The Music Special Collections of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh include historical material related to music groups, music organizations and societies, music educators, conductors, composers and musicians in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area. Collections include vinyl records, original correspondence, music manuscripts, concert programs, oral histories, recordings, newspaper clippings, photographs, CDs, sheet music, scrapbooks, and much more.

These collections are housed in the Music Department at CLP - Main and are available to the public for research. An appointment is required so we can prepare materials for viewing. 

For access to these resources, please call the Library at 412.622.3114 or email musicdept@carnegielibrary.org.

The following Special Collections are presented in roughly the order in which CLP acquired them.

The Charles C. Mellor Collection is named for Charles Chauncey Mellor (1836-1909), a boyhood friend of Andrew Carnegie. As an adult, he was a prominent Pittsburgh businessman and owner of Mellor’s Music House. Mellor donated some of his personal papers, including an autobiography he wrote for his 70th birthday, and his 1906 manuscript titled “A Sketch of the Life of William Evens,” a biography of Pittsburgh’s first music teacher. Mellor also donated articles about piano manufacturers, the scrapbooks of William Evens, and 500 music scores and books, along with his father John H. Mellor’s scrapbooks, which primarily contain news clippings about Mellor’s Music House.

The William Evens Scrapbook Collection contains six of Evens’ scrapbooks with materials spanning the years 1791 to 1860. These books are among the few available sources of information on the development of music in Pittsburgh during the first half of the 19th century. C.C. Mellor donated four of these volumes to the Library. The other two scrapbooks were donated to the University of Pittsburgh by the family of William Darlington, an avid collector of maps, books, magazines, and manuscripts. In 2008, the scrapbooks were transferred to CLP to preserve the integrity of the Evens Collection. 

William Evens (1783-1854) was born in Sussex, England, and came to Pittsburgh in 1811. He became the city’s first music teacher in 1812 when he opened a music school on First and Wood Streets to instruct students in singing and playing musical instruments. He founded the Pittsburgh Musical Society in 1818. On July 4 that year, the Society presented Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” as the first sacred music concert to be performed in Pittsburgh. Evens established a similar musical society across the river in the town of Allegheny. In 1820 he formed the Union Band, a 16-member professional military band. He traveled in Western Pennsylvania for more than 50 years, establishing singing societies, teaching music, leading church choirs and playing organ in churches. 

Some of the earliest local history documents in the Library’s collections were acquired due to the close association with Carnegie Music Hall, which was administratively linked to the Library from 1895 to 1916. 

The George H. Wilson Collection contains 46 scrapbooks compiled by Wilson, the first manager of Carnegie Music Hall. Wilson (1854-1908) came to Pittsburgh in 1895 to serve as manager for the Music Hall and for the Pittsburgh Orchestra housed there. He also served as manager of the Art Society of Pittsburgh and was a secretary of the Bureau of Music for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Some of the books housed in this collection are Wilson’s personal scrapbooks containing correspondence, pamphlets and news clippings. Others contain records of the organizations Wilson worked for, including The Grand Opera and The Pittsburgh Orchestra. 

Pittsburgh Orchestra Correspondence is closely associated with the George H. Wilson collection. The Pittsburgh Orchestra, in existence from 1896 to 1910, was Pittsburgh’s world renowned, premier orchestra during Andrew Carnegie’s heyday. This collection includes correspondence, contracts, concert programs, newspaper clippings, notes, publicity flyers and other ephemera bound in 23 volumes. Contributors include George H. Wilson, manager of the Orchestra and Music Hall; William N. Frew, president of the Pittsburgh Orchestra Committee from 1897 to 1900 and President of the Board of Trustees for Carnegie Library from 1895 to 1914; Frederic Archer, Victor Herbert and Emil Paur, conductors of the Pittsburgh Orchestra; and orchestral musicians and visiting performers.

The William C. Hamilton Correspondence collection contains personal correspondence between Hamilton (1871-1940) and Emil Paur (1855-1932). William Hamilton succeeded his father, Samuel Hamilton, as the president of S. Hamilton and Company, a Pittsburgh music store that operated from 1870 through to the 1940s. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Orchestra Committee and served on the board of other commercial and service organizations in the city.

