James and Lorene Bier Sound Recording Collection, 1954-1987 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Materials are arranged in one series:

Series 1) LP Recording Collection, which is further arranged into three sub-series: sub-series 1) Russian, Hungarian, and Greek Folk Music; sub-series 2) Japanese Music; and sub-series 3) Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Pacific Islander Music. Each sub-series structure follows the numerical code assigned to the recordings by the Biers, who organized their recordings by style, region, subject, and artist. These represent a small fraction of the Biers' collection (See appraisal note for deaccessioned items and the full recording code).

James "Jim" A. Bier (1927- ) is a cartographer and alumn of the University of Illinois. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bier earned a bachelor's degree in cartography from Case Western University. Although he had started as a music major, Bier changed his focus to cartography, building on skills he'd gained from mechanical drafting courses in high school. During the Korean War, Bier was drafted and served the US Army in the 29th Engineer Mapping Battalion, which was stationed in Tokyo, Japan. During his time in Japan, Bier grew to love Japanese culture, learning Japanese gardening techniques and collecting recordings of Japanese music.

Following his service, he earned his masters degree in geography in 1957. In that year, he was hired by the University to serve as a staff cartographer and in 1958 he published Atlas of Illinois Resources. He would remain in the Geography Department until his retirement in 1989. During this time, Bier produced nearly 3,000 maps and atlases. Between 1971 and 1972, he was "on loan" to the University of Hawaii, where he was tasked with charting maps of the smaller islands. Several of his maps appear in the Atlas of Hawaii and Reference Maps of the Islands of Hawaii, which were published by the University of Hawaii Press. Bier made several return trips to Hawaii, likely returning 1978-1980.

In 1998, Bier served as a consultant and designer of the Japan House tea garden. Bier also donated the money and the designs to the University in order to construct the tea gardens. Bier earned an Illinois Arts Legacy Award for his work on the Japanese tea garden in 2018.

Kathryn Holliday and Randall J. Biallas, "Interview with James A. Bier," Krannert Art Museum (October 18, 2024) online at: https://kam.illinois.edu/interview-james-bier.

"James Bier," College of Fine and Applied Arts, Previous Legacy Award Recipients (2018) online at: https://faa.illinois.edu/alumni-friends/faa-legacy-awards/previous-legacy-award-recipients/james-bier.

Paul Wood, "Getting Personal: James Bier," Champaign News-Gazette (October 20, 2019) Online at: https://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/art/getting-personal-james-bier/article_72a72fb1-b298-5579-86b4-317c64100442.html

James Bier, "Japan House Garden Guide," Online at: https://japanhouse.illinois.edu/gardenguide/guide/.