Special Collections Finding Aids

E. Maude Wilson Collection - Printed Music

Accession: SC1996.14

Location: M1B 8,5 - 2A 1,4

Size: 16 feet

Provenance: This collection was received in June 1969. It originally consisted of over 260 binders collection volumes, of which 230 have been located and drawn together for this collection. The remainder may have been cataloged individually and distributed in the regular collection. The majority of the volumes bear either a book plate with the name E. Maude Wilson, or have that name written in the Library's marginal annotation relating to acquisition. No information has yet been discovered as to the identity of E. Maude Wilson. The accession date is not definitive, as items were often received into the library an not accessioned until years subsequently. Most of the volumes are bound identically or quite similarly. Merchants' stamps on many items indicate that the music was purchased in New York City at or about the time of its publication.

Scope and Content: This collection contains over 2500 items of late 19th-century music, almost exclusively for piano solo of piano four hands. Many of the items are likely first editions, and the great majority are certainly contemporary with their composers' lifetime. The collection includes music by both major composers and a wide variety of lesser and even virtually unknown figures. It represents a major collection of great breadth relating to piano literature in the late 19th century.

Associations: The Malcolm Frager Collection in Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections provides a highly complementary collection of music for the piano from a period beginning slightly earlier that the E. Maude Wilson Collection.

Restrictions: All items in the collection are in public domain. Because of the great fragility of most of the volumes and their contents, photocopying is generally impossible and will be considered under only extreme circumstances.

Series: 1

Series Name: Printed Music

Series Description: The series consists of 230 volumes of piano music in binders collections, each volume containing approximately 5 to 25 items. About half of the volumes are devoted to the works of a single composer, with the total number of volumes for a single composer varying from one to 15 or more. The remainder of the volumes are miscellaneous collections of the works of several composers, often including the same composers to whom individual volumes have been dedicated. The volumes arranged first alphabetically by composer for those volumes devoted to a single composer, and thereafter in simple numerical order for the miscellaneous volumes. The finding aid has been sorted by composer and title for ease of use.