign's dynamic music scene.

Subject/Index Terms

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Accruals: Additional items were acquired on January 23, 2015; March 13, 2015; October 5, 2016; and March 7, 2019.

Acquisition Source: Della Perrone

Acquisition Method: Gift

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Professional Photography],
[Series 2: Family Photography],
[Series 3: Audiovisual Materials],
[All]

Series 2: Family Photography

Some identifications are tentative and are based on comments made by Della Perrone in 2015.

Box 9

Folder 1: Negatives, ca. 1920s-1930s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's maternal grandmother, great-aunts, mother, aunts, and uncles, in Europe (mainly Holland) and Indonesia.
Folder 2: Negatives, ca. 1920s-1930s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's great-grandmother, grandmother, great-aunts, mother, aunts, and uncles in Europe and Indonesia.
Folder 3: Negatives, ca. 1920s-1930s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's great-grandmother, grandmother, great-aunts, mother, aunts, and uncles in Europe and Indonesia.
Folder 4: Negatives, ca. 1920s-1930s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's great-grandmother, grandmother, great-aunts, mother, aunts, and uncles in Europe and Indonesia.
Folder 5: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's parents, aunts, uncles, family friends in wartime and postwar Europe. Also includes negatives from San Francisco, CA and surrounding areas during the mid to late 1940s.
Folder 6: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's parents, aunts, uncles, family friends in wartime and postwar Europe. Also includes negatives from San Francisco, CA and surrounding areas during the mid to late 1940s.
Folder 7: Negatives, ca. 1950-1955: Includes negatives of Della Perrone and her two sisters as children along with her parents in San Francisco, CA and surrounding areas.
Folder 8: Negatives, ca. 1955-1960s: Includes negatives of Della Perrone and her two sisters as children along with her parents in San Francisco, CA and Lancaster, CA.
Folder 9: Negatives, undated
Folder 10: Negative strips, sleeved, 1945-1953: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's parents in Europe at the end of the war, and of Della's parents and sisters in San Francisco, CA and surrounding areas in the early 1950s.
Folder 11: Negative strips, sleeved, 1945-1953: Includes negatives of Della Perrone's parents in Europe at the end of the war and of their wedding in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1945; and of Della's parents and sisters in San Francisco, CA and surrounding areas in the early 1950s.

Box 10

Item 1: Negatives, ca. 1930s: Della Perrone's maternal grandfather, mother, and uncle, possibly in Holland.
Item 2: Negatives, ca. 1930s: Della Perrone's mother, possibly in Holland.
Item 3: Negatives, ca. 1930s: Della Perrone's mother or aunt on bicycle, possibly in Holland.
Item 4: Negatives, ca. 1930s: Della Perrone's mother with tentatively identified maternal grandmother and great aunt. Also includes Perrone's maternal grandparents.
Item 5: Negatives, ca. 1930s: Della Perrone's mother with dog.
Item 6: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother in post-WWII Europe.
Item 7: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's parents on West Coast, USA, just after World War II.
Item 8: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother and others in Europe.
Item 9: Negatives, ca. 1940s
Item 10: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother, aunts, uncles, and maternal grandmother in Europe, probably shortly after Perrone's mother's wedding.
Item 11: Negatives, ca. 1940s
Item 12: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's father in uniform during World War II or just after; Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, Germany.
Item 13: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Windmills, likely in Holland. Overexposed film roll.
Item 14: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Europe, probably just post-World War II.

Box 11

Item 1: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's uncles in Holland, post World War II. Also includes pictures of Perrone's parents on a beach.
Item 2: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Possibly post-World War II Europe.
Item 3: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Portraits of Della Perrone's mother taken by her father, just post-WWII in Europe, and portraits of Perrone's father taken by her mother.
Item 4: Negatives, 1945: Della Perrone's parents with other military staff in Europe, April 1945.
Item 5: Negatives, 1945: Della Perrone's parents' wedding in Karlsruhe, Germany, September 30, 1945.
Item 6: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother with friend in Europe.
Item 7: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's parents with military friends, post-World War II. Germany or France.
Item 8: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Post-World War II Europe.
Item 9: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Wartime or post-WWII Europe, possibly France. U.S. flag and airplanes.
Item 10: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Football game in California, possibly the Rose Bowl. A sign in the stadium stands reads "Keep Pappy Happy." This refers to Coach Pappy Waldorf of the Cal Bears at UC Berkeley, who coached there from 1947-1956.
Item 11: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Point Joe, California. Della Perrone's parents and family friends.
Item 12: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Ships at a dock with "Welcome Home" banners and large crowds of Army men in uniform. Possibly New York, post-World War II.
Item 13: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's father and his Army friends at the Cliff House Bistro in San Francisco, CA.
Item 14: Negatives, ca. 1945-1946: Della Perrone's mother posing with car, San Francisco, CA.
Item 15: Negatives, ca. 1940s: California. Della Perrone's parents riding bicycles and feeding deer. Perrone's father is wearing a sweater handmade by her mother. Also includes pictures of a (possible) presidential parade.

Box 12

Item 1: Negatives, ca. 1940s
Item 2: Negatives, ca. 1940s
Item 3: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother and paternal grandmother, likely in Indiana. Also includes pictures of a California beach, probably Santa Barbara.
Item 4: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's parents with friends on the California coast.
Item 5: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's mother skiing, possibly in California; Perrone's Aunt Ria in various Bay Area locations: San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, and Tiburon or Sausalito.
Item 6: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's parents in Southern California. Pictures with Studebaker car; Perrone's father in bathing suit.
Item 7: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Skiing photographs, probably Squaw Valley, CA.
Item 8: Negatives, ca. 1940s: Della Perrone's parents in California shortly after moving. Pictures include sunbathing, rock-climbing, and friends.
Item 9: Negatives, ca. late 1940s: Della Perrone's parents in California.
Item 10: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Della Perrone's parents with friends at Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA.
Item 11: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Della Perrone's parents in San Francisco, CA, on cable car and at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Item 12: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Della Perrone's mother sunbathing in California.
Item 13: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Parade in California, possibly Long Beach. Also includes pictures in Santa Cruz.
Item 14: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Della Perrone's father in apron; pictures around San Francisco--Alioto's, Tarantino's, Fisherman's Wharf.
Item 15: Negatives, ca. 1948-1952: Della Perrone's parents' home in San Francisco, Christmas time.
Item 16: Negatives, ca. 1953: One of Della Perrone's two sisters as a baby, in California.

Box 13

Item 1: Negatives, 1951: Della Perrone's parents; travel in the Redwoods, CA.
Item 2: Negatives, 1951: Family friends with baby.
Item 3: Negatives, ca. 1953-1954: Travel in the redwoods, Trees of Mystery, CA; Della Perrone's sister Michelle as a baby.
Item 4: Negatives, ca. 1953: Della Perrone's sister Michelle as a baby; Perrone's maternal grandmother and uncle in San Francisco just after arriving from Holland.
Item 5: Negatives, ca. 1953-1954: Della Perrone's sister Michelle as baby, Christmas in San Francisco.
Item 6: Negatives, ca. 1960s: Ship in a harbor, possibly Della Perrone's father.
Item 7: Negatives, 1963: Holland, pictures possibly taken with Della Perrone's mother's Rollei camera.

Box 14

Folder 11: Color slides - family images, undated

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Professional Photography],
[Series 2: Family Photography],
[Series 3: Audiovisual Materials],
[All]