Charles Strothkamp Papers

Overview

Scope and Contents

Biographical Note

Subject Terms

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

Personal and Family Papers

Music

Scrapbooks & Photographs



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Finding Aid for Charles Strothkamp Papers, 1896-1983 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Joshua Shelly and Scott W. Schwartz

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Collection Overview

Title: Charles Strothkamp Papers, 1896-1983Add to your cart.View associated digital content.

ID: 12/9/128

Primary Creator: Strothkamp, Charles (1896-1983)

Extent: 0.5 cubic feet

Arrangement: Organized in two series: Series 1: Personal and Family Papers, 1911-1983 and Series 2: Sousa Band and Sousa Band Fraternal Society Records, 1911-1981. Each series' content is arranged chronologically.

Date Acquired: 07/07/2012

Subjects: Band Musicians, Military Music, Sousa, John Philip

Languages: English

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of correspondence, contracts, performance route sheets, and photographs documenting Charles Strothkamp's career as a clarinetist in the Sousa Band between 1926 and 1931, as well as his two Selmer clarinets. The papers also include family photographs, military citations and medals, membership cards, school documents, birth and death certificates, and photographs documenting family trips made between 1919 and 1930. Of particular interest are Strothkamp's black and white photographs of the 1929 Colorado train wreck that involved the Sousa Band.

Biographical Note

Charles Strothkamp (1896-1983) was born in Manhattan, New York on November 2, 1896.  His parents were Charles C. and Louise Strothkamp.  He had two younger siblings, Elmer J. Strothkamp who was born in 1899 and Ruth L. Strothkamp who was born in 1903.

Charles began studying clarinet in 1911. He joined the Sousa Band for its 1926 tour as a clarientist and continued on both of the band's 1927 tours, an off-tour concert on June 15, 1929 held in Princeton, NJ, the 1929 tour, and one or more of the 1930 and 1931 tours. In addition he performed in the band's two radio broadcasts held in 1929 and 1930, as well as its March 12, 1931 recording and final April 9, 1931 radio broadcast. While on tour Charles was an avid amateur photographer who took numerous candid photographs of the bands's members, performance venues, and the communities the band played in.

In the first half of 1930, Strothkamp studied stenography and typewriting while attending New York's Drake School of Business. He successfully completed his course work and graduated that same year. During both World War I and World War II he served as a sergeant in the U.S. military. After leaving the Sousa Band he eventually worked for thirty years for the United States Postal Service, serving as a railway postal clerk. He retired from the postal service on December 30, 1965 and remained a lifetime member of the Sousa Band Fraternal Society. Strothkamp remained a bachelor throughout his life and died on July 10th, 1983.

Subject/Index Terms

Band Musicians
Military Music
Sousa, John Philip

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Acquisition Source: Marguerite Butler

Acquisition Method: Gift


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Personal and Family Papers, 1911-1983],
[Series 2: Music, 1911-1981],
[Series 3: Scrapbooks & Photographs, ca. 1896-1983],
[All]

Series 2: Music, 1911-1981Add to your cart.
Consists of two clarinets, correspondence, newsletters, route sheets, programs and maps documenting Charles Strothkamp's career as a clarinetist in the Sousa Band between 1926 and 1931 as well as his membership in the Sousa Band Fraternal Society.
Box 2Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Music lesson notebook, March 4, 1911-April 20, 1912Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Clarinet purchases - correspondence and reciepts, June 29, 1920-March 18, 1940Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Unidentified correspondence re: Sousa Band, March 22, 1925Add to your cart.
Folder 4: Uniform reciept and "Hartmann Tourobe" pamphlet, 1926Add to your cart.
Folder 5: Sousa Band route sheets with notes, 1926-1930Add to your cart.
Folder 6: Maps and hotel information, ca. 1926-1931Add to your cart.
Folder 7: Non-Sousa related musical correspondence, 1926-1982Add to your cart.
Folder 8: Correspondence withy Jay G. Sims, June 21, 1927-August 13, 1931Add to your cart.
Folder 9: List of personnel of Sousa Band, 1928Add to your cart.
Folder 10: Sousa Band contracts, 1928-1930Add to your cart.
Folder 11: Derailed train telegram, September, 1929Add to your cart.
Folder 12: Lieber Correspondence upon leaving Sousa Band, August 13, 1931Add to your cart.
Folder 13: Sousa Band, Atlantic City Steel Pier program and pass, September 5, 1931Add to your cart.
Folder 14: Memorial Concert to John Philip Sousa, program, March 13, 1932Add to your cart.
Folder 15: Sousa Band Fraternal Society - addresses of members, August 1, 1974Add to your cart.
Folder 16: Sousa Band Fraternal Society, March 1, 1980Add to your cart.
Folder 17: John Philip Sousa Post No. 112 Newsletters, 1980-1982Add to your cart.
Folder 18: Sousa Band Society News, July, 1981Add to your cart.
Folder 19: Sousa Oral History Project correspondence, undatedAdd to your cart.
Item 2: Clarinet: H. Selmer, model number 55, M6916, undatedAdd to your cart.

Accession number: 2012-1209128.001 (A-F)

Physical condition: Good

Material composition: Grenadilla wood and nickel-plated brass

Item 3: Clarinet: H. Selmer, model BT, 15742, undatedAdd to your cart.

Accession number: 2012-1209128.002 (A-E)

Physical condition: Good

Material composition: Grenadilla wood and nickel-plated brass


Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Personal and Family Papers, 1911-1983],
[Series 2: Music, 1911-1981],
[Series 3: Scrapbooks & Photographs, ca. 1896-1983],
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