Main content
Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia records
Notifications
Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. 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 Society
In his memoirs John K. Kane (1795-1858), a lawyer and Judge for the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has left us an engaging account of the beginnings of the Musical Fund Society. Kane, an amateur musician, founded the Musical Fund Society in company with his friends, Dr. Robert M. Patterson, Dr. William P. DeWees, and a number of noted professional musicians in Philadelphia.
In 1820, Dr. Patterson, Dr. DeWees, and myself gathered together the better sort from among the Musicians of Philadelphia, and organized the Musical Fund. Old Ben Carr, the kind and simple-hearted, - queer George Schetky, with his one eye and one wig, both fiery, - Charles Hupfeldt [sic], who was up to that time the Solo Violin of Philadelphia, for all except some Gramsetral variations that Gillingham used to play delightfully as often as he could get a concert of hearers, - Gilles, a violoncello, fresh from the Conservatoire, - Load [sic, Thomas Loud] and Ben Cross the elder, deputies of Carr, - these made the staple of the Society. (Autobiography of the Honorable John K. Kane, pp. 63-64.) John K. Kane served as the first secretary of the Musical Fund Society from 1820 to 1821, was vice-president from 1829 to 1834, and was its third president from 1854 to 1856. The first president was Dr. William P. DeWees from 1820 to 1838, followed by Kane's friend Dr. Robert M. Patterson from 1838 to 1853. Conductors Benjamin Carr and his business partner George Schetky both served as Directors of the Music and Managers of the Fund for the Society.
The purposes of the Musical Fund Society were two (as stated in the Charter): "the relief of decayed musicians and their families, and the cultivation of skill and diffusion of taste in music." In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Musical Fund performed some of the functions of a beneficial and protective association, providing monetary relief to professional members who were sick, payment for funeral expenses, and payments to surviving widows and children of professional members. After 1938 no new members were admitted to the former professional membership category, and, therefore, the provision of relief for members and their families has gradually diminished: only two widows were receiving relief in 1994.
The "cultivation of skill and diffusion of taste in music" was provided for by performances given by the orchestra and chorus of the Musical Fund Society, conducted by Benjamin Carr (1768-1831), Benjamin Cross (1786-1857), George Schetky (1776-1831), Charles F. Hupfeld (1787-1864), Thomas Loud (1752-1833), and Peter Gilles, violoncellist and composer. At the inception of the Society, both men and women were admitted as amateur and professional members. Benjamin Carr came to America from England with his family in 1792, and established businesses as a music dealer in Philadelphia and New York, while his father Joseph and brother Thomas operated the family music publishing firm in Baltimore. Carr was a publisher, actor, singer, organist (at St. Peter's and at St. Augustine's in Philadelphia), pianist, composer, and conductor both in New York and Philadelphia. Many of Benjamin Carr's compositions and arrangements have been collected (and cataloged) in the Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, part of the library of the Musical Fund Society. Carr's death in 1831 was a blow to the Musical Fund Society, but his work was carried on by one of his former students, Benjamin Cross, one of the principal leaders of the Society until 1857. The Musical Fund Society voted funds to erect a memorial, designed by William Strickland, to Benjamin Carr at his grave in St. Peter's cemetery in Philadelphia.
Many notable performers and performances were presented under the auspices of the Musical Fund Society, from its first concert in 1821 throughout the nineteenth century. Haydn's oratorio The Creation was given its first performance in Philadelphia in 1822 by the Musical Fund Society, featuring the highly praised singing of Mrs. French, a pupil of Benjamin Carr. Haydn's The Seasons was performed in 1835 and again in 1839. The Musical Fund Society gave the first performance in the United States of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in 1841.
