A tribute to Kansas
Creator: General Motors
Date: September 19, 1932
A program for the musical production "The Parade of the States" presented by General Motors. The show featured both an orchestra and choir, playing popular songs of Kansas, state and college songs, and a tribute to the Indians of Kansas.

Band concert, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Creator: United States. Works Progress Administration
Date: Between 1935 and 1943
These soldiers are seated in the audience at a Works Progress Administration band concert, Recreation Hall, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Barbershop singers in Topeka, Kansas
Creator: Schrock, John Edward
Date: Between 1980 and 1985
These two photographs show barbershop singers serenading a customer in an onstage performance. The barbershop singers are young boys.

Campaign songs, as sung by the National Quartette
Date: Between 1893 and 1894
This volume of campaign songs includes four pieces that vividly express the major beliefs of the Populist Party. The first song, "For Trampling on the Grass," criticizes the businessmen and bankers who were trampling on the rights of the common people. The second song, "The Republican's Lament," pokes fun at the Republicans who were no longer able to dominate the Populists now that "they have ceased to head our whippings, and have ceased to take our word." The third song, "The Wall Street Badge" describes how the government, according to the Populists, was now in the hands of Wall Street. The final song, "One of His Legs is Longer Than It Really Ought to Be," provides a comic perspective on some of the upcoming elections, including the race between Chester I. Long and "Sockless Jerry" Simpson in 1894.

Eva Jessye
Creator: Kalmbach, Bob
Date: Between 1960 and 1969
Eva Jessye singing at the University of Michigan. Jessye, a Coffeyville native, was the first chorale director of stage shows such as Porgy and Bess, and of the first black musical motion picture Hallelujah. As founder of the Eva Jessye Choir, she became the female dean of black music in America.

Eva Jessye
Date: Between 1940 and 1950
Five views of Eva Jessye in costume. Jessye, a Coffeyville native, was the first choral director of stage shows such as Porgy and Bess, and of the first black musical motion picture Hallelujah. As founder of the Eva Jessye Choir, she became the female dean of black music in America.

Eva Jessye and Eleanor Roosevelt
Date: 1939
Eleanor Roosevelt shaking hands with Eva Jessye at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

John William Gardiner diary
Creator: Gardiner, John William, 1851-1917
Date: January 1 - December 23, 1875
John William Gardiner was born in or near Platte City, Missouri, in 1851. In March 1855, Gardiner and his family moved to the future site of Winchester, Jefferson County, in the newly opened Kansas Territory. During 1875, he taught school and simultaneously took classes in Leavenworth to obtain his teaching certificate. Many of the diary entries describe his teaching, weather, the grasshopper plague, and extracurricular activities such as singing and visiting friends. A transcription prepared by the diary donor, Allen Gardiner, follows the diary images and includes a one page introduction. An uncorrected, searchable OCR file is available as "Text Version" below.

John William Gardiner diary
Creator: Gardiner, John William, 1851-1917
Date: Between May 6, 1875 and June 25, 1875
John William Gardiner was born in or near Platte City, Missouri, in 1851. In March 1855, Gardiner and his family moved to the future site of Winchester, Jefferson County, in the newly opened Kansas Territory. During 1875, he taught school and simultaneously took classes in Leavenworth to obtain his teaching certificate. Many of the diary entries describe his teaching, weather, the grasshopper plague, and extracurricular activities such as singing and visiting friends.

Marilyn Maye onstage at a Topeka Jazz Workshop concert
Date: November 15, 1993
This photograph shows Marilyn Maye, a jazz vocalist who was born in Wichita in 1928, onstage at a Topeka Jazz Workshop concert. She began singing on the WIBW radio station in Topeka when she was 9 years old, and performed for 11 years at the Colony in Kansas City, Missouri. She had appeared frequently on television--notably 76 times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In 1966, she received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and in 2008, she received the Kansas Arts Commission's Distinguished Arts Award. The Kansas Native Sons and Daughters named her Kansan of the Year in 2012.

Marshall County Fair, Blue Rapids, Kansas
Creator: Hawkins, Omar F. (Omar Finlay), 1890-1967
Date: 1929
This photograph shows four African American musicians performing on stage at the Marshall County Fair in Blue Rapids, Kansas. A crowd is gathered around the stage listening to the performance.

Messiah performers and chorus at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas
Creator: Grondal, B.G.
Date: April 10, 1900-April 15, 1900
This is a photograph showing the Messiah performers and chorus plus views of the Ladies Hall and the Main College building at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. On the back of the photograph, is the Messiah program.

Rondelli Remembered: Recital to Honor Her Brilliant Career in Opera and Her Outstanding Success as a Teacher of Classical Voice
Creator: University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio
Date: June 02, 2012
Barbara Rondelli Perry was born October 19, 1939 in Chicopee, Kansas. She graduated from Chicopee Grade School (1944-1952), Cherokee High School (1952-1956), and Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg with a Bachelor of Music and Vocal Performance (1956-1960). After graduation, Barbara was a Fulbright Scholar and attended the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with Dame Eva Turner, (1960-1962). Upon graduation, she received a Licentiate Diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music in Performance and Teaching of Singing. Barbara attended the Accademia Chigiana, Siena, Italy, where she studied in Art Song and Performance (1963). In 1963, she married Johan van der Merwe, an orchestral conductor from South Africa. Barbara sang professionally in Europe, America, and South Africa from 1964-1975. In 1978, she received a Master of Music from Kansas State College, Pittsburg, Kansas in Vocal Performance. From 1975-2011, she was Professor of Music and Voice in the Department of Music, University of Toledo and was named Professor Emerita. Her husband Johan van der Merew died in 1996 and she later married Richard Russell Perry, Professor of Higher Education, Emeritus, University of Toledo on June 11, 2000.

Symphony in the Flint Hills banner
Creator: Symphony in the Flint Hills
Date: between 2006 and 2010
This large, off-white colored nylon banner was used at performances of Symphony in the Flint Hills. The banner is screen printed with a drawing of bluestem prairie grass, which was created by artist Wade Parsons of Kanab, Utah.

Theater scrapbook and date book, Topeka, Kansas
Creator: Wood, J. W.
Date: 1880-1889
This scrapbook, compiled by J. W. Wood, contains programs, clippings, illustrations, and other memorabilia of the theaters and performers in Topeka, Kansas, in the 1880s. There are two photographs of the Grand Opera House, which was located at 615 SW Jackson Street in Topeka, and most of the programs are from their productions. A theatrical date book for the Grand Opera House covers the 1884 and 1885 season. These items belonged to Jay House.

Violetta Mareia June Frisby Mullendore Collection
Creator: Mullendore, Violetta Mareia June Frisby
Date: 1926 - 1930
A photograph album containing photographs and newspaper clippings about the June Frisby Academy of Music located in Wichita, Kansas. Also included in the collection is her obituary and a wedding invitation. The musicians are often in costumes--Hawaiian, Colonial, etc. Some of the photos include a person in "black face", a form of comedic theater based on stereotyped caricatures of African Americans. Black face comedy was a prominent form of American popular culture from the mid-19th century until the civil rights movement in the 1960s.