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.
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.
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.
925 Items
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.
Some materials in this collection might be offensive to patrons. Patrons should use their discretion when viewing materials. Please contact the curator with any questions about this.
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.
The collections is arranged into nine series.
The collection was assembled by Jacklin Bolton Stopp over several decades and donated to the University of Maryland in November 2014.
Part of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library