Call Number:

3150

Repository:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Extent:

53.6 linear feet (131 boxes, 17 volumes, 6 flat files)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here] HSP collection of Academy of Music programs, playbills, and scrapbooks (Collection 3150), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Date:

1857-1972, undated

Creator:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Abstract:

This collection consists of playbills and programs to the various performances and special programs staged at the Academy of Music from 1857 to 1972. Among the organizations represented in the collection are the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and various opera companies. There are also programs from out-of-state companies, such as the Boston Symphyony Orchestra. In addition to the programs there are also several scrapbooks that contain ephemera and newsclippings of reviews and announcements of performances as well as special events and programs.

The Academy of Music opened its doors on January 26, 1857 with a Grand Inaugural Ball after “18 years of planning and no less than five attempts to open a grand opera house in Philadelphia” (Academy of Music, 30). The first failed attempt to raise funds for the building of an opera house began in 1851, but the first official stock subscription was sold in mid-1852. While the subscriptions did not sell as quickly as hoped, the first advertisement for an opera house to be built on the intersection of Broad Street and Locust Street in Center City was run in October 1854. By early 1855, architects Napoleon LeBrun and Gustav Rungé were hired for the building of the “American Academy of Music at Philadelphia” (specific construction details can be found in the publication by LeBrun and Rungé, 1855). The cornerstone of the foundation for the Academy of Music was laid on July 26, 1855, with United States President Franklin Pierce, Pennsylvania Governor James Pollock, and Philadelphia Mayor Robert T. Conrad present.

The Academy of Music was fully intended to be an opera house for large productions, such as that of Il Travatore, Faust, and many others. However, its duties as an opera house grew quickly to include live theatre, vaudeville, ballet, lectures, political events, and local events such as college commencements, conferences, and benefits. From the Civil War onwards, the Academy of Music was a “civic forum,” used to, for example, nominate Ulysses S. Grant to run for his second term in office as President. Special productions in celebration of the nation’s centennial and the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States were marked in the building.

One historical event that took place inside the academy was a concert, conducted by Maurice Strakosch in New York City in 1877, that was transmitted via telephone to the Philadelphia site. This use of Alexander Graham Bell’s technology was a novelty at the time. While some considered the performance to be of less caliber than a live performance, the many patrons at the Academy of Music that evening applauded each piece and were astounded by the technology.

In 1900, the Philadelphia Orchestra took up residence at the Academy of Music, with Fritz Scheel as conductor. In the 1930s, the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company and the Littlefield Ballet companies were founded and also resided at the academy. While the building was used frequently, the academy developed serious financial problems during the first part of the twentieth century. As a result, the Academy of Music was liquidated in 1957 and reestablished as the Academy of Music, Inc., which is now a subsidiary of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. With the safety of the future of the academy restored, fundraising began in 1957 to renovate amd restore the building. When this work was completed in 1963, the building was registered as a National Historic Landmark.

By the 1950s, the Pennsylvania Ballet Company had become a resident of the Academy of Music. Around 1975 The Grand Opera Company and The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company, both residents of the academy, merged to become the Opera Company of Philadelphia. To this day, the ballet and opera companies are the only remaining local companies-in-residence at the Academy of Music, while the Philadelphia Orchestra now predominantly performs at the Kimmel Center at Broad and Spruce streets. While the Kimmel Center, Inc. operates the Academy of Music, the academy is still owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the Orchestra still performs its annual concert and ball at the academy. In 2007, the Academy of Music celebrated its 150th anniversary, with the concert and ball entitled “Celebrating Generations."

The Academy of Music materials span from the organization's founding in 1857 to 1972 and are housed in one hundred and thirty-one boxes, seventeen volumes, and six flat files. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania's staff assembled the collection gradually from materials that were received from multiple sources over time. The collection remains organized in several groups as found, the largest being mixed programs. While boxes of these mixed programs are in chronological order, within these boxes arrangement is sometimes by date and sometimes by type or organization. Since the academy’s open season generally lasted from late September to June, there are no programs dating from July or August in any given year, and programs from June tend to be for school commencements. Oversized programs, newsletters, and miscellaneous printed materials are arranged chronologically in Box 120. Early oversized playbills in broadside form have been removed to Flat Files 1 to 6. Also note that Boxes 116 and 117 contain programs dating from 1857 to 1946 that have not yet been interfiled chronologically in the collection.

With the exception of clippings that can be found pasted into some of the early scrapbooks, the collection is made up entirely of printed programs and playbills. There are no records documenting the operations of the academy itself. Despite this, researchers can glean information from the collection about Philadelphia’s cultural history through not only the evidence of the companies that resided at the academy or visited the city, but also the numerous advertisements that were placed in the programs. Programs dating up to about the 1950s, and especially those from the late nineteenth century, are particularly artistic and show off the fashionable motifs and fonts of the day.

