About the Collection
The MPAL Historic US Sheet Music Collection is comprised of over 90,000 pieces of music, including popular songs and art songs dating from the early 1800s to the mid-1990s. The collection is divided into two parts—music for piano solo or for voice and piano. In many cases there are duplicate copies of pieces when there are differences in the content or the cover art. This collection is the largest represented in the Sheet Music Consortium.
Location/Access
Music and Performing Arts Library
- Items are largely not represented on the Library’s online catalog. Patrons must search the Online Sheet Music Database for information about holdings.
- Local patrons can bring the call number to the service desk in MPAL (1300 Music Building) to request that the items be paged from Special Collections.
- Patrons outside of the Champaign-Urbana area can request reproductions for items in the public domain by emailing us.
Donations
For information about donating items to the collection, please visit our Special Collections Policies page.
Previous donations that contributed greatly to the HUSSM collection include those from Radcliffe, Young, and the American Antiquarian Society.
