Introduction
Concert programs, notes, and photographs can be valuable primary sources for your research. By critically examining programs, you can document the program history of particular works over time; composer and performer notes can give you first-hand insight into a particular performance or concert series; photographs and other performance ephemera can give you a window into past musical performances.
This page collects information about archival collections at UIUC that you can browse in person as well as selected digital archives where you can explore programs, notes, and photographs from archives around the country.
For more help finding images, particularly of historical musical instruments, check out our guide Finding Images and Video: Music.
Collections at UIUC
In addition to checking out the digital archives in the next box, there are also archival materials that you can browse right here at UIUC. Keep in mind that archives work a little differently from libraries - you usually can't just show up without planning ahead.
You may need to coordinate your visit in advance to give the archivists time to pull and prepare materials for you to look at. It's also important to note that archival materials cannot be checked out, you'll have to look at them during your visit, so plan to visit when you have some time to spend with the materials!
To learn more about how to schedule a visit to the archives and what the access procedures look like, check out the University Archive's information about how to plan a visit.
- Sousa Archives & Center for American MusicThe Sousa Archives and Center for American Music (SACAM) acquires and preserves significant archival records and historical artifacts in multiple media formats that document America’s local and national music history and its diverse cultures.
- Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model CollectionThe Center’s collection of historical music instruments, dating between 1810-1972, include rare cornets and trumpets, early boxwood clarinets and flutes, unique double-reed sarrusophones, bassoons and Heckelphone, unusual harps and zithers, prototype electronic Hawaiian guitars and Sal Mar Construction, and Civil War era military horns. The provenance of each instrument is identified in each set of images. Each instrument from the archive’s collections is being photographed from multiple viewpoints. In addition to high resolution still images of the fronts, backs, sides, tops, and bottoms of each instrument, fully accessible, highly interactive 3-dimensional digital models are being created for each of the instruments.
- School of Music Records in the University ArchivesThe University of Illinois Archives includes more than 25,000 cubic feet of office records, publications, and personal papers from the University and the Urbana-Champaign campus, searchable through their database. This link will connect you with the Archives holdings related to the School of Music on campus.
Local Concert Programs
There are even collections of concert and recital programs you can browse here at MPAL!
- The collection of School of Music Concert and Recital Programs is in the non-circulating reference section at MPAL. While you can't check them out, you can browse them while you are in the Library and scan or photograph sections for later reference.
- The collection of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Programs is kept in MPAL's Special Collections. If there's a program you want to consult for your research, ask at the service desk and we can bring it to you. As with the School of Music Programs, these are for in-library use only.
Digital Collections Beyond UIUC
There are also many archival collections that have digitized materials you can explore online if you aren't able to travel across the country to consult a particular archive. Check out some of the collections below to see programs, photographs, and concert posters that are digitally available!
- New York Philharmonic Digital ArchivesThe New York Philharmonic's Digital Archives currently comprises more than four million pages, including printed programs, marked conducting scores, business documents, and photographs. Growing continually, the scope of the online collection is every document in the New York Philharmonic Archives from 1842 through 1970. This includes correspondence, marked scores and parts, contracts, and minutes from meetings of the Board of Directors — as well as all public documents from 1970 through today (e.g., marketing materials, press releases, and annual reports).
- Boston Symphony Orchestra ArchivesThe Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives preserves the orchestra’s rich history, with documentation in the form of concert programs, press clippings, posters, photographs, concert programs, original letters, broadcast tapes, and recordings, as well as the BSO’s collection of historic instruments. Committed to making the collection more readily available to researchers, the BSO is in the process of building up its digital holdings which can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.
- Carnegie Hall Digital Archives ProjectDiscover Carnegie Hall’s history by exploring a selection of materials from the Digital Collections, including programs, flyers, photographs, and more.
- Pittsburgh Symphony ArchivesThe official repository for the historical records of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Heinz Hall. The Archives Portal serves as the online counterpart to the Pittsburgh Symphony Archives located at Heinz Hall. Search the online archives for digitized copies of photographs, programs, posters, and audio highlights. The Archives Portal allows visitors to search the Pittsburgh Symphony’s performance history dating back to its start in 1896.
- Samuel R. and Marie Louise Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra AssociationThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra's archives house an extensive collection of audio-visual materials, programs, photographs, newspaper clippings and administrative records documenting the activities of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Civic Orchestra and Orchestra Hall and Symphony Center events. Note that not all of this material is digitized.
- Los Angeles Philharmonic ArchivesThe Archives serves Philharmonic staff and musicians, and outside researchers through collecting, preserving, and making available materials that document the full spectrum of activities throughout the history of the Los Angeles Philharmonic dating to its founding in 1919, including activities of the Hollywood Bowl. Collection includes: concert programs and other publications; scrapbooks and press clippings; concert recordings and radio broadcasts; oral histories; photographs, slides, and negatives; posters and ephemera. Note: some of the archives content are digitized and viewable online, but not all.
- Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and CollectionsThese collections are global in perspective, covering world ethnic performance traditions, spoken word recordings, sounds of science and nature, occupational folklore, and family folklore. The collections are strong in American, and more specifically Euro-American, African-American, Caribbean, and Native American musical and performance traditions.More than 80,000 historical and contemporary items from Rinzler Archives collections are available in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center. Find complete collection descriptions in finding aids and inventories in the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive, which often include digital surrogates.