In addition to programs from various theatrical and musical organizations, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Metropolitan Opera Company, Princeton's Triangle Club, Philadelphia Grand Opera Company, Pennsylvania Ballet,and Boston Symphony Orchestra, the collection also contains numerous programs from local schools and groups that held their receptions, balls, commencements, benefits, and reunions at the academy. For such events, unusual and eleborate programs and dance cards were sometimes created; examples of such items can be found in Boxes 121, 122, and 123. And since, from the time of the Civil War, the Academy was used as civic forum, there are also scattered programs documenting political rallies, lectures, educational programs, and national events, like the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Tickets, ticket stubs, invitations, advertising cards, librettos, and miscellaneous non-academy publications, including pamphlets, booklets, speeches, sheet music, and newsletters, were removed from the bulk of the collection to Boxes 124, 125, and 126.

Rounding out the collection are nineteen scrapbooks (two of which have been disbound and are in Boxes 127 to 131) that contain a variety of programs dating from 1857 to 1881. For the most part, these programs duplicate those found in the boxes. Loose items from the scrapbooks have been foldered; and these folders have been placed in Boxes 1 and 2. Aside from programs, a few of the early scrapbooks also contains clippings with information on or reviews of specific performances. Also scattered through the books are meeting notices, tickets, cards, and other ephemera.

Volume 1: Scrapbook (1857)

Box 1: Mixed programs and loose items removed from scrapbooks (1857 - 1872)

Boxes 116-117: Mixed Programs (1857 - 1909, 1931 - 1946)

Volume 2: Scrapbook (1858 - 1860)

Volume 3: Scrapbook (1859 - 1861)

Box 120: Oversized programs (1859 - 1972)

Boxes 121-123: Dance cards (1859 - 1921, undated)

Box 124: Miscellaneous tickets, booklets, addresses, and other ephemera (1859 - 1946, undated)

Flat files 1-3: Playbills (1859)

Flat file 4: Playbills (1860 - 1864)

Volume 4: Scrapbook (1861 - 1862)

Volume 5: Scrapbook (1862 - 1863)

Volume 6: Scrapbook (1863 - 1864)

Volume 7: Scrapbook (1865 - 1866)

Volume 8: Scrapbook (1866)

Volume 9: Scrapbook (1866 - 1868)

Flat files 5-6: Playbills (1867, 1868, 1886, undated)

Volume 10: Scrapbook (1868 - 1869)

Volume 11: Scrapbook (1869 - 1870)

Volume 12: Scrapbook (1870)

Volume 13: Scrapbook (1871 - 1872)

Volume 14: Scrapbook (1872)

Volume 15: Scrapbook (1872 - 1873)

Box 2: Mixed programs and loose items removed from scrapbooks (1872 - 1887)

Boxes 118-119: Orpheus Club programs (1872 - 1945)

Volume 16: Scrapbook (1873 - 1876)

Boxes 127 - 128: Scrapbook [disbound] (1876 - 1879)

Volume 17: Scrapbook (1879 - 1880)

Boxes 129 - 131: Scrapbook [disbound] (1881 - 1887)

Box 126: Miscellaneous librettos and sheet music (circa 1880 - circa 1900)

Box 3: Mixed programs (1882 - 1889)

Box 4: Mixed programs (May 1890 - April 1891)

Box 5: Mixed programs (May 1891 - May 1892)

Box 6: Mixed programs (1893 - April 1895)

Box 7: Mixed programs (May 1895 - February 1896)

Box 8: Mixed programs (March 1896 - November 1900)

Box 9: Mixed programs (December 1900 - November 1901)

Box 10: Mixed programs (December 1901 - June 1902)

Box 11: Mixed programs (September 1902 - March 1903)

Box 12: Mixed programs (April 1903 - April 1904)

Box 13: Mixed programs (May 1904 - May 1905)

Box 14: Mixed programs (1905 - 1906)

Box 15: Mixed programs (1906 - 1907)

Box 16 - 17: Mixed programs (1907 - 1908)

Box 18 - 19: Mixed programs (1908 - 1909)

Box 20 - 21: Mixed programs (1909 - 1910)

Box 22: Mixed programs (1910 - 1911)

Box 23: Mixed programs (1911 - 1912)

Box 24 - 25: Mixed programs (1912 - 1913)

Box 26: Mixed programs (1913 - 1914)

Box 27: Mixed programs (1914 - 1915)

Box 28: Mixed programs (1915 - 1916)

Box 29: Mixed programs (1916 - 1917)

Box 30: Mixed programs (1917 - 1919)

