Music

A

John Agnew Collection, no date (CA4999)
0.2 cubic feet, 8 audio cassettes

 Finding Aid

Audio cassettes of folk music of Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Features the fiddle along with other string instruments. Also includes sheet music of American and Irish folk music.

Kamau Agyei a/k/a Carroll L. Jenkins Collection, 1986 (K1023)
0.2 c.f.

Kamau Agyei was a musician, as secretary-treasurer the Musicians Protective Union Local No. 627 and president of the Mutual Musicians Foundation as well as other organizations. Includes photocopies of articles about him.

Counties

All Star Concert Series Collection, 1937 (R0928)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a program for a vocal concert presented by baritone Nelson Eddy at Memorial Hall in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri, on Tuesday evening , April 20, 1937.

Subjects

Counties

Adam Allendorf Collection, no date (C2546)
0.06 cubic feet (3 folders)

 Finding Aid

Songs and plays in German.

Jimmie Allison Papers, 1988-2013 (R1444)
0.5 cubic foot (9 folders, 3 CDs)

 Finding Aid

The Jimmie Allison Papers contain materials related to the bluegrass career of Jimmie Allison and his bands. This includes bluegrass event and festival fliers, photographs, news articles, and song lists and lyrics.

Subjects

Hermann B. Almstedt Papers, 1887-1954 (C2408)
1.5 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

Correspondence with colleagues and students, articles, speeches, poems, programs, report cards and diplomas of Hermann B. Almstedt, professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Missouri.

Ambassadors of Harmony Records, 1961-2009 (S0540)
8 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The Ambassadors of Harmony Records contain correspondence, meeting minutes, photographs, and scrapbooks chronicling the group’s history as an acapella men’s chorus performing jazz, pop, and barbershop music. Materials of interest include scrapbooks dating from 1963 to 1981 that include early appearances by the group at competitions and television programs, including the Charlotte Peters Show.

Subjects

American Guild of Organists, Greater Kansas City Chapter Records, 1934-2008 (K0605)
12 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Organizational records including scrapbooks, minutes, membership records, and printed and published materials, programs, clippings, and photographs.

Counties

American Guild of Organists, St. Louis Chapter Records, 1921-2021 (S0363)
6 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

This collection consists of correspondence, photographs, chapter yearbooks, program booklets, handbooks, and financial materials documenting the American Guild of Organists, St. Louis Chapter's mission to nourish appreciation and interest in organ music through education, mutual support, and networking for current and future organists.

Counties

Ararat Shrine Band Collection, (K0485)
11.8 c.f.

 Finding Aid

The Ararat Shrine Band Collection contains materials related to the band and its members, most notably a large volume of sheet music used by the band during performances. The collection also contains photographs of the band, the Ararat Chanters, and Gaylord Bleakley, director of the Ararat Shrine Band, as well as an audio CD and an LP of recorded musical selections performed by the band.

Subjects

Counties

Artist Presentation Society Records, 1946-2014 (S0249)
0.08 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

The Artist Presentation Society Records contain bylaws, meeting minutes, and programs pertaining to the organization’s mission to advance young classical musician’s careers by holding annual auditions and hosting concerts for the winners. Topics of interest include concert ticket sales, audition applicant requirements, membership outreach, and the concert series Prelude Performances, co-sponsored by the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Subjects

Counties

Austin Wood Auditorium Collection, 1967 (R0992)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a brochure promoting the 1967 season at the Austin Wood Auditorium at Lake Ozark in Miller County, Missouri. Featuring starts from the "Grand Ole Opry," the country music venue featured namesake Austin Wood and such well-known performers as Loretta Lynn, Roy Acuff, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Tex Ritter, Ralph Emery, and Ernest Tubb.

Subjects

Counties

B

Baldknobbers Hillbilly Jamboree Collection, 1970 (R1218)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a souvenir booklet from the Baldknobbers Hillbilly Jamboree show at Branson in Taney County, Missouri. The show, one of the first in Branson, featured the talents of the Mabe family. Although undated, the booklet is believed to be from the 1970 season.

Counties

Barton-Para Family Papers, 1955-2006 (CA6659)
4.2 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

Scrapbooks and photograph albums compiled by Ruth Barton, Cathy Barton, and Dave Para. Cathy Barton and Dave Para of Columbia and Boonville, Missouri, were folk musicians who founded the Big Muddy Folk Festival in 1991.