This collection includes typewritten copies of Hamilton's letters to Paur and Paur’s handwritten replies. , Paur was conductor of the Pittsburgh Orchestra from 1904 to 1910. The contents of these letters indicate a close personal relationship and describe the atmosphere and circumstances surrounding Paur's tenure with the Orchestra, as well as their strategies of how to handle tense situations with Orchestra manager Wilson [see entry above] and with some members of the Orchestra.

Wilson did not get along with Paur. The newspapers of the day made note of this, and both sides of the argument can be found in the Music Department’s collections. Wilson saved all of the newspaper and magazine articles pertaining to his feud with Paur in his own scrapbooks, including negative press and two letters from William C. Hamilton, full of vitriol toward Wilson, with Wilson’s note at the top of the letters: “not answered.”

The Kate DeN. Wilson Collection contains a transcript of reminiscences she gave before educated women of the College Club of Pittsburgh in 1926. When her husband George H. Wilson [see entry above] passed away at the age of 54 in 1908, she took over as manager of Carnegie Music Hall and the Art Society. She served for 25 years, retiring in 1930. She also served as a secretary and treasurer of the Tuesday Musical Club [see entry below] from 1909 to 1930. 

Carnegie Music Hall Concert Program Collection holds 43 scrapbooks of programs, beginning with the inaugural event on Nov. 5, 1895, through June 7, 1931. These facsimiles of the originals have been archivally photocopied to duplicate the layout of the original brittle scrapbooks that were found in the attic of Carnegie Music Hall. In 1999 a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York funded the creation of these facsimiles to preserve the legacy of Andrew Carnegie. 

Pittsburgh Concert Programs begin with performances from the mid-19th century. The collection includes loose programs, bound volumes of programs from specific organizations, and programs in scrapbooks compiled by individuals or organizations.

The Charles Heinroth Organ Recital Clippings Scrapbooks contain two scrapbooks created by Heinroth, dated 1917 to 1931. Included are clippings from Pittsburgh newspapers and magazines about his work as organist and director of Carnegie Music Hall, details about music he played at his free organ recitals, topics of lectures he delivered, concerts he played with other with Pittsburgh musicians, and articles about the newly refurbished organ (1917) at Carnegie Music Hall. 

Heinroth (1874-1963) was the Director of Music at Carnegie Music Hall for 25 years, from 1907 to 1932, during the time that Mrs. Wilson served as the manager. He was organist and choir director at Third Presbyterian Church and organ instructor at Carnegie Institute of Technology. He gave nearly 2,000 free organ recitals at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. Beginning in the early 1920s he performed Sunday afternoon organ recitals on KDKA radio. Heinroth was president of the Association of Organists, a member of the American Organ Players' Club, and an elected member of the Royal Philharmonic Academy in Rome, Italy. 

The Organ Sheet Music Collection contains more than 1,300 individual pieces donated by local organists, including Frederic Archer, Musical Director of Carnegie Music Hall (1895-1902); Edwin Henry Lemare, Musical Director of Carnegie Music Hall (1902-1905); Caspar Koch, Pittsburgh City Organist (1904-1954); T. Carl Whitmer, organist and choirmaster of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh (1916-1932); and Russell G. Wichmann, organist and director of music at Shadyside Presbyterian Church (1936-1987).

The Adolph M. Foerster Collection includes six scrapbooks, one photograph album, two volumes of his manuscripts, and five volumes of his published compositions. One scrapbook contains a series of articles from The Pittsburg Dispatch written in 1900 by Mrs. Henry B. Birch, titled “Musical Pittsburgh in the Olden Days,” “Growth and History of Music in Pittsburgh,” and “History of the Work of Pittsburgh Musicians.” The Library also has other examples of Foerster’s published works, some of which are available for circulation.