Box 31: Mixed programs (1919 - 1920)

Box 32 - 33: Mixed programs (1920 - 1921)

Box 34: Mixed programs (1921 - 1922)

Box 35 - 36: Mixed programs (1922 - 1923)

Box 37: Mixed programs (1923 - 1924)

Box 38: Mixed programs (1923 - 1924)

Box 39 - 40: Mixed programs (1924 - 1925)

Box 41: Mixed programs (1925 - 1926)

Box 42: Mixed programs (1926 - 1927)

Box 43: MIxed programs (1927 - 1928)

Box 44: Mixed programs (1928 - 1929)

Box 45: Mixed programs (1929 - 1930)

Box 125: Miscellaneous publications, including magazines, booklets, newspapers, newsletters (1929 - circa 1970)

Box 46: Mixed programs (1930 - March 1932)

Box 47: Mixed programs (April 1932 - December 1932)

Box 48: Mixed programs (December 1932 - January 1933)

Box 49: Mixed programs (February - June 1933)

Box 50: Mixed programs (October 1933 - January 1934)

Box 51: Mixed programs (January - March 1934)

Box 52: Mixed programs (March - October 1934)

Box 53: Mixed programs (October 1934 - January 1935)

Box 54: Mixed programs (February - May 1935)

Box 55: Mixed programs (June 1935 - February 1936)

Box 56: Mixed programs (March - October 1936)

Box 57: Mixed programs (November 1936 - February 1937)

Box 58: Mixed programs (March - June 1937)

Box 59: Mixed programs (September - December 1937)

Box 60: Mixed programs (January - March 1938)

Box 61: Mixed programs (April - October 1938)

Box 62: Mixed programs (November 1938 - January 1939)

Box 63: Mixed programs (February - April 1939)

Box 64: Mixed programs (May - December 1939)

Box 65: Mixed programs (January - March 1940)

Box 66: Mixed programs (April - November 1940)

Box 67: Mixed programs (December 1940 - February 1941)

Box 68: Mixed programs (March - October 1941)

Box 69: Mixed programs (November - December 1941)

Box 70: Mixed programs (January - March 1942)

Box 71: Mixed programs (March - November 1942)

Box 72: Mixed programs (December 1942 - March 1943)

Box 73: Mixed programs (April - December 1943)

Box 74: Mixed programs (December 1943 - April 1944)

Box 75: Mixed programs (May - December 1944)

Box 76: Mixed Programs (January – May 1945)

Box 77: Mixed Programs (June 1945 – January 1946)

Box 78: Mixed Programs (February – April 1946)

Box 79: Mixed Programs (May – November 1946)

Box 80: Mixed Programs (December 1946 – February 1947)

Box 81: Mixed Programs (February – May 1947)

Box 82: Mixed Programs (June – December 1947)

Box 83: Mixed Programs (January – April 1948)

Box 84: Mixed Programs (May 1948 – January 1949)

Box 85: Mixed Programs (January – May 1949)

Box 86: Mixed Programs (September 1950 – November 1951)

Box 87: Mixed Programs (December 1951 – May 1952)

Box 88: Mixed Programs (October 1952 – October 1953)

Box 89: Mixed Programs (November 1953 – December 1954)

Box 90: Mixed Programs (January 1955 – October 1956)

Box 91: Mixed Programs (November 1956 – April 1958)

Box 92: Mixed Programs (May 1958 – February 1960)

Box 93: Mixed Programs (March 1960 – February 1961)

Box 94: Mixed Programs (March 1961 – March 1962)

Box 95: Mixed Programs (April 1962 – January 1963)

Box 96: Mixed Programs (February – December 1963)

Box 97: Mixed Programs (January – October 1964)

Box 98: Mixed Programs (November 1964 – April 1965)

Box 99: Mixed Programs (May 1965 – February 1966)

Box 100: Mixed Programs (March – December 1966)

Box 101: Mixed Programs (January – October 1967)

Box 102: Mixed Programs (October 1967 – January 1968)

Box 103: Mixed Programs (October 1967 – January 1968)

Box 104: Mixed Programs (May 1968 – December 1968)

Box 105: Mixed Programs (January – March 1969)

Box 106: Mixed Programs (April – September 1969)

Box 107: Mixed Programs (October 1969 – January 1970)

Box 108: Mixed Programs (February – April 1970)

Box 109: Mixed Programs (May – November 1970)

Box 110: Mixed Programs (December 1970 – February 1971)

Box 111: Mixed Programs (March – May 1971)

Box 112: Mixed Programs (June - December 1972)

Box 113: Mixed Programs (December 1971 - March 1972)

Box 114: Mixed Programs (March - June 1972)

Box 115: Mixed Programs (undated)