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Smith, Carleton
COLLECTION: Carleton Smith estate: music materials
LOCATION AS OF 2001: Dispersed within circulating holdings and Music Library
Special Collections
PROVENANCE: Estate of Carleton Smith (d. 1984; not to be confused with Carleton
Sprague Smith, music scholar), via Bement Public Library and Norman Brown of the
University Library's Collection Development division. Non-music materials from
Smith's estate may have been incorporated into holdings of other Library units.
WHEN ACQUIRED: March 1985
DESCRIPTION: Carleton Smith of Bement, Illinois, a University of Illinois
alumnus, was a rather colorful figure who traveled extensively in Eastern Europe
and elsewhere during the years immediately following
the close of World War II. He founded the National Arts Foundation (of New York)
in 1947 or 1948, and numbered world figures such as President Harry Truman, the
composer Jean Sibelius, and pianist Ignaz Paderewski among his personal friends.
After World War II he expended considerable time and energy seeking lost
manuscripts of Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and other major composers, all of
which had disappeared from German libraries during the war years. Music
materials received in 1985 included 23 books, 822 pieces of music, and 774 sound
recordings. Some materials which duplicated existing holdings (e.g., 51 volumes
from monument or complete works collections) were not retained by the Music
Library. Smith's collection was noteworthy for ethnic vocal music, particularly
song collections from non-Russian Soviet republics; music of Sibelius and
Richard Strauss; and published scores by contemporary
Soviet composers (including R. Gliere and D. Shostakovich). A number of
published scores, including those of Gliere, Shostakovich, and Sibelius, have
autograph signatures of their composers. Six 78 rpm records of speeches by Lenin
and Stalin were copied on cassette for the Undergraduate Library. The donation
also included several privately produced discs recording a telephone
conversation between Smith and Sibelius on the occasion of the composer's
birthday (these discs were copied by the Library of Congress for their own
collection).
ARRANGEMENT: Dispersed among cataloged holdings and in Special Collections.
Photos, clippings, memos, and ephemeral materials have been retained in the
Collections File folder ("Smith, Carleton").
ACCESS/FINDING AIDS/BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Collections File folder includes a summary
prepared by Music Librarian William McClellan, copies of order cards for
materials added to Music Library holdings, and copies of memos and
correspondence. Clippings from local newspapers provide substantial
biographical and anecdotal information on Carleton Smith; the folder also
includes a copy of an article Smith contributed to Smithsonian magazine.
INDEX TERMS: Russian music; Smith, Carleton; Sibelius, Jean; Lenin, V. I.
(speeches); Shostakovich, Dmitrii; Stalin, Joseph (speeches); Gliere, Reinhold
SEE ALSO: Smith and other "sleuths" are featured in N. Lewis, Paperchase,
1981 (780.94 L587P), which documents efforts made to recover the missing
manuscripts from the German State Library. According to Information in the
Collections File folder. Smith's personal papers were acquired by the Lilly
Library at Indiana University.
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