Foerster (1854-1927) was a composer, music teacher, music historian and conductor who was born in Pittsburgh and spent most of his life here. He taught at the Pittsburgh Female College (now Chatham University). He was named conductor of the Symphonic Society in 1879 and elected conductor of the Musical Union in 1882. After 1883, he devoted himself to teaching, composition and writing articles about the music history of Pittsburgh, fellow musicians in Pittsburgh, and other topics. His articles were featured in the Pittsburgh magazine Musical Forecast and other national periodicals. 

In November 1895, Carnegie Institute held its Dedication Ceremony at Carnegie Music Hall. This inaugural event included a composition by Foerster titled “Dedication March for Orchestra.” 

The Charles N. Boyd Collection contains 72 of Boyd’s scrapbooks, consolidated from 115 original volumes created between 1893 and 1937. They range in size and scope, including small single-subject books primarily about Boyd himself (articles he wrote; groups and performances in which he participated), as well as collections of programs, newspaper items, and music journal critiques primarily from and about Pittsburgh music and musicians. 

Boyd (1875-1937) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1894. He served as associate editor of the international Groves Dictionary of Music; co-founder and director in 1915 of the Pittsburgh Musical Institute; music professor at Western Theological Seminary; organist and choir director at North Avenue Methodist Church; initiator and director of the Pittsburgh Choral Society; president of the Music Teachers National Association; and choral director of the Tuesday Musical Club [see entry below]. He also managed a variety of musical artists and contributed to many magazines and periodicals.

The Charles N. Boyd Memorial Musicological Association was formed in 1938, shortly after Dr. Boyd’s death, to acquire his personal library for CLP. The association raised $10,000, including $8,000 to purchase Boyd’s library and $2,000 to establish a fund for acquiring new music books and scores.

In 1939, CLP'S first Head Music Librarian Irene Millen wrote in Musical Forecast [see entry below], “That the movement to purchase and incorporate the library of Charles N. Boyd into the Carnegie Library should be started almost simultaneously with the opening of the Music Room seems a happy coincidence, for much of the valuable material in the present collection was formerly contained in private libraries of other prominent musicians.”  

The Irene Millen Collection contains biographical and personal notes, correspondence, Music Library Association convention reports, articles she wrote for professional journals, and lectures she gave. Millen (1908-2000) was appointed as CLP’s first Head Music Librarian in 1939. She retired in 1974. 

Musical Forecast was a Pittsburgh-based music magazine published monthly between 1921 and 1948. It covered global events and world-famous musicians, but its primary focus was Pittsburgh’s musical life, leadership and supporting organizations. David H. Light was Managing Editor until his death in August 1941. Feature Editor Harvey Gaul and several associate editors assumed leadership until January 1943, when Mrs. Evelyn (David H.) Light became Managing Editor through its final issue in July 1948. 

In 1943, friends and family of David H. Light formed Hundred Friends of David Light, a committee to establish the endowed collection called David H. Light Memorial Record Library at CLP.  The Charles N. Boyd Memorial Musicological Association and the Hundred Friends of David Light merged in 1949 to form the Friends of the Music Library. They arranged an annual concert to keep the work of the Music Department fresh in the minds of musicians and help to raise funds for new music books and scores. This organization is still active today. 

Who’s Who in Pittsburgh Music Circles contains the complete run of Ralph Lewando’s column of the same name, meticulously clipped and organized by music librarians into scrapbooks. Lewando was a music critic for the Pittsburgh Press and wrote a weekly column from 1941 to 1954. Each article included a photograph of the featured musician with a short essay on his or her contribution to the musical life of the city. Some of these columns were reproduced in the Pittsburgh magazine Musical Forecast [see entry above]. 

The Friends of Harvey Gaul Collection was donated by Friends of Harvey Gaul, established in 1946. The collection contains the organization’s board meeting minutes from 1946 to 1969, a list of Gaul’s compositions, photos, by-laws, news clippings, and tributes and articles about Gaul from the magazine Musical Forecast [see entry above]. 

