Description
Barnard and Morris Young owned and ran several music publishing, marketing, producing, and artist representation enterprises between ca. 1934 and 1972.
The collection was described in Resources of American Music History as consisting of “20,000 items, mostly 1790-1910, containing 48,000 music titles, and comprising 10,500 sheet music items, of which the black American collection of 3,500 items is particularly important…” (Krummel, et al., p.263). These conservative totals were considerably enhanced by the 1986 donation of a supplementary segment of “over 70,000 items, mostly issued 1902-1961 [including 21,750 sheet-music items…”. The initial purchase occurred in 1985 and a further segment (consisting of additional sheet music, recordings, business archives, and other materials) was donated to the University of Illinois in 1995 by Morris Young.
Location/Access
Major groupings of materials are deposited across the Music and Performing Arts Library and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music as follows:
Music and Performing Arts Library
- American sheet music, including items related to African-Americans—interfiled in U.S. sheet music holdings by medium/year/accession number; searchable in the Music and Performing Arts Library’s online sheet music catalog
- Individually cataloged items, including songsters, 19th-century sacred and secular vocal collections, college song anthologies, LP recordings, manuscripts, and broadsides
- Choral octavo editions—interfiled among existing holdings in Choral Reference File cabinets by type of ensemble/title.
- Reference resources
- Opera scores, miscellaneous 20th-century music editions
- National anthems collection
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
- See the Morris and Barnard Young Music Business Records, 1832-1988 Finding Aid at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music for information about the brothers’ business records, periodicals and publications; and the Merle Kendrick papers, George Whitling papers, and EM Wickes papers.
- Dance orchestra parts sets
Index terms
- African-American music recordings
- Alverson, Eleanor
- Binder’s collections
- Broadsides
- College songs
- Dance orchestra music
- Davis, Gussie L.
- Edwards, Gus
- Foster, Stephen
- Harrigan & Hart
- Hutchinson Family
- Joplin, Scott
- Kendrick, Merle
- Lind, Jenny
- Manuscripts.
- Minstrel groups
- Motion picture music
- Music business records
- Music ephemera
- Music journals
- National anthem
- Recordings: 78 rpm
- Recordings: L
- Rosenfeld, Monroe
- Sheet music: United States
- Show tunes
- Smith, Chris
- Song text serials
- Songsters
- Sousa, John Philip
- Vocal music
- Whiting, George
- Wicks, Eddie
- Williams, Bert
- Young, Barnard
- Young, Morris
See also
A detailed description of the collection from this time also exists in Lubrano, John and Jude Lubrano. 1985. “American Popular Music 1795-1920.” AB Bookman’s Weekly 76 (24): 4267.
Shim, Eunmi. Chris Smith and the ragtime song (M.M. thesis, University of Illinois, 1993)
York, Elizabeth. 2017. “Barney and Gloria: Revisiting Tin Pan Alley.” Notes 73 (3) (03): 473-501.