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Best / Shaw / Morrison Autograph & Photo Collection of Musicians & Composers


Johannes BrahmsSpecial Collections houses three collections of autographs, letters, and photographs of famous musicians. The first of these is the Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Best Collection of Autographs. Mr. Best, who graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1890 and directed conservatories all over the country, donated his sizeable collection of autographs to the college in 1948. His goal in creating his collection was to acquire one autograph letter each of as many different composers or musicians as possible. Among the musicians represented in this collection are C. P. E. Bach, Beethoven, Amy Beach, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Wagner, to name just a few. In 1967, the staff of the Conservatory Library translated each of these letters and published a guide to the collection, containing the translations of all of the letters, and facsimiles of many of them.

In addition to this collection, the following list also contains items from the Frank H. Shaw Collection of Photographs, and the Charles W. Morrison Collection of Photographs, both of which consist of signed photographs and portraits of musicians, and the Frederick G. Marks Collection, which consists mostly of music but included signed portraits and letters as well. Morrison and Shaw were Dean of the Conservatory in the 1920s to the 1940s. Marks was an Oberlin Alumnus (Class of 1940). Among the musicians in these collections are Nadia Boulanger, the von Trapp Family Singers, Percy Grainger, Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, Josef Lhevinne, and many others. The four collections of photographs have been housed together. More detailed information on the collections can be obtained in Special Collections.

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Last updated:
October 12, 2007
  
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