Harvey Bartlett Gaul (1881-1945) was a Pittsburgh conductor, composer, music instructor, music critic, and author. He composed more than 500 organ and choral works. He was the founder and conductor of the Pittsburgh Savoyards and the Civic String Orchestra. From 1914 to 1934 he worked as music critic and arts editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gaul was a music instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute of Technology, and Washington and Jefferson College. In 1920 the newly founded radio station KDKA appointed Gaul as its first Music Director. In 1921, he gained the post of Feature Editor at Musical Forecast. Gaul also served as organist and choirmaster at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside for 35 years until his death in 1945. Throughout his lifetime, Gaul donated many of his published compositions to CLP.

Another aspect of Gaul’s legacy that remains today is The Harvey Gaul Composition Competition, a biennial contest that recognizes composers for their outstanding work and memorializes Gaul's commitment to music and music composition. The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble administers the contest. 

The Tuesday Musical Club Collection presents a view of Pittsburgh’s music history through the work of women in musical society. The collection contains one box of programs and members’ books from 1903 to 1973, as well as 21 scrapbooks created by the club’s secretaries. These scrapbooks include annual reports, meeting notes, club history from magazine articles, newspaper clippings on club activities, publicity notices, letters to members from club leaders, by-laws, photographs, obituaries, and other ephemera and memorabilia.

Founded in 1889, the club is still active in 2021. It started as a social and educational organization for amateur female musicians and music enthusiasts of Pittsburgh. Many were also the wives of local business leaders, politicians and prominent music leaders. Members performed concerts, brought national musical acts to Pittsburgh, and provided scholarships for music students. Beginning in 1976, men were invited to join the club. 

The Bakaleinikoff Tablecloth hangs in the North Wing Music Room of the Music Department at CLP-Main. It features the embroidered autographs of more than 100 visiting classical musicians, composers and conductors who performed in Pittsburgh from 1946 to 1953, when Dr. Vladimir Bakaleinikoff was musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Vladimir’s wife, Julia, embroidered each signature. The signatures include those of Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Marian Anderson, Mario Lanza, Isaac Stern, Arthur Rubenstein, Victor Borge, Oscar Levant and many other well-known composers and performers. 

Born in Moscow in 1885, Dr. Bakaleinikoff was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and the musical director of the Moscow Art Theater, where he met and married singer Julia Fatova. They came to the United States in 1925. In 1939, Fritz Reiner, then conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, asked Bakaleinikoff to become the associate conductor. Bakaleinikoff served as musical director of the Orchestra from 1948 to 1952. Affectionately known as Bak, he possessed a delightful sense of humor and loved to tell stories. Bak’s last public appearance was in Pittsburgh one month before his death in 1953. Hundreds attended his memorial service at Heinz Chapel where conductor Leopold Stokowski directed a small chorus for the program. 

In 2004, after months of researching the signatures on the framed tablecloth, the Music Department was left with one mystery signature. The Pittsburgh Tribune enlisted the help of two handwriting experts who dissected the signature for personality traits. They reported: "The person has the flair of a conductor, very flamboyant, very expressive. This person is not shy about the fact that he craves attention. He's a showman." In the end, they were able to verify the signature as Leopold Stokowski's. 

The tablecloth was donated to CLP by Charles Rosenbloom, philanthropist, Life Trustee of Carnegie Institute, and a Vice President of the Pittsburgh Symphony Society. 

The Maurice Levy Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh Collection includes over 300 interviews Levy conducted between 1991 and 2005. Levy (1926-2016) was a long-time Music Department volunteer and retired mathematics teacher in Pittsburgh Public Schools. The interviews feature Pittsburgh Symphony instrumentalists, music educators, jazz musicians, music reporters, historians, folk musicians, DJs and others.

The T. Carl Whitmer Collection contains music programs of Whitmer as a performer or composer; correspondence, photographs, and news articles about Whitmer; and articles and essays written by Whitmer. 

