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Finding Aid encoded by Library of Congress Music Division, 2005
Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu004004
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS | |||||||||||||
MUSIC | |||||||||||||
LETTERPRESS BOOK, Feb. 1861-July 1862 | |||||||||||||
ALBUM | |||||||||||||
PHOTOGRAPHS | |||||||||||||
CLIPPINGS, 1962 | |||||||||||||
MISCELLANEOUS | |||||||||||||
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by personal names, subjects, related names, and listed alphabetically therein.
Donated by Joan M. Undeland, the composer's great great granddaughter, 1976.
Additional materials donated by Joan M. Undeland, the composer's great great granddaughter, 2000.
No further accruals are expected.
The William B. Bradbury Collection was processed in 1992/2000 by Robert Saladini with assistance from Gail A. Miller and Michele Millington. The original finding aid was prepared with Corel WordPerfect 8. In 2004 the William B. Bradbury Collection finding aid was coded for EAD format by Michael A. Ferrando.
The status of copyright on the materials of the William B. Bradbury collection is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: container number, the William B. Bradbury collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Date | Event |
| 1816 October 6 | Born William Batchelder Bradbury in York, Maine |
| 1830 | Family moves to Boston Bradbury studies with Sumner Hill Attends Lowell Mason's Boston Academy of Music Sings in Mason's Boudoin Street Church Choir |
| 1830s | Works as an organist and teacher |
| 1840 | Becomes music director of the First Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York |
| 1840s | Introduces the teaching of singing into New York City public schools |
| 1841 | Becomes music director of Baptist Tabernacle of New York; begins to teach children's singing in a similar style to that of Mason's school in Boston The Young Choir (compiled with Thomas Hastings) is published |
| 1847-49 | Studies piano, singing, harmony, and composition in Europe |
| 1849 | Returns to United States; continues to teach, compose, and compile collections of hymns |
| 1854 | Forms Bradbury Piano Company with his brother, Edward G.Bradbury, and Light and Newton, the German piano manufacturers |
| 1858 | Music collection, The Jubilee, is published, selling over 200,000 copies |
| 1861 | Music collection, The Golden Chain, is published, selling 2,000,000 copies |
| 1867 | Music collection, Fresh Laurels, is published, selling 1,200,000 copies |
| 1868 Jan. 7 | Dies in Montclair, New Jersey |
The William B. Bradbury Collection was given to the Library of Congress in 1976 and 2000 by Joan M. Undeland, Bradbury's great-great-granddaughter. These materials complemented a number of Bradbury's holograph and first-edition printed musical scores that were given to the Library of Congress by Hubert P. Main and others earlier in the 20th century.
Notable in the collection is an autograph musical sketchbook that Bradbury compiled between 1847 and 1849 when he was studying in Europe. This sketchbook contains short musical sketches by some of Bradbury's contemporaries, including Franz Abt, Niels Gade, Joseph Joachim, Jenny Lind, Albert Lorzing, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Louis Spohr, Marianne Spohr, Richard Wagner, and others. Sketches by Felix Mendelssohn, Walter Damrosch, Ignaz Paderewski and Felix Mendelssohn were added later. The album also contains two non-musical entries, a watercolor sketch by Susette Hauptmann, and a letter to Bradbury from Felix Mendelssohn that C. F. Becker added to the album in 1849.
All of the compositions by Bradbury in the collection are secular, even though he composed over 800 hymn-tunes. One of these works, Bradbury's Song of the south, may be in his own hand.
An unpublished biography entitled "William B. Bradbury, His Life and Times" that was written by his granddaughter, Elma Marvin, and a biographical letter written in 1928 by Bradbury's son are also found in the collection. A letterpress book in the collection contains correspondence relative to Bradbury's music publications during the early 1860s.
Photographs in the collection include those of Bradbury, his wife, Ada Esther Fessender Bradbury, and his piano, which was manufactured by his company, Light, Newton & Bradbury.
The status of the literary rights of the unpublished materials in the William B. Bradbury Collection is unknown.
The William B. Bradbury collection is organized in 7 series:
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