Overview
Personal and family papers of American composer, Randall Thompson.
Dates
- Creation: 1903-1980
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
29 linear feet (57 boxes)Biographical / Historical
Randall Thompson was an American composer of three symphonies and numerous vocal works, noted for his choral work. He was a 1920 graduate of Harvard University. He became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, and taught at the Curtis Institute of Music (serving as its director, 1941-1942), the University of Virginia, and Harvard University.
Arrangement
Collection is minimally processed. Arrangement is original, and file headings are original for the mixed content of boxes 1-17.
All boxes are Hollingers unless otherwise noted; type of box is included with box number as an aid for repository staff.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
85M-62 (boxes 50-51), 85M-69 (boxes 46-49), 85M-70 (boxes 1-38, 43-45, 52-53). Gift of Randall Thompson estate, received: 1985.
90M-25 (box 54, part). Gift of C. E. Butterworth, Jr., M.D., received: 1991.
98M-29 (boxes 39-42). Gift of Randall Thompson estate, received: 1998.
2019M-95 (box 54, part). Gift of Marianne Woods, received: 2019 April 8.
Bibliography
Schmidt, Carl B. and Elizabeth K. Schmidt. The music of Randall Thompson (1899-1984): a documented catalogue. E.C. Schirmer Music Company, Inc., 2014 (see in HOLLIS).
Processing Information
Accessioned by: Melanie Wisner
- Title
- Thompson, Randall, 1899-1984. Randall Thompson papers and family papers, circa 1903-1980 (MS Mus 281): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou02581
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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