Whitmer (1873-1959) was director of music at Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) from 1909 to 1916; organist and choirmaster of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh (1916-1932); and a music teacher at the Pittsburgh Musical Institute. He composed Biblical dramas, songs, choruses, organ and piano pieces, chamber music, and symphonies. He also wrote books of poetry, philosophy and music pedagogy. His critical essays appeared in various national magazines. In 1948, Musical Forecast [see entry above] dedicated its final issue to him.

The Russell G. Wichmann Collection contains correspondence, photos, news clippings and programs. Wichmann (1912-1987) was the organist and director of music at Shadyside Presbyterian Church for 51 years (1936-1987); a professor and music department chair at Chatham College (1946-1978); director of the Mendelssohn Choir (1952-1966); and the first university organist at Heinz Chapel, University of Pittsburgh (1938-1945). He was also a composer and recitalist. This collection was donated by Mina Belle Wichmann, Russell G. Wichmann’s widow and long-time Music Department volunteer.

The Roland Leich Collection contains original manuscripts and correspondence by Leich (1911-1995). He was a composer and music theorist who taught at Carnegie Institute of Technology/Carnegie Mellon University from 1946 to 1976.

Associated with the Leich Collection is the Cynthia Cozette Lee Collection. Born in Pittsburgh in 1953, Lee is a contemporary classical music composer and librettist. She was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Arts Degree in music composition. This collection includes a scrapbook containing correspondence between Lee and her music professor Roland Leich, music manuscripts, and copies of radio programs she created featuring her music and that of Leich.

The Lode (Louis) H. Huybrechts Collection includes music manuscripts and published works, numerous settings of the Mass and other sacred works, and 12 CDs of Huybrechts’ performances and compositions. Huybrechts (1911-1973) was born in Belgium. He served the Church of the Sacred Heart in Pittsburgh as organist and choirmaster from 1960 to 1971.

The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), Pittsburgh Chapter Collection contains items spanning the years 1941 to 2003. Bob Brandl Sr., a longtime member of the Pittsburgh Chapter of SPEBSQSA, donated this collection, which includes chapter history, newspaper clippings, photographs, press articles, newsletters, music programs and correspondence.

The Donald S. Steinfirst Scrapbook Collection contains 27 scrapbooks assembled by Steinfirst, who also donated thousands of Pittsburgh Concert Programs.

Pittsburgh native Donald S. Steinfirst (1904-1972) was classical music critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1939 to 1972. He reviewed concerts by most of the world's top orchestras and musicians, as well as chamber music, opera and ballet. He travelled to Europe for the Post-Gazette to review music festivals, and he traveled with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra several times on European tours. During the 1960s he taught music criticism at Duquesne University. He was the executive director of the Three Rivers Arts Festival from 1961 to 1968.

The Swan Chorale and Ralph J. Swan Collection includes three scrapbooks of photos, documents, correspondence and other memorabilia celebrating the history of The Swan Chorale. Ralph J. Swan (1931-2010) co-founded the ensemble in 1945 with his older sister, Amy L. Brown. Swan directed the group, and Brown served as the piano accompanist. The ensemble performed for churches and organizations around Pittsburgh for more than 50 years. The Swan Chorale was initially supported by United We Sing, an annual Holiday concert performed by the Chorale and other local groups, held at the Carnegie Music Hall from 1948 to the late 1970’s. The collection was donated by Armetta Swan, Swan's widow and a Chorale member.

The Gaylord Yost Collection, donated by Gaylord Yost Jr., includes a scrapbook, photographs, articles by and about Yost, correspondence and lecture notes. Yost (1888-1958) was born in Fayette, Ohio. Between 1907 and 1911 he toured as a violin soloist across the United States, Europe and South America. In 1919, he moved to Pittsburgh and became head of the violin department at Pittsburgh Musical Institute, a position he held for 25 years. He formed the Yost String Quartet. Yost composed numerous short compositions for violin and piano and published multiple volumes of violin pedagogy called the Yost Violin System. He moved back to Fayette in 1951 to take over his father's newspaper, The Fayette Review, and served as the mayor of Fayette from 1954 to 1957.