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Bold William Taylor : English folksong

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    Ballo: musical scores

    Manuscripts

    A set of six autograph instrumental musical scores; with paper covers and bound loosely with thread. The scores are titled: Ballo; Cassa; Oboe; Ofleide; Timpani; and 2nd Tromba; the Ballo was an Italian dance form during the 15th century, a Cassa is a bass drum and a Ofleide is a wind instrument. The front cover of the first score also contains the titles: "un villino conteso" and "Il casino di campagna" on separate lines but does not contain the name of a composer or date of composition; the autograph scores have annotations and corrections in Italian using black, blue, green, and red pencil.

    mssHM 83793

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    Joseph Rickard papers

    Manuscripts

    The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, ephemera, audiovisual material, and printed material related to the First Negro Classical Ballet (FNCB), Negro Classic Ballet (NCB), and local San Gabriel Valley ballet companies; the papers also include sheet music and original music scores, ballet production files and photographs for the FNCB and NCB. The papers are especially strong as a visual record with a large number of photographs, publicity material, costume sketches, and printed posters. The collection also contains Joseph Rickard's working notes on the process of creating a ballet, including the elements of choreography, lighting, musical score, and costumes; within this material is also the talented work of the costume design of Nancy Coppola, the set design of Robert Usher and the original music scores by the African-American arranger and composer, Claudius Wilson. The collection is unsurpassed as a record of the first African- American classical ballet company. The papers consist of the following series: 1. Correspondence (Box 1) is arranged alphabetically by author. This series includes personal letters and letters related to the First Negro Classical Ballet, Negro Classic Ballet and other local ballet companies. This series also includes letters by Hal De Becker, Diana Levy, Bronislava Nijinska, Irina Nijinska, Claudius Wilson and letters to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter Jennings. 2. Manuscripts and Documents (Box 2) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. The manuscripts include short stories, film treatments, autograph notes and a memoir by Joseph Rickard as well as a "List of Ballets - First Performances" of Bronislava Nijinska; this series also includes financial documents for the NCB. 3. FNCB and NCB manuscript and printed material (Box 3) is arranged by subject and format. This series includes autograph notes, costume sketches by Nancy Coppola, fabric swatches, printed programs, articles and clippings. 4. FNCB and NCB Ballet Scores and Sheet Music (Boxes 4-6) is arranged alphabetically by title. This series includes printed sheet music used by Claudius Wilson for ballet classes, as well as original, autograph musical scores for some of his most famous compositions for FNCB, including: "Cinderella," and "Pas des Jitterbugs" from the ballet "Raisin' Cane." 5. FNCB and NCB Photographs (Box 7) are arranged chronologically and then sub arranged alphabetically by dancer or ballet. This series includes photographs of most of the more prominent members of the FNCB and NCB, including: Graham Johnson, Bernice Harrison, Claudius Wilson, Yvonne Miller, Theodore Crum, Diana Levy, Joseph Rickard, Sidney Hurston and Karen Hodges. Also included are publicity photos and scenes from various ballets and dance recitals. 6. NCB Scrapbook and Oversize FNCB and NCB Printed Material (Box 8) is arranged by subject and format. Included in this series is a scrapbook of material relating to the NCB, a FNCB publicity poster and ballet set designs by Robert Usher. 7. San Gabriel Valley Civic Ballet and Southern California Ballet Companies Manuscript and Printed Material (Box 9) is arranged by subject and format. This series includes autograph notes, printed programs, publicity material and clippings relating to the local companies where Rickard taught; also included is printed material relating to Maidie Du Fresne Dance Arts (Bakersfield, California). 8. Ballet Production Files (Boxes 10 - 14) are arranged alphabetically by subject and title. These files consist of Rickard's day-to-day notes on ballet ideas, choreography, performance possibilities, in addition to his files on specific ballets, such as: "A Christmas Carol," "La Mer," and "Pagliacci." 9. Articles and clippings about Ballet (Box 15) are arranged by subject. Included in this series is material on Bronislava and Irina Nijinska, Waslaw Nijinsky, and Joseph Rickard. 10. Southern California Ballet, San Gabriel Valley Civic Ballet and Misc. Ballet Photographs (Boxes 16 - 18) are arranged chronologically and then sub arranged by dancer or ballet. The photographs are divided into two groups: So. Calif. Ballet and San Gabriel V. C. Ballet; then followed by miscellaneous photos of other dancers and performers, including Marian Anderson, Bronislava and Irina Nijinska and Joseph Rickard. 11. Audiovisual materials (Boxes 19-32). Includes reel-to-reel tapes, super 8 mm films, cassette tapes, video tapes. Please note: the audiovisual material does not include any material relating to the First Negro Classical Ballet. 12. Printed materials and ephemera (Boxes 33-34). Includes printed programs, magazine, printed pamphlets and books.