Following the death of conductor Benjamin Cross in 1857, the Society's concerts were directed by Leopold Meignen. The Germania Orchestra was reorganized in 1856 and played weekly "public rehearsals" in Musical Fund Hall until 1868. Later, just before the turn of the cenntury, in 1896-1897, members of the Germania Orchestra conducted by Henry Gordon Thunder gave a series of performances in Musical Fund Hall, subsidized by the Musical Fund Society. This orchestra was the core group of musicians that were to form the Philadelphia Orchestra, founded in 1900 under conductor Fritz Scheel. Encouraged by the Musical Fund Society, the Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsed in Musical Fund Hall in 1900 and 1901 and on a number of occasions thereafter. The Musical Fund Society also supported the Philadelphia Orchestra by helping to raise funds for the Orchestra during a financial crisis in 1919 and by helping financially to establish its summer concerts in Robin Hood Dell in the 1930s.
Thomas Sully (1783-1872), the noted Philadelphia painter, was a member of the Musical Fund Society, served as vice-president, and painted portraits of many of its founders and presidents. These paintings along with other portraits of Musical Fund Society presidents by artists John Clarendon Darley, Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), Wayman Adams (1883-1959), and Leopold G. Seyffert were dispersed during the 1940s and 1950s (some were given to family members of past-presidents of the Society). A photographic record of these portraits can be found in Box 64.
Musical Fund Hall
All the historical and anecdotal descriptions of Musical Fund Hall praise the building for its unsurpassed acoustics. Located on the 800 block of Locust Street near Washington Square in Philadelphia, the building was constructed in 1824, just a few years after the founding of the Society, with plans developed by William Strickland (1787-1854), the eminent American architect and civil engineer. John K. Kane recalled his part in building Musical Fund Hall: It [the Musical Fund Society] met, and made bad music for a year or two in the third story of Dufief's bookstore, - then hired the hall of the Carpenters' Company, and gave its concerts in the Washington Hall, - till that burnt down, - and then in a moment of lucky delirium we determined to build a hall for ourselves. I bought the ground of Alexander Henry, a church of premature dilapidation, and its graveyard [the Fifth Presbyterian Church]. The Congregation had balked Henry of his ground rent, and Presbyterian Elder and U.S. bankman as he was, he would trust no Corporation. We dug up the dead, such as the living would pay us for removing; and Strickland built us our Hall, over the bones of the others, the doors and windows and everything else that his ingenuity could make convertible being transferred without modification to the new structure. Even the old pew backs, worthless for all purposes else, made our platform for the Orchestra; They were dry enough to vibrate well. Strangely enough, our room, limited in dimensions, proportion, and style by the condition of our treasury, was and is the best music room in the country, and unless all the musicians lie, in the world. (Autobiography of the Honorable John K. Kane, p. 64)
The expenses for the building of the Hall were indeed modest, $23,547.08 for the property, building, and furnishings. From its start the Musical Fund Hall was an enormous success; General Lafayette attended a concert there held in his honor in 1825. Rossini's oratorio Moses in Egypt was performed in 1833. Donizetti's La Favorita made its Philadelphia premiere in the 1830s. Among the famous musicians who performed during the nineteenth century were singers Marie Malibran (in 1826 and 1831); Caradori Allen; Jenny Lind; Adelina Patti; Anna Bishop, wife of the distinguished composer, Sir Henry Bishop; Henriette Sontag; Giulietta Grisi; Erminia Frezzolini; and members of the Italian Opera Company and the Havana Opera Company. The extraordinary Norwegian violinist Ole Bull (1810-1880) appeared in recital in 1843, and in 1844 Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) gave his first recital there on a date (4 May 1844) which unfortunately coincided with the native American riots in Kensington. Camillo Sivori, Paganini's student and successor, performed in the Hall in the 1840s. The Musical Fund Hall had achieved a world-wide reputation for its acoustics, and performers making tours to the United States made special arrangements to perform in this Hall. Jenny Lind (1820-1887) gave eight concerts at Musical Fund Hall in the fall of 1850. Prominent American performers included Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), composer and pianist, and Musical Fund Society board member Septimus Winner (1827-1902), composer of "Listen to the Mocking Bird."
Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the Musical Fund Hall provided a steady rental income, which did much to place the organization on a sound financial footing. In addition to the musical performances sponsored by the Musical Fund Society, the Hall was used for political meetings. The Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention met there for ninety days in 1837. The first convention of the national Republican Party was held there in 1856. There were frequent lectures by many distinguished individuals, including Horace Mann, Samuel Lover, Edward Everett, William Makepeace Thackeray, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William H. Furness, Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and Conan Doyle.
