John M. Ward, recently deceased William Powell Mason Professor of Music emeritus at Harvard University, was fascinated by the business side of music, particularly the relationship between composers and publishers. In the course of pursuing this fascination, he had the opportunity to purchase a large collection of business-related correspondence assembled by Albi Rosenthal, English antiquarian Read More

Finding aids for 8 newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for one recent acquisition, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including Aubrey Beardsley illustrations, a major addition to our Johnny Green collection, and letters of Edwin Booth.     Processed by Michael W. Austin: Johnny Green Additional Papers, 1880-1989 (MS Read More

In a noticeably hurried hand, George Bernard Shaw dashed off a letter to famed actress Ellen Terry. He was sending along the last proofs of his play Mrs. Warren’s Profession for her opinion. “The post is just going,” he wrote, “and there is no further communication with this place for 48 hours.” Having had time Read More

When you think of Austrian folksongs, perhaps like me you think of Edelweis, or lovely sweet Ländler tunes in the same style? Recently while cataloging a bound volume of Austrian dance music (I thought) from the Congress of Vienna, I ran across this imprint of three Beliebte tyroler Lieder. When I saw the first page Read More

Removed from Houghton’s copy of Sir William Edward Parry’s Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Performed in the Years 1819-20 is a clutch of letters and other papers tracing differing methods of polar exploration in the nineteenth century. First, a note from Sir George Read More