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Duvall record collection

 Collection 0383-SCPA

Donald Dunn Duvall (March 7, 1946–August 7, 2010) was an American information technology consultant and music lover who organized and maintained a sizeable record collection started by his maternal uncle, Claude James Dunn (January 13, 1902–July 23, 1990). The Duvall record collection contains more than 200 LPs from the twentieth century; the bulk of the materials are undated, though two recordings are dated 1949. Styles of music represented in the collection include jazz and big band ensembles, solo instrumentalists, and solo singers from the classical and traditional pop genres.

Dates

  • 1949, undated
  • Majority of material found in undated

Conditions Governing Access

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. Please contact SCPA's curator to make an appointment: Email: scpa@umd.edu, Tel: 301.405.9220.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restricted files in this collection.

Extent

219 Items

Scope and Contents

The Duvall record collection contains more than 200 recordings from the twentieth century; the bulk of the materials is undated, though two recordings are dated 1949. The collection consists of LP recordings of a wide range of jazz and big band ensembles, solo instrumentalists, and solo singers from both the classical and traditional pop genres. Notable groups and individuals represented in the collection include Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, Jesse Crawford, Waring’s Pennsylvanians, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Gene Austin, Jo Stafford, Ezio Pinza, Frankie Carle, Al Jolson, and Van and Schenck.

Biographical Note

Donald Dunn “D3” Duvall was born on March 7, 1946, in Washington, DC to George Thomas Duvall and Maude Dunn Duvall. He was raised in the Chevy Chase area of Maryland's Montgomery County and attended Chevy Chase Elementary School, Leland Junior High, and Bethesda–Chevy Chase High School, from which he graduated in 1964. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and enrolled at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio with an interest in studying United States history. Duvall married Bernice Bettum of Washington, DC in 1968. Duvall was honorably discharged from the Navy not long after they were married, and in 1970 the couple relocated from Ohio to Chevy Chase, Maryland, where Duvall lived the rest of his life. He spent over 20 years working for Vitro Corporation, a major US defense contractor, and also worked briefly in the insurance business and as a manager at Poch's Hardware in Potomac, Maryland. After leaving Vitro Corporation in 1993, he spent a few years working as a freelance consultant before joining the information technology (IT) consulting firm Princeton Information, where he worked until his death on August 7, 2010.

While not a trained musician, Duvall had a great love of music that was inspired in part by his maternal uncle, Claude Dunn. Dunn was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 13, 1902. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and served as a quartermaster during World War II. Dunn was an avid fan of music, especially the “Big Band” era of jazz, and was also a social dancer. He regularly bought Hit of the Week records, produced by the short-lived Hit of the Week record label (1930–1932) founded by the Durium Corporation. These weekly releases consisted of a single hit song pressed on one side of a record that was made from a sturdy paper base coated with Durium, a lightweight synthetic resin. Dunn was married to Nancy “Nan” Bradburn and died on July 23, 1990. A large number of the 78s that form the Duvall collection belonged to Dunn or were part of the personal collection of his parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Dunn.

After Claude Dunn moved into a retirement home, Donald Duvall took possession of the record collection and organized it, transferring much of the collection onto cassette tapes for Dunn to listen to on headphones. Duvall held onto the collection after his uncle’s death in 1990, and upon Duvall’s own death in 2010, it was passed to his son Peter Duvall, who donated it to the University of Maryland’s Special Collections in Performing Arts in 2011.

--Authored by Peter Duvall and edited by Rachel Ruisard

Arrangement

This collection is organized into one series:

  1. Recordings

Custodial History and Acquisition

Donation facilitated by Peter Duvall, son of Donald Duvall; received on October 25, 2011.

Title
Duvall record collection
Status
Completed
Author
Rachel Ruisard
Date
April–May 2020
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Library Details

Part of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
8270 Alumni Drive
College Park MD 20742 United States