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

Title: Music and Performing Arts Library Small Special Collections, 1911-1981

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

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.

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.

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

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.