Manuscript Resources on The History of Music, Drama, and Other Performing Arts
This guide describes manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections that document performing arts history. Most of the collections relate to music, with smaller numbers dealing with theater, and a few dealing with dance. Geographically, most of the collections center around Louisiana, with many reflecting the rich cultural history of New Orleans and its diverse French and American cultural streams. Baton Rouge and other cities and towns are documented to a lesser degree. The cultural life of rural Louisiana is reflected in plantation collections containing sheet music, playbills, and other evidence of cultural activity.
The collections include papers of music and drama teachers, composers and writers, and performers. They also contain papers of those who sat in the audiences of musical and other performances and commented on them in letters and diaries, or compiled collections of programs and other ephemera dealing with the performances they witnessed. Finally, they contain papers of researchers who wrote about music and theater history.
Though extensive, the resources listed in this guide form a small part of the totality of materials documenting performing arts history in LSU's Special Collections. An exhaustive search of available inventories of manuscript collections would turn up additional important documentation. The Rare Book Collections contain a wide variety of relevant imprints, and include an extensive database of uncataloged sheet music. Similarly, the Louisiana Collection contains additional imprints on the performing arts, specifically related to Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley. A folder containing several music history finding aids in addition to this one is available at the Special Collections reference desk.
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Favrot, Joseph St. Clair, 1872-1943. Family Papers, 1900-1924. 25 items. Location: UU:73. The Favrot family (Joseph, Beverly, and Joseph, Jr.) was active in amateur theater productions in Baton Rouge. Papers include Baton Rouge theater programs and other ephemeral printed material; and six photographs, some by A. D. Lytle, depicting Baton Rouge scenes, including some Civil War scenes. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3317. |
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Federal Theatre and Federal Music Projects programs, 1938. 4 items. Location: E:Imprints. Theater programs for a musical revue, "Jambalaya," and three plays, "Autumn crocus," "The first legion," and Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, wilderness," performed at the New Orleans Federal Theatre in 1938. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1980. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts, New Orleans 1866-
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Ferguson, Kate Lee, b. 1841. Papers, 1858-1911. 38 items; 7 vols. (1 ms. Vol. and 1 printed vol.). Location: S:28, 65, 98. Available on microfilm 5750: University Publications of America Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries Series E, Reel 10. Novelist, poet, and composer of Mississippi. She married Confederate general Samuel Wragg Ferguson in 1862. Papers include personal letters from friends and family members; a Spanish land grant for property in Texas of Nathaniel A. Ware (Ferguson's grandfather); manuscripts by Ferguson, including prose, poetry, and music; Ferguson's memoirs; and photographs. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1416, 1576. |
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Ferguson, Percy. Papers, 1864, 1899-1916. 9 items and 1 ms. vol. Location: OS:F, O:16. Daughter of Confederate general Samuel Wragg Ferguson. Scrapbook of manuscript poems by Percy Ferguson; a letter from her cousin, U.S. Senator LeRoy Percy of Mississippi, pertaining to national politics; and published music by Regina Morphy Voitier of New Orleans. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1416. |
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Ferraro, Louis, and Sam Adams. Manuscript, 1969. 2 items. Location: UU:169. Louis Ferraro, Associate Professor of Music, and Sam Adams, Professor of Education, at LSU. Handwritten manuscript by Ferraro and typewritten 'translation' by Adams of Music: Imaginative Listening (Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishing Division, 1969). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2439. |
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Fourrier, Henri, and Joseph Amedee Fourrier. Papers, 1838-1915, undated 240 items, 5 vols. Location: 65:33, OS:33. Henri Fourrier was a French composer and graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in Paris. His son, Joseph Fourrier, was organist of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Baton Rouge and director of the Fourrier Concert Band. Papers of Henri Fourrier include a bookplate (1838) from the Institution Royale des jeunes avengles, in Paris; and sacred musical scores composed and copied by him. Papers of Joseph include sacred and popular musical scores arranged and copied by him. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1456, 2298. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts
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Fourrier, Joseph Amadee. Sheet music. 1844-1912. 34 items and 1 vol. Location: 65:. Baton Rouge music store proprietor and organist at St. Joseph's Church. Sheet music (1844-1912), some illustrated, includes both popular and sacred works. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2600-73. |
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French Opera Association. Stock certificate, 1910. 1 item. Location: Misc. Certificate for one share in the capital stock of the French Opera Association, Limited, of New Orleans, issued to C. M. Abrams. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1491. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts, New Orleans 1866-
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French Opera House. Bill, 1873. 1 item. Location: MISC:F. Decorative printing, 'Opera House.' For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1919. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts, New Orleans 1866-
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Fuchs, Peter Paul. Papers, 1956,1959, 1976. 5 items. Location: MISC:F. Composer and conductor of the Baton Rouge Symphony. Papers consist of three speeches pertaining to music theory and production, an English-language adaptation of the libretto of Verdi's 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' and the libretto of a one-act lyrical comedy, 'Serenade at Noon,' by Ann Vermel. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3051. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts, Baton Rouge
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