Counties

Bass Family Papers, 1864-1932 (C2367)
0.06 cubic feet (3 folders)

 Finding Aid

Notebook and miscellaneous papers concerning music, recipes, home remedies, medical care, school reports, accounts and business of Sallie F. Ellis [Mrs. Lawrence Derby Bass, Sr.], L. Derby Bass, Jr., and Ella Read Bass of Boone County, MO.

Counties

Basye Family Papers, 1812-1960 (C2505)
3.9 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

Correspondence, legal documents, clippings, account books, scrapbooks, photographs, Bible records, and papers collected to establish the Basye family genealogy. Included are Bowling Green Methodist Episcopal Church and Cumberland Presbyterian Church registers, and early letters describing activities and family life in Missouri and other states, notably California and Wisconsin. Mining, the California gold rush, and the Civil War are also described. Numerous correspondents are women.

Counties

Belchamber Family Papers, 1892-1993 (CG0041)
3.2 c. f.

 Finding Aid

The Belchamber family papers contain photographs, correspondence and scrapbooks from the Belchamber family and its various branches. This collection also includes photographs and memorabilia relating to Will Mayfield College in Marble Hill, the Iron Mountain Railroad, and regional buildings and environs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Benecke Family Papers, 1816-1989 (C3825)
90.8 cubic feet (7592 folders, 62 volumes, 413 glass plate negatives), 4 audio tapes, 5 audio discs

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Correspondence, business and law firm records, civic, political, legislative, and personal papers of a German American family of Brunswick, Missouri.

Counties

Chuck Berry Project Research Papers, 1958-1984 (S0196)
0.04 cubic feet, 13 folders, 2 microfilm rolls

 Finding Aid

The Chuck Berry Research Project Collection contains newspaper clippings, research papers, and oral histories chronicling Kenn Thomas and George Lipsitz’s effort to document the life and career of singer and songwriter, Chuck Berry.

Counties

Bicentennial Horizons of American Music Records, 1973-1977 (S0397)
2.5 cubic feet, 68 folders, 5 volumes

 Finding Aid

This collection contains the official records of a national festival of the performing arts, June 14-July 4, 1976, in St. Louis, Missouri, to help commemorate the nation's bicentennial. BHAM was sponsored by the St. Louis Spirit of '76 Bicentennial Committee. Events include music, dance, theatre, multi-media, opera, folk music, jazz, prose, poetry, and film.

Subjects

Counties

Edna Scotten Billings Papers, 1938-1974 (K0941)
0.5 c.f.

Billings was the organist for Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Kansas City, MO. Includes recital programs, order of services, various publications, and music scores.

Subjects

Counties

Bittersweet Papers, 1973-1983 (R0669)
27 cubic feet (761 folders)

These are papers of "Bittersweet: The Ozark Quarterly," a journal of Ozark culture published by Ellen Gray Massey and her English classes at Lebanon High School. Included are tape recordings, transcripts, and photographs of interviews. Subjects include fiddling, making railroad ties, one-room rural schools, social customs and more, the African-American experince, and handicrafts.

Wayne Bledsoe Papers, 1972-2013 (R1355)
0.05 cubic foot (1 folder, 1 DVD)

 Finding Aid

The Wayne Bledsoe Papers contain materials related to Bledsoe's career in bluegrass. A noted host and program producer of Bluegrass for Saturday Night, KUMR. This collection includes bluegrass festival program booklets from Dixon, Missouri and a DVD containing the KMST radio station 40th anniversary show introduced by Wayne Bledsoe.

Subjects

Blind Boone Memorial Foundation, Inc. Papers, 1886-1976 (C3664)
0.4 cubic feet (60 folders)

 Finding Aid

Included in this collection are some of the compositions of John William "Blind" Boone, a musician and composer of classical and ragtime music. Also included are orchestrations and choral arrangements of Boone's music, correspondence, programs, and posters from a memorial concert in 1961. Correspondence concerning recovery of Boone's piano and posters and tickets from some Boone concerts are also part of the collection.

Counties

"Blind Boone's Piano Music", 1998 (CA5761)
1 CD

Audio recording of music composed by African-American John W. "Blind" Boone, performed by Frank Townsell.

Boone County Black Archives Collection, 1867-2014 (C4057)
0.6 cubic feet (38 folders), 1 video cassette, 4 compact discs, 1 computer disc, 1 DVD

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The Boone County Black Archives Collection is an artificial collection documenting the lives of Blacks living in Boone County, Missouri. The materials include photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, news clippings, booklets, and other ephemera.