The completion of Philadelphia's grand opera hall, the Academy of Music, in 1857 affected the primacy of Musical Fund Hall as a venue for classical music performances. Operas with full staging at the Academy proved more attractive than the concerts held in the Hall. However, the Hall was still in demand for balls, meetings, lectures, weddings, and commencement exercises for a number of distinguished music schools. The University of Pennsylvania held commencements there, with faculty, trustees, degree candidates, judges, United States Senators and Representatives, the mayor, and aldermen of the city all marching in the procession to the Hall. Commemorative exercises at the fiftieth anniversary of the Franklin Institute were held there in 1874. In the latter part of the century meetings of the Pennsylvania Rail Road were held in the Hall, as were the state medical examinations for doctors and dentists. The Musical Fund Hall underwent two major renovations in the nineteenth century. In 1847 two members of the Society, architect Napoleon Le Brun (1821-1901) (who later was the architect for the Academy of Music) and artist Franklin Peale planned the alterations, which included an enlargement of the Hall to increase its seating capacity to 1500. The stage was moved from the north end of the building to the south end. A Ladies' Bazaar was held to raise money for the renovations (a great success), and a grand Bazaar Ball was held on 23 December 1847 to celebrate. In 1891 the Hall again underwent a major renovation, removing the wings that had been constructed on the stage and completely changing the facade of the building.
By the turn of the century the Musical Fund Hall had become a venue for widely diverse performances. The Hall's fine acoustics and historic reputation meant that it continued to be booked for classical music performances and pupils' recitals for many of the major musical academies in Philadelphia, particularly the Combs Broad Street Conservatory of Music, the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, the Philadelphia Musical Academy, the Hyperion School of Music, the Leefson-Hille Conservatory of Music, as well as a number of others. The Musical Fund Hall was used for minstrel shows and vaudeville, for boxing matches, basketball games, political meetings, and services for the Jewish holidays. Annie Besant (1847-1933) lectured in the Musical Fund Hall for the Theosophical Society in 1906. The Greek Orthodox Church, which shares the block with the Musical Fund Hall, engaged the hall for meetings and parties, as did Frank Palumbo, who operated a second restaurant nearby (in addition to his South Philadelphia location).
Noted African-American poets and musicians performed in the Musical Fund Hall. Paul Laurence Dunbar gave a reading there on 17 November 1897. Contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993) gave a number of performances there, at first as a chorus member of the People's Choral Society and the following year (1916) as soloist (with Roland W. Hayes singing tenor) in the People's Choral Society performance of Handel's Messiah. Programs from some of Marian Anderson's earliest performances in Philadelphia are in the Musical Fund Society Records. Roland Hayes gave several performances in the Hall, often for the benefit of charitable causes. Another important African-American musician was Carl Rossini Diton (1886-1962), organist at St. Thomas's African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and a noted classical pianist, composer, and arranger: he gave concerts at Musical Fund Hall on a number of occasions. The Italian-American community in Philadelphia used Musical Fund Hall extensively for parish fundraisers, balls, and parties and for benefit concerts to aid victims of earthquakes in Italy. They brought a number of prominent Italian singers to the stage of the Hall. In 1906 the Verdi Italian Orchestral Society directed by Ettore Martini began an annual season of performances in Musical Fund Hall. Many Irish and Jewish fraternal and charitable organizations used the Hall as well, the programs that document these events and organizations (Ms. Coll. 90, Boxes 40-52) contain much material of interest to social historians of Philadelphia.
The Musical Fund Society began to consider selling the Musical Fund Hall in 1918, but the sale was not completed until 1924. There were a number of reasons for the Musical Fund Society to sell the Hall, which required expensive maintenance and repairs in addition to the salary and wages of the superintendent and a number of workers. The rentals of the Hall fell off considerably during the years of World War I and had been up and down over the previous thirty years. The income from rentals no longer covered the expenses of maintaining the Hall, but perhaps the most important reason for the sale was the perception that the Hall and its surrounding neighborhood had lost its former "status."
