Collections

This collection dating from 1923-1932 documents Mr. William Alford’s association with the Vanderbilt Glee Club and his time as a student of Vanderbilt University.

The André LeRoy Davis Hip Hop Collection features eight fine art prints featuring illustrations from the artist. Six of the illustrations were published in the Source between 1994 and 2003 in Davis’ editorial column “The Last Word.” The illustrations address issues of politics, culture, and justice through the lens of hip hop and show why Davis is considered the father of hip hop comics.

The Emma L. Ashford collection is comprised mostly of music composed by Mrs. Ashford, as well as by others. Mrs. Ashford’s music is in both manuscript and printed form. Most of her works contained in this collection pertain to Vanderbilt University. All the printed works of other composers in the collection relate to Vanderbilt.

The Alfred H. Bartles Papers (1874-2015) were donated to the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library from 2008-2015. A native of Tennessee and a former George Peabody College student, Bartles was active in New York, Germany, and Tennessee as a composer, arranger, cellist, pedagogue, and jazz pianist. His varied compositional output illustrates this mixture of influences, and reveals him as one of the first in a generation of composers equally at home in the Classical and jazz genres.

George Boswell was a Vanderbilt graduate, author, professor, and folklorist. The heart of the George Boswell collection consists of transcriptions of 1200 folk songs and ballads collected throughout Middle Tennessee between 1948 and 1952. Personal papers, commercial sheet music, choral arrangements, and student research papers round out the rest of the collection.

This collection contains three pieces of sheet music written by Lee Hastings Bristol, Jr. while he was stationed at Vanderbilt in 1944.

This collection contains 13 rare 19th Century imprints relating to the State of Tennessee.

This collection is composed of .5 Hollinger box with ten folders inside. More specifically there is incoming correspondence to Brown, a press release and photo of Richard M. “Pek” Gunn, the Fulbright program from 1956 to 1957, a report of the Fulbright program, and the music program at Peabody College. Productions tied to Brown include the play “The Beautiful People,” sheet music to “My Homeland, Tennessee,” and various other performances. Finally, there are writings by Brown.

This collection contains materials relating to Charles Faulkner Bryan and it includes photocopies of correspondence between Bryan and Donald Davidson, with whom he collaborated on the musical Singin’ Billy. Also in this collection is sheet music of pieces by Bryan and includes the Songs for Children Series, the Bell Witch Secular Folk Cantata, Tennessee Folk Songs and other music by Bryan.

This collection contains copies of the World War I letters of Captain Stanley Fisk Bryan to his mother, father, and brother. Most of the letters are typed, but several are handwritten. The collection also contains 3 newspaper clippings, 2 pamphlets, and song lyrics all relating to World War I.

This collection contains a letter written and signed by Albert Einstein on Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists letterhead in 1948 and newspaper clippings related to various music figures in the 1980s.

The Charles Stewart Jazz Portraits Collection consists of five photographs of jazz musicians taken in the 1960s by the African-American photographer Charles “Chuck” Stewart (1927-2017) in New York, including photographs of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Roy Eldridge.

This collection contains two flat boxes of sheet music, mostly from the turn of the twentieth century, collected by Mary Bang Connell of Nashville while she was attending Belmont College.

This collection contains the musical score for Cortex and ankle: songs after texts of Christopher Middleton, by Michael Hersch.

The Francis Craig Collection contains material ranging in date from 1919 to 1994 and makes up 2.51 linear feet. The papers include personal and biographical information, correspondence, memorabilia, and photographs. The major portion of the collection, however, dates from the 1930’s and 1940’s and consists of clippings, sheet music, and recordings.

The Cyrus Daniel Papers include compositions and arrangements by Daniel; miscellaneous programs 1944-1951; a bound copy of Vanderbilt University A Cappella Choir History, 1937-1967; and a selection of A Cappella Choir records, 1944-1965.