Counties

John William "Blind" Boone and Wesley Boone Papers, no date (C2883)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Publicity poster announcing the appearance of Blind Boone in Columbia, MO. Program of piano concert of Little Blind Wesley, nephew of Blind Boone.

Counties

John William "Blind" Boone Piano Roll, c. 1920 (CA5843)
1 piano roll

Performance by Blind Boone of "Nearer My God To Thee," published by the QRS Company, c. 1920.

Bootheel Project Records, 1993-1997 (C3928)
3.2 cubic feet (122 folders), 157 audio cassettes, 9 audio discs, 2 video cassettes

 Finding Aid

The records of the Bootheel Project document the art, culture, and heritage of the Missouri Bootheel. The records include photographs, color slides, audio cassettes, transcripts, and video cassettes of interviews with Bootheel residents. Sound recordings, planning documents, field workers’ notes, and miscellaneous items collected throughout the project are also included.

William Clark Breckenridge Papers, 1752-1927 (C1036)
4.75 cubic feet (117 folders, 21 volumes), 1 card file, 3 rolls of microfilm

 Finding Aid

The papers of the St. Louis businessman, writer, and historian contain correspondence, scrapbooks, book sale announcements, and miscellaneous materials, with an emphasis on St. Louis and Missouri history.

Counties

Bernice Tate Burwell Collection, 1921-1946 (K0234)
0.25 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Mrs. Burwell was manager and later owner of the Horner-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, as well as being a writer and produced musical shows. Scrapbooks and photographs concerning dance department performances, faculty and students of the Conservatory and other Burwell activates.

Counties

Carl Busch Papers, 1885-1984 (K0222)
6 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Busch was a composer, educator, founder of an early symphony, and for fifty years the most noted musician in Kansas City. Included are his musical compositions, and works by other composers that Busch added to, transcribed, edited, and gave or received as gifts. Also correspondence from Busch's friends and colleagues, and from relatives in Europe, most of which are written in German and Danish, photographs and artifacts.

Counties

C

Sanford Brunson Campbell Papers, 1947 (C3204)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Letters to Floyd C. Shoemaker, Columbia, MO, from Venice, CA, about jazz musician Scott Joplin. Includes some printed brochures regarding ragtime, jazz, and Scott Joplin.

Miss Glenn Campbell Scrapbook, 1933-1953 (K1085)
1 v

 Finding Aid

Scrapbook of clippings and pictures of the lives of various musical artists.

Subjects

Counties

Loman D. and Laura M. Cansler Collection, 1820-2005 (C4018)
10.5 cubic feet (223 folders), 203 audio tapes, 41 audio cassettes, 35 audio discs, 2 video cassettes

 Finding Aid

The Loman and Laura Cansler Collection represents a lifetime of collecting on Missouri’s folk song and folklore tradition. Cansler recorded and collected folk songs, proverbs, jokes, and home remedies, primarily in Missouri, but also in Kansas and Illinois. In addition to this large body of folk song and folklore material, the collection includes information on Cansler’s early life in Dallas County, Missouri, his WWII service, and his career as a school counselor at the Fayette and North Kansas City High Schools. The collection also includes slides and prints of Laura Cansler’s abstract expressionist artwork.

Cape Girardeau Academy Collection, 1855 (R1056)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a program of exercises of the First Annual Exhibition of Cape Girardeau Academy, held at Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, on June 28, 1855. Included were elocutions and declamations by students, with musical interludes.

Carnahan Family Oral History Collection, 2001-2002 (SP0050)
0.5 cubic foot (9 folders, 19 cassette tapes)

 Finding Aid

The Carnahan Family Oral History Collection consists of nineteen cassette tapes featuring interviews with family members of Governor Mel Carnahan. They were interviewed by Alex Primm two to four months following the Governor’s death in a plane crash on October 16, 2000. 

Counties

Millietta Perdina Carpenter Photograph Collection, no date (K1082)
0.03 c.f. (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Photographs of bands and musicians.

Subjects

Counties

Carthage High School Collection, 1944 (R1244)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a program for "Oh Doctor," an operetta by Estelle M. and Palmer J. Clark, presented by the musical organizations of Carthage High School at Carthage in Jasper County, Missouri, on March 30-31, 1944. The director was Frances Ragsdale and the accompanist was Ruth Hibbs.

