Collection: Jacklin Bolton Stopp collection of 19th-century American music

The Jacklin Bolton Stopp collection contains materials from 1774 to 1972, with the bulk of the collection dating from approximately 1840 to 1910. Materials include pedagogical musical materials, tune books, other compilations of sacred or secular songs, and sheet music. The collection also includes cantata scores, librettos, hymnals, and music-related books. Most scores and collections of printed music were published in the United States.

Dates

1774-1972
Majority of material found within 1840-1910

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restricted files in this collection. Materials from this collection must be used in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library's Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Special Collections Room, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

Conditions Governing Use

The vast majority of works appearing in this collection are in public domain. When the status of the rights are not entirely clear, the University of Maryland Libraries is granted permission for the use in scholarly research by the Libraries’ patrons under fair use in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act.

Extent

925 Items

Inventories/Additional Information

Collection inventory

Additional Description

Scope and Contents

The Jacklin Bolton Stopp collection contains materials from 1774 to 1972, with the bulk of the collection dating from approximately 1840 to 1910. Materials include pedagogical musical materials, tune books, other compilations of sacred or secular songs, and sheet music. The collection also includes cantata scores, librettos, hymnals, and music-related books. Of note is the complete holdings of the works of A.N. Johnson, a subject of considerable interest to Stopp. Most scores and collections of printed music were published in the United States.

Biographical / Historical

Jacklin Talmage Bolton Stopp (b. 1926) is a musicologist and independent scholar based in Lockport, New York whose research interests are centered on nineteenth-century American music. She is the author of several published works on the history of the secular cantata in the United States from 1850 to 1930, including her 1964 Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Michigan, articles for the Journal of Research in Music Education and American Music, and entries in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music and the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. A former faculty member of the State University of New York (SUNY)–Geneseo, SUNY–Buffalo, and Wisconsin State University–Oshkosh, Stopp has also served as a certified adjudicator for the New York State School Music Association.

In connection with her professional and personal interests, Stopp collected hundreds of rare books, scores, and other music-related materials published in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since most of these materials were intended for amateur musicians in religious, scholastic, or social settings, Stopp’s collection helps provide a picture of everyday American music-making during this period.

As singing schools and choirs emerged in many Protestant New England congregations in the late eighteenth century, composers and music editors began producing collections of hymns in simple four-part arrangements. During the nineteenth century, singing schools spread into the rest of the United States, and published collections of sacred vocal music grew larger and more numerous. These tune books typically contain original or newly arranged hymns and anthems, and include an instructional preface about basic vocal technique and how to read music. Major compilers of tune books during this period include Thomas Hastings (1784–1872), Lowell Mason (1792–1872), William Bradbury (1816–1868), and L.O. Emerson (1820–1915). In the second half of the century, composers such as Philip Paul Bliss (1838–1876) and Ira Sankey (1840–1908) produced new collections of gospel hymns to meet the growing demand for music for Sunday schools and Protestant evangelical revival services.

The growth of public education in the nineteenth century also led to the publication of many songbooks for young singers and public school choirs, such as collections by A.N. Johnson (1817–1892) and C.E. Leslie (1845–1893). Some music theorists and educators also attempted to expand music literacy by promoting alternative systems of notation based on solfege or shape note.

The later nineteenth century featured greater public interest in secular vocal music, including quartets, glees, and choruses. Secular American cantatas, such as those by George F. Root (1820–1895), grew popular with musicians and audiences during this period. As the piano became increasingly common in the bourgeois American home, the publication of songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment—in popular anthologies or as individual pieces of sheet music—flourished.

Arrangement

The collections is arranged into nine series.

Sacred Vocal Music, 1784-1912, 1952-1972, and undated (344 items)
Vocal Music, Mostly Secular, 1774, 1829-1935, 1972, and undated (159 items)
Vocal Music Instruction, 1810-1933 (207 items)
Instrumental Instruction, 1847-1936 (40 items)
Instrumental Scores and Anthologies, 1856-circa 1908, 1987, and undated (15 items)
Music Theory and Terminology, 1844-1913 (26 items)
Sheet Music, 1817-1942 (66 items)
Operas and Operettas, 1860-1889, 1927, and undated (35 items)
Monographs, 1869-1972 (33 items)

Custodial History

The collection was assembled by Jacklin Bolton Stopp over several decades and donated to the University of Maryland in November 2014.

Related Materials

Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) holds several additional collections related to nineteenth-century American music education.

The Jacklin Bolton Stopp papers contain additional materials Stopp used in her scholarship of nineteenth-century American music. These include her professional subject files and correspondence, as well as her collection of ephemera and nineteenth-century music serials.

The Lowell Mason collection includes published works by Mason as well as manuscript items and related material.

The Polly Carder collection on George F. Root includes published works by Root that complement these holdings.

SCPA holds the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Historical Center