Special Collections and Archives Finding Aids

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...

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Bob Foster was a Kansas City record collector. Recordings include radio programs, classical music performances, and recordings of church choirs, high school bands and choirs, and college bands and choirs in the Kansas City area.

Scope and Contents Dana Suesse Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections by Peter Mintun in January 2015. Boxes 3-6 were later gifted to LaBudde Special Collections by Mintun in 2021. The collection relates to Suesse’s life and career, and includes promotional and publicity material, original and photocopied music, and scripts for comedies and musicals written by Suesse. Rounding out the collection are two dozen photographs that provide a concise representation of Suesse at different ages of her...

Scope and Contents The Gordon Spencer Collection was a gift of Hannelore Rogers in September 2019. It contains personal card, correspondence, a curriculum vitae with letters of recommendation, notes, planners, other documents, and theater programs. Writings include novels, short stories, radio scripts, sketches, and poems. Of note are Spencer’s interviews in Note Book with Louis Armstrong in the May 1983 issue; his interview with Phillip Glass in the June 1983 issue; an interview with Billie Holiday;...

Scope and Contents The James Mobberley Collection was donated to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library by Mobberley himself in November 2017.The manuscript collection contains a wide array of items from various aspects of the composer and professor’s career. The largest part of the collection is sheet music from Mobberley’s compositional output. There are physical copies of scores and parts for the bulk of the composer’s works from his days as an undergraduate up through the 2010s. This allows one to...

Scope and Contents The Joseph V. Thomas Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1997 by Theron Johnson, the daughter of Thomas.Housed in LaBudde Special Collections, the manuscript collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, music scores, song books, photographs, material related to the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra and the St. Stephen Baptist Church (Kansas City), and other miscellaneous items. The heart of the collection are the several hundred photographs...

Scope and Contents The Louis Katzman Collection was a gift of Michael M. Katzman in July 2013. Housed in LaBudde Special Collections, the bulk of the manuscript collection consists of sets of band and orchestra parts, mostly for tunes arranged by Katzman. Also present are some pieces of sheet music (individual songs and collections) in which Katzman played a role as composer or arranger, as well as publications including advertising materials, discographies, and periodicals.Housed in...

Scope and Contents The Major N. Clark Smith Collection was gifted to the University of Missouri-Kansas City by Mrs. Robert Lee Groves on April 25, 1973. Housed in the Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections, the collection consists of original and photocopied manuscript music scores and published sheet music composed and/or arranged by Major N. Clark Smith, including Frederick Douglass Funeral March, O’ Lincoln High, Tuskegee Institute March, and Negro Folk Suite. Also included are titles by...

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This collection consists of many recordings that were accumulated since the founding of the Marr Sound Archives but the provenance and/or donors are unknown. There is limited information about the recordings in this collection. Much of the collection are lacquer discs of various music performances and home recordings. The collection also holds various test pressings, open reel tapes, cassettes, CD-Rs, and films.

Scope and Contents Sheet Music Collection Finding Aid (PDF).Sheet music from the Kansas City, World War I and World War II imprint collections is temporarily unavailable through Digital Special Collections. If you'd like to request any titles, please contact SpecialCollections@umkc.edu. The Sheet Music...

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The Stuart MacKay Collection was gifted to the LaBudde Department of Special Collections in May 2010. The collection consists primarily of jazz and classical music arrangements by John Saunders for MacKay’s woodwind quintet and band. These manuscripts are undated and unpublished. Included also are copies of two published MacKay compositions, fake books, bassoon and woodwind scores, a theory textbook, and some promotional material and personal papers. Inclusive dates are 1938-1986.

Scope and Contents The Vic Damon Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections by his son, George Damon, in the 1990s.The manuscripts collection consists of the handwritten logbook kept by Damon documenting recording sessions produced by his Kansas City studio; related correspondence and notes; 17 photographs; and a trophy awarded by Cash Box for the success of the 1948 song My Happiness, produced by Damon. Mounted captions used for a Vic Damon exhibit previously on display in the UMKC Miller...

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The Women’s Committee for the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Collection was gifted by the organization to LaBudde Special Collections in late 2016. The collection includes organizational materials such as officer and board member files, committee papers, and meeting materials; correspondence from various members regarding business; financial documents; scholarship and benefit information; scrapbooks; and photographs from the 1980s to the present.