Counties

Michael Cave Papers, 1944-1997 (C2157)
7.0 cubic feet (278 folders), 21 audio cassettes, 62 audio tapes, 27 video cassettes, 1 compact disk, 2 audio discs, 8 oversize items

 Finding Aid

The Michael Cave Papers consist of personal and professional correspondence, business records, audiovisual material, and the compositions of Cave, a pianist and composer born in Missouri.

Central Labor Union, Springfield, Missouri Collection, 1939 (R0953)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a program for the Central Labor Union's Minstrel and Revue, held at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, on April 3, 1939. Produced and directed by Emmett McAtee and featuring Lasses White Minstrels, the show included 100 entertainers and featured minstrel, vaudeville, and night club scenes.

Counties

Charles Monroe Chase Papers, 1861 (C2371)
0.08 cubic feet (4 folders)

 Finding Aid

Letters, Civil War diary, and musical composition book of a band director from DeKalb County, IL. Chase enlisted in the 13th Illinois Regiment in July 1861 and was sent to Camp Rolla in Phelps County, MO. The diary describes camp life, the routine and practice that the band followed, military engagements, and Chase's opinions on the war. The letters to him were written by friends from Sycamore, IL.

Counties

Robert P. Christeson Collection, 1841-1995 (C3971)
36.0 cubic feet (887 folders), 1387 audio discs, 135 audio tapes, 152 audio cassettes, 112 wire recordings, 3 film reels

 Finding Aid

The Christeson Collection contains sheet music, song books, and other publications related to square dancing and folk dances, publications on the history of violins and fiddles, catalogs of instruments and musical recordings, correspondence, photographs and family papers, fiddle organization newsletters, fiddle contest flyers and folk festival information, and the working papers of volumes I and II of The Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory. In addition, this collection contains Christeson's original wire recordings, audio tapes, and audio discs of fiddle tunes, jam sessions, fiddle contests, and other folk genres.

Christian College (Columbia, Mo.) Records, 1836-1986 (C0038)
30 cubic feet (1,392 folders), 5 rolls of microfilm, 1 card file, 51 lantern slides, 11 audio cassettes

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The records of the first women’s college chartered in Missouri, and one of the first chartered west of the Mississippi River, consists of correspondence, catalogs, yearbooks, photographs, and financial records.

Counties

Donald M. Christisen Papers, 1870-2003 (C4054)
18.1 cubic feet (409 folders), 2 audio tapes, 27 audio cassettes

 Finding Aid

The papers of a wildlife field biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. They include correspondence, field diaries, maps, reports, studies, publications, and photographs. Christisen specialized in the study of native prairie ecosystems, prairie chickens, squirrels, and mast (forage nuts). The papers also include railroad timetables, accident reports, photographs, worker's logs, publications, maps, and blueprints documenting his interest in railroads.

Columbia (Mo.) Concerts and Events Collection, 1970s-2000s (CA6093)
4.87 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

Concert and event posters and miscellanea pertaining to the Blue Note, True/False Film Festival, and other venues and events located in Columbia, Missouri, and vicinity.

Subjects

Counties

Columbia Chorale (Columbia, Mo.) Records, 1978-2023 (CA6201)
8.8 cubic feet, 54 audio cassettes, 10 audio tapes, 23 CDs, 7 DVDs, 4 computer discs, 20 oversize items

 Finding Aid

Records of an independent, mixed ensemble dedicated to performing choral music. Founded as the Ad Hoc Singers in June 1978.

Subjects

Counties

Columbia Civic Orchestra (Columbia, Mo.) Records, 1995-2015 (CA6284)
1 cubic foot, 3 computer discs, 41 CDs, 2 oversize items

 Finding Aid

Records of a volunteer group dedicated to presenting and preserving high-quality symphonic music. Includes organizational records, publications, and audio recordings of performances.

Counties

Columbia Mothersingers Records, 1946-2021 (CA6623)
7.74 cubic feet, 2 oversize volumes, 1 computer disc, 2 DVDs

 Finding Aid

The records of the organization consist of scrapbooks, photograph albums, meeting minutes, membership lists, president’s notebooks, histories, and miscellaneous material.

Counties

Compton Heights Band of St. Louis Records, 1960-2022 (S0438)
17 c.f.

 Finding Aid

This collection consists of correspondence, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, photographs, negative slides, programs, flyers, scripts, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, and one vinyl record that document the band’s history and mission to play and preserve concert band music in the Compton Heights community.

Subjects

Counties