Donald Pond Collection

Donald Pond (1906-1983) was a music educator, composer, and performer. Born in England, Pond immigrated to New York City at the age of twenty-seven and began working at the Dalton School, the Children's Theatre Arts Workshop, and as a guest lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 1937, Pond became the Music Director of the Pillsbury Foundation School, which was established with assistance from Leopold Stokowski for the study of young children's spontaneous music-making. After leaving the school in 1945, Pond stayed in the Santa Barbara, CA area and worked as a pianist, a teacher for the Music Academy of the West, and was the host of "Pleasure in Pictures," a music themed radio program. The collection consists of letters, writings, scores, books, articles, photographs, clippings, publications, radio scripts, observation notes, and sound recordings related to Pond's life and work.