The sale of Musical Fund Hall to the Philadelphia Labor Institute in 1924 meant that the Society had to find new locations for office space, meetings, and storage for the music library and portraits. The Society had offices at 407 Sansom Street and 400 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia before moving to the Public Ledger Building, where it was situated until 1952. During the time that the Philadelphia Labor Institute was headquartered in the Musical Fund Hall, many more distinguished speakers graced its stage as part of the Labor Institute English Forum. They included Bertrand Russell, Clarence Darrow, James Weldon Johnson, Rabbi W. H. Fineshriber, Arthur Garfield Hayes, and W.E.B. DuBois. The Institute also ran a Yiddish Forum along the same lines as its English Forum, and a Yiddish studio for theater as part of its Drama Guild. There was a Labor Institute Chorus with classes in music theory, harmony and voice culture, and chamber music concerts presented by Shreibman's trio, along with appearances by the best artists from the Jewish stages of Philadelphia and New York.
With the onset of the Depression in the early 1930s, the Philadelphia Labor Institute was not able to make the mortgage payments or pay taxes on the property: the mortgage was foreclosed, and the Musical Fund Hall again became the responsibility of the Musical Fund Society in 1934. It was eventually leased in 1937 to James Toppi, a boxing promoter, and was used mainly for athletic events. In 1945 the building was sold to Yahn & McDonnell, and it became a storage warehouse for tobacco products. The building was acquired by the City of Philadelphia's Redevelopment Authority in 1964, and a number of plans and studies were undertaken to restore the Hall as a musical performance space, cultural center, or museum.
Several members of the Musical Fund Society--notably George E. Nitzsche (1874-1961), Samuel L. Singer, and Sol Schoenbach--were strong advocates for restoring the Hall to its former functions and dignity. The matter was studied for a number of years by Musical Fund Society's Plans and Scope Committee. The building was designated a National Registered Landmark by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The money, however, to operate the Hall as a venue for musical events was not forthcoming, and in 1982 the building was renovated for luxury condominiums. As most of the building's original integrity has been compromised, landmark designation for the Musical Fund Hall was withdrawn on January 13, 1989. Music Library of the Musical Fund Society
From its inception, the Society appropriated money for the purchase of scores and parts, sheet music, and musical instruments. By 1879 when a catalog of the printed music owned by the Musical Fund was published, the music library numbered 304 pieces and included overtures with full orchestral parts, opera, oratorios, sacred music, symphonies, and chamber music. In 1931 the Society purchased a collection of music known as the Newland-Zeuner Collection—music that had been collected by Charles Zeuner and augmented by William A. Newland near the end of the nineteenth century. In 1933 Dr. Edward I. Keffer donated his large collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sheet music to the Musical Fund Society. Together with its other acquisitions this Library is a valuable record of the repertoire of early music in the United States.
In 1936 the Musical Fund Society entered into an agreement with the Free Library of Philadelphia to house the entire music library of the Society, with ownership retained by the Musical Fund Society. In 1991, when the Musical Fund Society donated its archive to the University of Pennsylvania Library (to be housed in its Rare Book and Manuscript Library), the music library was transferred from the Free Library of Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center.
Musical Fund Society Competitions for the Composition of New Music
In 1925 the Society announced $10,000 in prizes in a world-wide chamber music contest designed to encourage composers of new music. After long deliberation by the judges, prizes were awarded in 1928: Béla Bartók's Third String Quartet (dedicated to the Musical Fund Society) shared the first prize with Alfred Casella's Serenata. The second prize was shared by H. Waldo Warner and Carlo Jachino. Bartók's string quartet was first performed in Philadelphia at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel to mixed reviews.
On 30 July 1925, "The Edward Garrett McCollin Memorial Fund for the Encouragement of Creative Work in the Higher Forms of Music" was established by the Musical Fund Society with a Trust created by the widow of McCollin. McCollin had been president of the Musical Fund Society from 1910 to 1923 and was one of the key figures in supporting the founding of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The winning composition in 1931 was written by the Catalonian composer, Josep Valls, and is now included in the papers of Edward G. McCollin, held in the University Archives and Records Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The McCollin com¬petitions have been held periodically, whenever sufficient funds have accumulated in the Trust.
