Scope and Contents The 1968 Riot Collection was a gift of Dr. Joseph Hughey in January 2013. The collection contains the results of a large grant-funded research project on the social history of the civil disturbance in Kansas City after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This includes a complete manuscript of The Social History of a Riot: Kansas City, Missouri, April 9-13, 1968 by Robert Bechtel and Charles Wilkinson and transcripts from 51 of the interviews conducted for that book-length study. In...

Scope and Contents The A.W. Perry's Sons Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City by Cory Helms, great-grandson of A.W. Perry, in 1991. The collection, housed in the Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections, consists of material related to A.W. Perry's Sons Publishing, including material of Philip B. Perry (one of A.W.'s sons), who was a composer. Included in the collection are issues of Perry's Musical Magazine, sheet music, manuscript music scores, catalogs,...

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The Advertising/Promotional Ephemera Collection contains materials which have been collected from multiple donors over a number of years. Included are ads, promotional booklets, postcards, business cards, flyers and ribbons. The collection is divided into four series with the bulk of the collection holding recipe booklets from various food companies. There is material from Kansas City, other Missouri and Kansas towns, as well as national and international locations.

Scope and Contents The Ahmad Alaadeen Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections and Marr Sound Archives, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, by his widow, Victoria “Fanny” Dunfee, in February 2012. The collection consists of personal and professional material, contracts, correspondence, grants and awards, programs and event ephemera, publications and news clippings, music and teaching material, photographs, audio recordings, videos, and other miscellaneous items. Collection highlights include rare images...

Scope and Contents The Allan Bell Collection was purchased by LaBudde Special Collections from Nancy Rooks in September 2008. The collection originally was acquired from Allan Bell by Ron Rooks, Nancy’s late husband and owner of Music Exchange record store in Kansas City, Missouri. Material chronicles from 1961 to 1976 Bell’s theatrical and music agency America’s Best Attractions (ABA) situated in North Kansas City, with the majority of material concentrated between 1965 and 1973. Divided into five series...

Scope and Contents The collection was a gift of Ann Sunderland on behalf of the organization in July 2020. It consists of board meeting minutes and financial reports, correspondence, event calendars, guest books, marketing materials, material relating to the national and international Alliances Françaises, material about the chapter’s history, information about the Jeune Alliance, material on French classes and events, material about theater productions, membership lists and information, photographs,...

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The Alwyne Camble Collection consists of a scrapbook circa 1950s. Inside the scrapbook are photographs, newspaper clippings, advertisements, autographs, and illustrations related to fashion and design.

Scope and Contents The American Association of University Women – Kansas City (AAUW-KC) Collection was transferred from the UMKC Women’s Center to LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Libraries, in summer 2010. The collection dates from 1909-1985 and consists of 12 scrapbooks and 11 photographs. The collection contains the chronicled years of civic and social events and achievements garnered by the AAUW-KC. These materials provide insight into the organization and exhibit their efforts toward the betterment of...

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The American Composers Collection includes material related to over 150 composers, including manuscript music scores, programs, correspondence, news clippings, and other items. Material varies with composer, from a single item to several folders. The collection was amassed from various donations to the University of Missouri-Kansas City before being given to the Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections. Provenance is noted when known.

Scope and Contents American Dance Band Music Collection Finding Aid (PDF).The American Dance Band Music Collection consists of commercially published stock arrangements and instrument charts for thousands of popular titles, 1800s-1960s. The collection contains music charts for various instruments for a given song. While several titles contain a complete set of parts, most are incomplete but...

Scope and Contents The Amy Cheney Beach Collection, housed in the Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections, was purchased from the MacDowell Colony by the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the early 1970s. The collection consists of over 30 manuscript scores and over 60 published scores of original compositions by Beach. Also included is a handwritten correspondence from Beach to the Toledo Times Company.The manuscript scores include dated (1872-1933) and undated works. Many of...

Scope and Contents The Arch Martin Collection was donated to the Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections by Gene Martin in October 2016. The collection consists of items acquired during Martin’s career as a Kansas City jazz musician. Included is sheet music for big bands and combos of various instrumentation and music festival flyers and programs from Martin’s time serving as a guest clinician at many festival and summer programs in the Missouri area. News clippings and magazines make up a...

Scope and Contents The Arthur B. Church – KMBC Radio Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1996 by Arthur B. Church, Jr. The collection relates to KMBC radio and television stations in Kansas City and its owner and operator, Arthur B. Church, dating primarily between the 1920s and the early 1950s.The collection is broken down into seven series. A timeline provides day-to-day and year-to-year information about the operation of the station. Business correspondence, ledgers...

