Call Number:

3696

Repository:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Extent:

6.7 linear feet (; 17 boxes, 1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], University Glee Club of Philadelphia records (Collection 3696), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Date:

circa 1930-2012, undated

Creator:

University Glee Club of Philadelphia.

Abstract:

The University Glee Club of Philadelphia was organized in November 1933 with seventeen charter members under the musical direction of H. Alexander Matthews. The club performed its final concert in 2012. The University Glee Club of Philadelphia records, circa 1930s-2012, include administrative and financial records, membership lists, internal correspondence, and meeting minutes, as well as concert programs and ephemera, photographs, and audio recordings.

The University Glee Club of Philadelphia was organized in November 1933 with seventeen charter members under the musical direction of H. Alexander Matthews, but did not begin performing choral music until just over a year later. The Club's first official concert was January 2-3, 1935, when the members wore costumes and performed a dramatized selection of early eighteenth century Christmas carols. The men who came to make up the club were from a variety of colleges and universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Bucknell University, New York University, and Cornell University. They performed locally and regionally (for example, in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Maryland), and their repertoire eventually included both classical and contemporary songs. The performed for institutions ranging from churches to high schools to conventions, and put on an annual concert in the spring and often a Christmas concert in December. The Club also performed with other musical groups at larger events and occasionally featured female soloists. The University Glee Club's final spring concert was held on April 26, 2012, at the Cathedral Village in Andorra, a neighborhood in the northwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The University Glee Club of Philadelphia records include administrative and financial records, concert programs, photographs, audio recordings, and other items spanning from the 1930s to 2012. The collection documents the activities and administration of a musical group that was founded during the pre-World War II era and lasted for some 80 years. The collection is divided into three series: Administrative and financial records; Programs, concerts, members, and miscellaneous; and Photographs, audio materials, and artifacts.

Series I (Administrative and financial records) consists of records from Glee Club meetings, and materials detailing the club’s financial activity. Series II (Programs, concerts, members, and miscellaneous) contains material pertaining to the Glee Club’s performance history, members and membership, and general club history. Series III (Photographs, audio materials, and artifacts) features material that documents the visual and aural history of the Glee Club, member attire, and performance props.

This collection may be of particular interest to musical historians because it chronicles the activities of a music group over a long period and through many important events of the twentieth century. Additionally, the audio recordings will offer musical historians the opportunity to hear arrangements and harmonies used by an all-male music group. Musical historians may also be interested in exploring the concert programs as an overview of the evolution of choral song selection and how it might have been influenced by specific events during World War II, the 1960s, and the 1970s. The programs might also give musical historians an idea of the time it took the club to add a popular modern-day song to its repertoire, and how long thereafter the club continued to perform it. For example, "You'll Never Walk Alone," written in 1945, was performed by the Glee Club from 1949 well into the 1970s.

Beyond musical historians, the member lists, information and news clippings relating to specific members and the large number of photographs in the collection may prove interesting to and useful for genealogists. Historians may also be interested in the collection because it shows the ways in which the social bonds created among collegians continued after graduation, and documents the functions, activities, and culture of a social organization over several decades.

I. Administrative and financial records, circa 1940s-2012, undated; 8.5 boxes, 1 volume

II. Programs, concerts, members, and miscellaneous, circa 1930s-2012, undated; 4 boxes

III. Photographs, audio materials, and artifacts, circa 1930s-2002, undated; 4.5 boxes