Manuscript Collection


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THE CENTER FOR POPULAR MUSIC, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY,

MURFREESBORO, TN

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS                                  GENERAL OPEN GROUP
 

Scope and Content

This group includes purchases and donations of single items or small groups of papers, primarily letters, which cannot appropriately be filed in the vertical files. The items in the group are filed by date. Each acquisition is described separately as follows. This is an open group.
 

Location:

Single items filed by date in manuscript section of the stacks in box labeled Miscellaneous Papers. 

 

NOTE:  In March 2008 there were a total of nine items in the Miscellaneous Papers group. Individual finding aids can be searched in the InMagic Archives database. Items are listed below in chronological order by date.

 

1.         87-029  Two Receipts

 

Physical Description: 2 items, music lessons receipts.

 

Dates: December 31, 1836 and July 9, 1837

 

Provenance: Purchased from J. J. Lubrano, 1987.

 

Scope and content:

Two receipts for music lessons written to Sara Evelyn Upjohn by Mrs. Brown for music lessons given to Miss Brown. The December 31, 1836 receipt also includes payment for  “Hunten Instruction Book” for $3.50. The music instruction cost $12.00, for a total of $15.50. The July 9, 1827 includes payment for 19 pages of music for $1.10; music instruction $12.00, for a total of $13.10.

 

 

2.         02-015   Singing Class Note

 

Physical Description:  1 item. Note.

 

Dates:  [1 November 1840]

 

Provenance:  Purchased from Savoy Books, Lanesborough, Massachusetts January 2003.

 

Scope and content:

Note written by Ruth A. Edmundson Russell found inside front cover of The Musician, explaining that the book was used in a singing class taught by Mr. Sharp.  A concert was given in the Third Street Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio using this book.  The date listed above was found inside the book cover, however, the note was written sometime later.

 

 

3.         06-001   Letter from Singing School

 

Physical Description: 1 letter

 

Dates: March 7, 1856

 

Provenance: Purchased from CJG Enterprises in December 2006.

 

Scope and content:

Titled, “A short address to and in behalf of the scholars to their teacher Mr. David C. Crawford at the close of singing school in District No. 10 in the town of Salem March 7th, 1856,” this two-page hand-written letter extends thanks to Mr. Crawford from his students. “We heartily congratulate him on the success of his first effort in teaching vocal music….” It is signed in reverse: John B. Fairley.

 

4.         94-080  Letter from Schoolteacher

 

Physical Description: 1 item.  Letter, two pages in length, with envelope.

 

Dates: 19 March 1869.

 

Provenance: Purchased from J & J Lubrano.

 

Scope and content:

Autograph letter from a young woman named Delia, living near Windsor, Missouri, to her cousin Gus, (R. A. Park) in Cedron , Ohio.  Delia is a school teacher, not currently working because she “could not brave the prairies in winter,” and because her help is needed at home.  The letter describes how she sat down “to the melodion,” for respite after a long day of washing, when she received her cousin’s letter.  She suggests that would her cousin come to visit, he could give her guitar lessons, though he would find her a “dull scholar” who plays too much “at random.”  She also invites him to join a Saturday night singing at the schoolhouse, at which they wing from a book entitled The Key Note, which she declares is “behind the times,” but still suitable to this group of beginners.

 

 

5.         06-021  Two Newspaper Clippings

 

Physical Description: 2 items: 2 newspaper clippings

 

Dates: [1903]

 

Provenance: Found in Fanny Crosby’s Life-Story, purchased from Steve Finer Books, Greenfield, MA, in January 2007.

 

Scope and content:

Two newspaper clippings from unidentified newspaper. One is a poem titled “Fanny Crosby. By Margaret F. Sangster.” The second clipping is a photograph of Lillie Hamilton French, author of “Hezekiah’s Wives” published by the Century Company.

 

 

 

6.         90-005  Letter,  Monarch Talking Machine Co.

 

Physical Description: 1 item, letter.

 

Dates: 10 March 1917

 

Provenance: Purchased from Paul Ritscher, August, 1990.

 

Scope and content:

Letter, 10 March 1917, from  [William?] Johnson, general manager, Monarch Talking Machine Co., Menomonie, Wisconsin, to McClellan Bros., Red Boiling Spring, Tennessee, soliciting an order from the firm for Monarch’s Style 100 and Style 125 talking machines. A pamphlet describing the machines to which Johnson refers in the letter was not with the letter when received by the Center.

 

 

 

7.         03-011  Royalty Agreement

 

Physical Description: 1 item, agreement

 

Dates: October 31, 1938

 

Provenance: Gift from Charles Wolfe, November 2003.

 

Scope and content:

A royalty agreement between William McCloskey and Brunswick Record Corporation, Fort Lee, New Jersey for a phonograph record titled “Barn Dance of Long Ago.”  The author received ½ cents per record for a quantity of 2,052 records.

 

 

8.         90-005  Autograph, Cliff Richard

 

Physical Description: 1 item, autograph.

 

Dates: Undated [ca. 1960]

 

Provenance: Removed from Center copy of It’s Great To Be Young by Cliff Richard.

 

Scope and content:

Undated autograph on fan club form of British pop/rock star Cliff Richard.

 

 

9.         06-001  Two letters to Harry Eskew

 

Physical Description: 2 letters

 

Dates: March 17, 1967 and September 1968

 

Provenance: Gift to the Center from Harry Eskew, New Orleans, Louisiana in July 2007.

 

Scope and content:

Two letters to Harry Eskew regarding Primitive Baptist hymnal publication. One from Mrs. C. H. Cayce, March 17, 1967 and the other from Mrs. LaVista Lloyd Smith, September 1968. The letter from Mrs. Cayce concerns the Cayce Publishing Company of Thornton, Arkansas, which published The Good Old Songs. The letter from Mrs. Smith provides information and publishing history of Primitive Hymns, the oldest Baptist hymnal.

 

 

 

LPC March 2008; revised June 2014