Current Activities of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia
Throughout the twentieth century the Musical Fund Society has continued as an active organization sponsoring music and musicians. In the 1930s the Musical Fund Quartet performed the complete chamber music of Brahms in cooperation with the Curtis String Quartet and co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Art Alliance. The Society sponsored a free chamber music series at the Free Library of Philadelphia for most of this century, and has offered many concerts featuring music by Philadelphia and American composers. Over the years the Musical Fund Society has given a number of scholarships to music students and recently began a program to foster the careers of emerging young artists and ensembles through professional counseling by master musicians; by offering debut recitals in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities; through grants toward the purchase of concert quality musical instruments; and by hosting seminars on the ongoing professional and business aspects of musical careers.
In addition to this program that aids individual musicians, the Society gives annual grants to worthy non-profit organizations that carry on the goals of the Musical Fund Society through their own work. In 1983 the Society established a fully tax-exempt foundation, called the Musical Fund Society Foundation, which accepts gifts to further the Society's goals and programs.
Bibliography
Kane, John K. Autobiography of the Honorable John K. Kane 1795-1858. Philadelphia: Privately printed, 1949.
Mactier, William L. A Sketch of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead, 1885.
Madeira, Louis C. Annals of Music in Philadelphia and History of the Musical Fund Society from its organization in 1820 to the year 1858. Edited by Philip H. Goepp. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1896.
Nitzsche, George E. "The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia," Philadelphia History 4, No. 6, 1960.
150th Anniversary of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: 1970.
The Records and Music Library of the Musical Fund Society were maintained in the Society's offices in Musical Fund Hall until the sale of the Hall in 1924. Since that time several different arrangements have been made for the preservation of these historic documents. In December 1936 an agreement was made with the Free Library of Philadelphia to house the Music Library of the Society, with ownership to the materials retained by the Society. In 1991 these materials were donated by the Musical Fund Society to the University of Pennsylvania Library. The musical scores, parts, and sheet music are now housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Van Pelt Library; many have already been individually cataloged. The minute books, engagement books, and other archival materials of the Musical Fund Society were kept in the Society's offices in Philadelphia and in a bank vault. In December 1952, when the Society gave up its offices in the Public Ledger building, some of the historic correspondence and many engagement books and scrapbooks were deposited with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Most of the minute books, receipt books, the engagement books for Musical Fund Hall from 1883 to 1918, and some memorabilia were retained by the Society in a bank vault until the Fall of 1986, when a trunk and several tin boxes of records were moved to the Free Library.
This history of transfers of the records of the Musical Fund Society accounts for the limited scope of the correspondence remaining in the collection at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of it dates from 1946 to 1980, the post World War II years, and comprises routine correspondence relating to membership matters, concerts, grants, or to the business of the officers of the Society. There is some important correspondence from the 1920s and 1930s, including the Free Library of Philadelphia correspondence about the deposit of the Music Library and access to it by scholars, as well as the correspondence of Edward I. Keffer and Henry S. Drinker, Jr.
A few nineteenth-century items of correspondence include a note from E. Ives, ca. 1833, requesting the loan of the Messiah orchestra parts for a rehearsal that he was conducting. There is a single letter dated 1867 from Thomas Sully, an active member and officer of the Society.
The series of minutes of the Musical Fund Society is fairly complete up through the end of the bound volumes (ca. 1955). Engagement books for Musical Fund Hall cover the period from 1883 to 1918, a time period when the Hall was used much more frequently for balls, cotillions, union meetings, political meetings, religious services, vaudeville acts, and sporting events than it was for concerts produced by the Musical Fund Society itself. As such, these books document a particularly vibrant time in the life of the ethnically diverse neighborhood of South Philadelphia, near where the Hall was located.
