LibGuides: Music Collections of Northeast Ohio: Oberlin College Conservatory Library

About the Oberlin Conservatory Library

The Oberlin Conservatory Library's collection includes a substantial foundation of Western art music from all historical periods, complete editions of the works of major composers, an expanding collection in the areas of women musicians and American, ethnic, contemporary, jazz, folk, and popular music. The Conservatory Library’s Special Collections include the following collections:

Frederich R. Selch Collection of American Music History
A collection comprising more than 700 instruments; 6,000 books, manuscripts and printed music; as well as paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs depicting musical subjects from all corners of the world, but focused primarily on American music.
James R. and Susan Neumann Jazz Collection
The James R. and Susan Neumann Jazz Collection has as its focal point over 100,000 jazz recordings in a variety of formats. The Collection also contains a large number of print materials, including approximately 2,000 books on jazz and over 100 titles of jazz and blues periodicals. There are thousands of musicians’ photographs and autographs, along with additional memorabilia including posters, concert programs, sheet music, record catalogs, and artifacts.
Lee Holloway Popular Song Sheet Music Index
The Lee (Leila) Holloway Collection of Popular Sheet Music comprises nearly 3,000 items of popular sheet music, the majority of which were published between 1900-1960. Holloway was a 1927 graduate of Oberlin College who went on to a long career as a reference librarian for the Oberlin College Library. As a result of her strong interest in music, and her advocacy for the value of popular music in particular, Holloway compiled the collection for the library. Library staff created a card index for the collection which, in the early 2000s, was converted into the online index used at present.
Martha Pryor Collection of Robert Shaw Letters
The Martha Pryor Collection of Robert Shaw Letters consists of 99 items, primarily letters, from Shaw or his associates to members of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus from 1961 through 1967
Roderic Knight Musical Instrument Collection
A collection of over 200 instruments donated by Roderic Knight and other faculty members and friends.
Violin Society of America/H.K. Goodkind Collection
The H.K. Goodkind Collection, jointly purchased in 1986 by The Violin Society of America and Oberlin College, includes over 1,200 book, score and periodical titles, more than 550 auction catalogs, miscellaneous research files, a clippings file, photographs, and two paintings. The collection focuses on the history of the violin, violin construction, the rare violin market through the years, early violin makers and violinists, and early violin treatises.

Access

Students, faculty and staff with a BW library card may request items through the Ohio-LINK catalog or check items out by visiting in person (BW library card required.)

Access to special collections is by appointment only. Interested patrons can contact Jeremy Smith at (440) 775-5181 or send an inquiry to: con.special@oberlin.edu.

Catalogs and Finding Aids

Oberlin Library Catalog
OhioLink Finding Aid Repository
The OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository contains descriptions of archival collections from contributing institutions in Ohio. Collection descriptions are fully searchable. Researchers can view brief summaries of collections, or the entire text of finding aids, with search keywords highlighted.

Contact

Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/cons

Contact: (440) 775-8280 ; con.ref@oberlin.edu

Address: 77 West College Street, Oberlin, OH 44074-1588

Music Collections of Northeast Ohio

About the Oberlin Conservatory Library

Access

Catalogs and Finding Aids

Contact

Jones Music Library

CONNECT