Finding Aids about Music
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Alton Railroad Community Band
The Alton Railroad Community Band was established to boost ticket sales during the Great Depression. The Band performed in and around t...
Amateur Musical Club
This collection contains programs (1897-1993), yearbooks (1893-1993), financial records, annual meeting minutes, newsletters, and newsp...
Arthur Drake School Band of America Collection
The School Band of America – School Chorus of America was founded July 1, 1959 and established itself as an integral part of the Americ...
Barth, Pat
Pat Barth donated this collection which contains materials from her early school days and other miscellaneous papers from her days grow...
Behr, Lincoln A. Theater Program
Lincoln A. Behr was born in Bloomington June 18, 1896. Behr enjoyed going to the theater as a form of entertainment. Behr and Lyle Ba...
Bloomington Band Association
This collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, membership lists, and legal documents and leases....
Bloomington Chapter Sweet Adelines
The Bloomington Chapter of Sweet Adelines joined Sweet Adelines International in 1952 and were known as Midwest Gateway #5. They entert...
Bloomington-Normal Symphony
The Bloomington-Normal Symphony Orchestra collection consists of six boxes. The material dates from 1950 to 1997. The B-N Symphony ce...
Burleigh, Cecil
Cecil Burleigh was born April 17, 1885 in Wyoming, New York. The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where at the age of 6 he showed a tal...
Dance Card
Dance cards usually listed the specific dances to be performed and provided lines for ladies to fill in the names of their dance partne...
Dietrich, George
George Dietrich (1816-1900) was born in Bevidere, New Jersey, to Pennsylvania parents of German descent. The seventh of nine children,...
Dowell, Joe
Joseph Harry Dowell (1940-2016) was born January 23, 1940 in Bloomington, Indiana. Joe began writing songs at the age of thirteen and ...
Goforth
Jonathan (J. C.) Goforth moved his family from Canton, Illinois to Bloomington, Illinois in 1903. Although he and his...
Grand Opera House
The Grand Opera House was built 1890-1891 and stood at 106-110 E. Market Street in Bloomington under the management of Charles E. Perry...
Harvey Family
This small collection along with a large collection of photographs was found in the attic of a house in Normal, IL. James C. Harvey was...
Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival
On Memorial Day weekend in 1970 an estimated 60,000 people, mostly hippies and college-age students, descended on the village of Heywor...
Litta, Marie
The Marie Litta Collection consists of materials relating to the life, career, and death of the famous Bloomington soprano. The bulk of...
May Christian Collection
Annie May Christian (she went by May for most of her life) was born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1866 to Matthew and Elizabeth (Mitchell) C...
Normal Summer Theatre
The High School Summer Theatre Program—now sponsored by the Town of Normal’s Department of Cultural Arts—dates to 1972. That year, the ...
Phonograph and Audio
The history of McLean County has been recorded and captured on vinyl covering a variety of subjects in a variety of ways. From the spee...
Porter, Ida
Ida Porter was a soprano who could sing in English, German, French, and Italian; both classical and modern concert songs, cavatinas, an...
Pratt, Awadagin
Awadagin Pratt was born in Pittsburgh in 1966. He began studying piano at the age of six. When he was nine, his family moved to Norma...
Reis, Evelyn
Evelyn Reis, also known as Evy, was born on September 17, 1918 in Chenoa, Illinois. She is a writer and poet. She is also known for w...
Selk, Mary
Born in Peoria, Mary Ellen Selk (1921-2023) graduated El Paso High in 1939, attended Illinois Wesleyan University, and earned both BA (...
Sheet Music
This collection includes approximately 750 individual pieces of sheet music, booklets and books copyrighted from 1870 through 1968. A f...
Stevens, Saltzman Minnie
The Minnie Saltzman Stevens Papers consists of personal and legal papers belonging to the noted Bloomington-born Wagnerian soprano. ...
Vanderwater, Leon Musical Program
Leon “Vandy” Vanderwater (1898-1998) was raised in Kankakee, IL and moved to Bloomington, IL in 1921 to work for the Cable Piano Compan...
Vera Pearl Kemp Scrapbooks Collection
Vera Pearl Kemp was born December 19, 1895 at London, Kentucky, daughter of James and Cora Pearl. She attended Nazareth Music College i...
Waddell, Jack
Collection contains newspaper clippings, performance programs, photos, and ephemera tracing Jack Waddell’s operatic career (mostly in G...
WLS Barn Dance
WLS Radio’s National Barn Dance was one of the most popular and longest running programs on radio. The show blended music, comedy, and ...