The remaining series are categorized according to the administrative functions of the Society: Board of Directors, Committee on the Music (programs and music competitions), Committee on Relief, Committee on Admissions, Committee of the Fund (including all financial records), and Special Committees. Minutes, records, and committee reports are not complete for the years later than those recorded in the bound minute books; scattered records exist for the 1950s to the early 1980s and more complete records from approximately 1987 to 1993. Related collections
Supplementary to this collection are additional records acquired in a 2004 transfer from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:
* Ms. Coll. 513. Musical Fund Society Supplementary Records, ca. 1820-2004.
The following collections located in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Van Pelt are from the Music Library of the Musical Fund Society:
* Ms. Coll. 35. Béla Bartók. Third String Quartet. 1927. The manuscript score was purchased from the Musical Fund Society in 1991 by Mrs. Eugene Ormandy and donated to the University of Pennsylvania's Eugene Ormandy Archive in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Other winning scores from Musical Fund Society's competitions include:
* Ms. Coll. 93. Alan Leichtling. Concerto for chamber orchestra opus 40. 1966.
* Ms. Coll. 94. Alfredo Casella (1883-1947). Serenata. 1927.
* Ms. Coll. 95. Carlo Jachino (1887-1971). Quartetto in mi minore. 1927.
* Ms. Coll. 96. H. Waldo Warner (1874-1945). Quintet. 1927.
The Keffer Collection of Sheet Music and the Keffer Collection of Music Manuscripts have been completely cataloged on-line at the University of Pennsylvania, with records made available in national databases and world-wide via the internet.
In addition, there several related collections at the University of Pennsylvania:
* Ms. Coll. 186. John Rowe Parker Correspondence: contains a number of letters of Benjamin Carr to Parker (1777-1844).
* Ms. Coll. 53. Philadelphia Art Alliance Records, 1915-1980: contain programs of concerts jointly sponsored by the Musical Fund Society and the Art Alliance. In addition, a number of prominent Philadelphians were active members of both organizations, notably Henry S. Drinker, Jr., Philip H. Goepp, Thaddeus Rich, and Vincent Persichetti.
The University Archives and Records Center of the University of Pennsylvania holds the papers of Edward G. McCollin, past president of the Musical Fund Society. The collection includes his own compositions, scrapbooks related to the Germania Orchestra and founding of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the winning score from the Musical Fund Society's first McCollin competition by Josep Valls (1931). Also located at the University Archives are the papers of John Kintzing Kane, past president of the Musical Fund Society.
The records of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia are divided physically into two parts: the first consists predominantly of materials dated from 1820 to 1924, the date of the original sale of Musical Fund Hall; the second part consists predominantly of materials dated from 1925 to 1994. There are some exceptions to this overall chronological arrangement. For example, most of the materials related to the history of Musical Fund Hall, including the later proposals for its renovation (through 1982) are with the earlier nineteenth-century materials from Musical Fund Hall. In addition, many of the mortgages and property bonds relating to the purchase of the Musical Fund Hall are located in Oversize Drawer No. 10. Some of the series of bound Minute Books are continuous from 1820 through as late as 1966 and are located in the first part of the records. The second part begins with the general Correspondence series (bulk 1946-1994); this part, however, does include a few items of nineteenth-century correspondence.
The donation included a oil portrait of William Potts Dewees, co-founder of the Musical Fund Society; it was painted by Thomas Sully.
Gift of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, received in 1991 with additional donations received 1993-1997; some materials integrated from 2004 Historical Society of Pennsylvania transfer.
The creation of the electronic guide for this collection was made possible through a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project. The finding aid was entered into the Archivists' Toolkit by Garrett Boos.
People
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Dr. Maggie Kruesi, revised by Leann Currie
- Finding Aid Date
- 1997
- Access Restrictions
-
The bulk of this collection is open for research use; however, access to original audio/visual materials and computer files is restricted. The Kislak Center will provide access to the information on these materials from duplicate master files. If the original does not already have a copy, it will be sent to an outside vendor for copying. Patrons are financially responsible for the cost. The turnaround time from request to delivery of digital items is about two weeks for up to five items and three to seven weeks for more than five items. Please contact Reprographic Services (reprogr@upenn.edu) for cost estimates and ordering. Once digital items are received, researchers will have access to the files on a dedicated computer in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Researchers should be aware of specifics of copyright law and act accordingly.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.