Scope and Contents The B. Blaine Pennington Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections by Pennington in 2003.The collection provides insight into the world of children’s literature and examples of the process of publishing such work. Included are original manuscripts by Pennington; correspondence with several authors, publishers and even U.S. Presidents; signed posters, prints and other artwork from authors and illustrators; and miscellaneous ephemera of the literary and publishing world.In addition,...

Scope and Contents The Barney Kessel Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections in May 2016 by Phyllis Kessel.The manuscript collection contains a vast array of manuscripts and other materials spanning the length of Kessel's life and career. Materials contained in the collection range in date from the early 1920s to the mid-2010s. Content includes correspondence, business and personal documents, notes, interview transcripts, posters, promotional material, full scores, parts and...

Scope and Contents The Missakian Collection was donated by Nadine Missakian, widow of Baron Siroon Missakian. Inclusive dates are circa 1915-1972, with the bulk dates being the 1920s and 1930s. There is some manuscript material and miscellaneous ephemera but the richness of the collection lies within hundreds of magnificent photographs created by Missakian. Some of the photographs are black and white and some are in color, hand tinted by the photographer himself. Included are many famous personalities such as...

Scope and Contents The Bernard G. Farrar, Jr. Collection was purchased from Charles Agvent Rare Books and Autographs in 2005. The collection consists of eight letters, all written during the Civil War by Bernard Gaines Farrar, Jr., and addressed to his wife Isabel. Most of the letters were written or appear to have been written during 1864, although they are not all dated completely. One letter in particular, dated July 1 (no year given), could possibly have been written in 1863 during the Siege of Vicksburg....

Scope and Contents The Bernard "Step Buddy" Anderson Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections in 1997 by the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors. The collection captures Anderson’s life and career from 1944 until his death in 1997, but also includes correspondence dating back to 1930. The collection is particularly strong in Anderson’s literary and musical creative output, most of which was created between 1958 and 1993. Encapsulated is a wide range of writings from jazz compositions to musical stage...

Scope and Contents The Betty Crow Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections by Betty Crow in 2013. The bulk of the collection contains over 2200 photographs from a multitude of musical jam sessions performed at various venues throughout the Kansas City area. There are images of many of the great Kansas City jazz legends such as Jay McShann, Claude “Fiddler” Williams, Milt Abel, Sonny Kenner, Tommy Ruskin, Julie Turner, Jim Mair, Todd Wilkinson, Lonnie and Ronnie McFadden, Paul Smith, Mama Ray and...

Scope and Contents The Bettye Miller-Milt Abel Collection was gifted to the UMKC Libraries by Linda Abel, wife of the late Milt Abel, in April 2006. The collection focuses on the time that Bettye Miller and Milt Abel spent together as musicians and as husband and wife. The couple was locally and nationally known in the jazz community and performed together in cities all over the country.Housed in LaBudde Special Collections, the manuscript collection includes correspondence, contracts and...

Scope and Contents The Billy G. Asby Collection was gifted to the LaBudde Special Collections in 2013. It contains architectural and engineering drafts and specifications related to building projects in Wyandotte and Johnson County, Kansas. Dates range from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s. The extent of construction ranges from a small, hamburger drive-in to large industrial level buildings. The collection has been sorted into nine series, so as to differentiate each building project from another....

Scope and Contents The Blanche and Cecil Carstenson Collection is a small, yet significant array of ephemera highlighting this artistic couple’s accomplishments. Dates range from the 1941 up to 1998. Included are items relating to art exhibits; special events and other such programs. The “Gnome Gnotebook” contains exhibit dates from 1941-1964, with detailed information. There are multiple photographs of two of Cecil Carstenson’s wood sculptures, but they are not identified. The real jewel of the...

Scope and Contents The Robert Cowan Collection was donated to the LaBudde Special Collections at UMKC Miller Nichols Library by Cowan himself in June of 2016. Cowan was an avid performer of the jazz trombone, and this collection chiefly consists of scores and parts to arrangements of jazz standards. There are twenty five pencil manuscript full scores in the collection, and sets of parts (although some are incomplete) to around sixty pieces. The works are not Cowan’s own, but included in the collection are,...

Scope and Contents The Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions Collection was gifted to the UMKC Libraries in 1999. The collection consists of Bob Wills Tiffany Transcription audio discs as well as related promotional print material. Bob Pinson of the Country Music Foundation recommended and directed to UMKC an extant set in the possession of a producer’s wife.Print material is housed in LaBudde Special Collections and includes a leasing contract for radio stations, cued radio scripts, sheet music and a...