    mssHM 68942-69272

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    William S. McBride diary

    Manuscripts

    Diary kept by William S. McBride as he traveled overland from Indiana to Utah in 1850. He departed from Goshen, Indiana, on March 31 in company with Eli W. Summey, Fred Summey, Enoch Willett, and Louis Mitchel, who were already calling themselves "Californians." On April 7 they took the steamer Falcon to St. Louis (which McBride called a "second Babel"), and immediately departed on the steamer Globe. Their steamer was delayed several times and it took ten days to reach Jefferson City, and another five to arrive in St. Joseph. While they camped nearby for several days, McBride took the opportunity to observe his fellow emigrants, and although he was impressed by their appearance ("All seemed jovial and full of life...the horses too...pranced along like gay studs on a celebration day," he noted), he was not entirely caught up in the moment. "This is the going out upon the plains," he wrote. "We will see by & bye how it contrasts with the 'coming in from the plains.'"His group departed in a company of 14 wagons on May 2. He writes often of hunting buffalo and antelope (which "made excellent soups"), and that while he himself had cut out a buffalo tongue (which "would be considered a delicate morsel...at St. Louis"), he "felt a deep sympathy" for buffalo approaching the pioneer guns, as they seemed to be "running the gauntlet." He writes extensively of his surroundings, including a mirage, a "very singular but...common occurrence" which made "men...[look] like giants 14 or 15 feet high...horses double their natural size, and...rivers of water when there was no water." McBride also records the initial high morale in camp, as "we often had music and singing." But about a week after their arrival at Fort Kearney on May 16, McBride began to worry about his party's progress, noting that they had fallen behind and were being passed by emigrants who left St. Joseph several days after they did. Blaming the large size of the wagon train for delays, McBride and his companions went on ahead of the rest of the company. They quickly traversed a Sioux village (McBride formed a favorable opinion of the Sioux people), climbed a rock in the area of Chimney Rock (at "no little danger to life & limb"), passed Scott's Bluffs, caught their first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, crossed the Laramie River, and arrived at Fort Laramie on May 31. He noted the diminished morale of emigrants at Fort Laramie, and noted that many of them were forced to leave their wagons and horses behind, "in some instances sold for little or nothing, or abandoned." By June 1 he reached the Black Hills, and soon crossed the Platte River, observed Independence Rock (which he recognized from a picture he had seen in his "school boy days"), passed Devil's Gate, and reached the Big Sandy on June 16 ("I believe we are in Mexican Territory," McBride guessed on June 17). On June 18 he crossed the Green River with the aid of a "half breed" mountaineer who was "gifted with no ordinary degree of intelligence & energy." He subsequently passed Fort Hall and the Oregon Trail and crossed the Red Fork (on a "very inferior ferry, constructed out of logs pinned together" and attached to "a heavy cable"). On the other side of the river he observed a "very white human skull set up on a stick" which had been "very much used of late as a kind of tablet on which memoranda were written." On June 25 he had his first view of the Utah Valley, and arrived in Salt Lake City on June 26. McBride gives an extensive description of the Salt Lake Valley, and praises the Mormons for having done "a great deal in a short time." But his overall opinion of the Mormons was "very poor," and he described them as "poor silly fanatics, reckless renegades, and blood seekers [with]...no moral honesty." Guided by "artful...dishonest leaders," McBride thought they were prone to excess drinking, "concubinage," lying, cheating, and extortion. The diary ends in Salt Lake City on June 26. The entire diary appears to have been copied over by McBride from his original notes. Also includes a photograph of McBride.

    mssHM 16956