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Delaware County Choral Society collection
Notifications
Held at: Delaware County Historical Society [Contact Us]408 Avenue of the States, Chester, Pennsylvania, 19013
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Delaware County Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Delaware County Choral Society began performing in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania in 1927. The group was founded by Clyde Dengler, a former state senator, who served as the group's first director. Although the society was a community choir that did not require auditions for its members, it compiled an impressive resume, performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and working with world-renowned soloists, composers, and musicologists. The society's second director was nationally-recognized composer Edward Wetherill, who led the group from 1964 to 1989. The society toured a considerable amount, performing in Romania, Poland, Israel, and Spain; it also performed at the New York World's Fair and the White House.
Bibliography:
Bjorkgren, David. "Choral Society Been Singing Since '27." News of Delaware County. Upper Darby ed., Drexel Hill, ed. April 20, 1994. Clipping found in collection.
The collection consists of administrative and financial records as well as materials relating to the choral society's performances and concert tours.
Records include the following: minutes and other relevant papers, 1946-1993; financial records, including annual reports, treasurer's account books (1937-1958, 1980-1982), and a distribution of assets (2001); photographs; Constitution and By-Laws; member's handbooks; and membership lists.
Materials relating to performances include programs and ephemera, a videocassette of the Israel Concert Tour (May 25-June 4, 1995), 18 audiocassette tapes of performances (circa 1990-1997), and an LP recording entitled "Delaware County Choral Society, Volume 1."
The collection also includes three scrapbooks dating from 1934-1994 that contain newspaper clippings, programs from concerts, newsletters of the chorus, a few photographs, and other ephemera. The most recent scrapbook includes an LP recording from the mid-1970s. There are also materials relating to the society's disbanding.
Accession numbers 2006.04, 2007.07, and 2012.69.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Delaware County Historical Society directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Delaware County Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Delaware County Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.