William P. Bigelow Papers, 1867-1941
1 records storage box (1 linear ft.)
Terms of Access and Use:
There is no restriction on access to the William P. Bigelow Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.
Requests for permission to publish material from William P. Bigelow Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
William P. Bigelow, Professor of Music at Amherst College, was a lifetime native of Amherst. Born in 1867, he attended Amherst High School and then Amherst College, graduating in 1889. He showed early musical talent as first tenor in Amherst's Glee Club, and continued to study music from 1889 to 1890 in Worcester under Edward L. Summer and Ivan Morkowski; from 1890 to 1894 in Berlin and Düsseldorf; and in 1898 in Paris and London, eventually learning under Stockhausen, Rest, Hriglia, and Buths. Between 1894 and 1898 he returned to Amherst College and was hired as an instructor; in 1901 he became associate professor and in 1906 a full professor. Returning to Berlin in 1908, he met his soon to be wife, Jane Ball. They were married September 7th, 1909, in Amherst. Their first child, Mary, was born in 1910, and a second daughter Ruth followed in 1912. Among Professor Bigelow's published works are Amherst College Songs, which he compiled and edited in1926. The Bigelow family resided at 2 Orchard Street until 1935. William P. Bigelow died in 1941.
Letters, postcards, photographs, drawings, sheet music, certificates, receipts, passports, manuscripts, a translation, music programs, posters, speeches, essays, poems, and other materials documenting the professional and personal life of Professor William P. Bigelow and his wife Jane Ball Bigelow. The papers include extensive correspondence between Bigelow and his family, members of the Amherst college faculty, and various admirers, as well as partial memoirs. Letters and papers addressed to the department and administration have some significance, as do some financial and legal records. Correspondents include Mrs. D. D. Eisen, Horace Hewlett, George R. Stewart (manager of the Boston Festival Orchestra), Professor C.K. Adams, Frank Chapman Sharp (AC 1987), Amherst Professor of Latin and Greek Levi Elwell, Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Arthur Curtis James (AC 1889).
This collection is organized into five series:
There is no restriction on access to the William P. Bigelow Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.
Requests for permission to publish material from William P. Bigelow Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
[Identification of item], in William P. Bigelow Papers [Box #, Folder #], Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library
| Processed: | June 11, 2003 |
| By: | Graham Leach-Krouse, Student Encoding Assistant |
| Finding Aid: | 2003 June |
| Prepared by: | Graham Leach-Krouse, Student Encoding Assistant |
| Edited by: | Peter A. Nelson, Assistant Archivist |
| Prepared for Web: | 2003 June |
| By: | Graham Leach-Krouse 05, Student Encoding Assistant |
| Contact Information |
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Robert Frost Library
PO Box 5000 Amherst, MA 01002-5000 Phone: (413) 542-2299 Fax: (413) 542-2692 Email Reference Form: http://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/askus URL: http://www.amherst.edu/library/archives |
Series 1: WRITINGS, ca.
| 1886-1936 | ||
Series 1, WRITINGS, ca. 1886-1936, contains manuscripts, speeches, essays, songs, poems and departmental papers written by William P. Bigelow during his lifetime. His speeches and essays revolve mainly around the life of a teacher, and the nature of proper education. Two musical works, "Amherst Songs" and "Oh Bill Bryan," are included. The various poems relate primarily to family life, and the preserved early works, a high school paper, and his master's thesis, are on Bassino from the Merchant of Venice, and the relation of Parsifal to the moral character of Wagner, respectively. The departmental papers are primarily financial records. | |||
Speeches and writings
| 1921-1922 |
Box 1: folder 1 | |
Speeches and writings
| 1936 |
Box 1: folder 2 | |
Speeches and writings
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 3 | |
"Amherst Songs" - notes and fragments
| ca. 1926 |
Box 1: folder 4 | |
"Oh Bill Bryan" - sheet music
| ca. 1914 |
Box 1: folder 5 | |
Poems
| 1917-1936 |
Box 1: folder 6 | |
"Character of Bassino" - high school essay
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 7 | |
"The Parsifal of Richard Wagner, Its Meaning and Relation to his Life and Character" - M.A. Thesis
| 1898 |
Box 1: folder 8 | |
"Art of Conducting" - translation
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 9 | |
"Early Days at Amherst" - memoir, partial manuscript
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 10 | |
Amherst College Music Department documents (bulk 1919)
| ca.1919-1932 |
Box 1: folder 11 | |
Series 2: LEGAL DOCUMENTS, ca.
| 1891-1933 | ||
Series 2, LEGAL DOCUMENTS, 1891-1933, contains passports, an identity card, a business card stamp, certificates, a copyright, receipts, checks, and financial correspondence. Passports are for William P. Bigelow, Jane Bigelow, and Mary Bigelow. The certificates signify marriage, residency, freemasonry, and membership in the American Defense Society. The copyright is for the song "Oh Bill Bryan," which Bigelow composed ca. 1914. | |||
Identification
| 1921-1933 |
Box 1: folder 12 | |
Certificates
| 1917-1923 |
Box 1: folder 13 | |
Copyright for "Oh Bill Bryan"
| 1914 |
Box 1: folder 14 | |
Finance
| 1891-1919 |
Box 1: folder 15 | |
Series 3: IMAGES, ca.
| 1885-1941 | ||
Series 3, IMAGES, ca.1885-1941, contains drawings, as well as loose, mounted, and framed photographs, photocopies, and one photograph album. Extensive portraiture of William P. Bigelow ranges over nearly his entire lifetime. Pictures of Mary and Jane, and miscellaneous images of vacations and the Orchard Street residence are included as well. | |||
Early portrait photographs of William P. Bigelow
| ca. 1885-1900 |
Box 1: folder 16 | |
Later portraits - photographs, photocopies, drawings
| ca. 1900-1941 |
Box 1: folder 17 | |
Family - photograph, mounted photograph, photo album
| 1912-1937 |
Box 1: folder 18 | |
Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow - two framed photographs
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 19 | |
Assorted - photographs, mounted photos
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 20 | |
Series 4: CORRESPONDENCE,
| 1891-1939 | ||
Series 4, CORRESPONDENCE, 1891-1939, contains letters and postcards. The letters deal primarily with William P. Bigelow's personal and performing life, with some communications to the administration and music department of the time, giving evidence of his professional world as well. A few letters belonging to Jane Bigelow are included also. | |||
Incoming correspondence (1 letter)
| 1899 |
Box 1: folder 21 | |
Incoming correspondence (4 letters)
| 1901-1904 |
Box 1: folder 22 | |
Incoming correspondence (4 letters)
| 1905-1909 |
Box 1: folder 23 | |
Incoming correspondence (7 letters)
| 1912-1915 |
Box 1: folder 24 | |
Incoming correspondence (2 letters)
| 1916-1918 |
Box 1: folder 25 | |
Incoming correspondence (15 letters, 1 telegram)
| 1919-1923 |
Box 1: folder 26 | |
Incoming correspondence (13 letters, 1 telegram)
| 1924-1925 |
Box 1: folder 27 | |
Incoming correspondence (11 letters)
| 1926-1929 |
Box 1: folder 28 | |
Incoming correspondence (7 letters)
| 1931-1932 |
Box 1: folder 29 | |
Incoming correspondence (18 letters, 1 telegram)
| 1933-1935 |
Box 1: folder 30 | |
Incoming correspondence (3 letters)
| 1936-1937 |
Box 1: folder 31 | |
Incoming correspondence (7 letters, x-reference to Arthur Curtis James)
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 32 | |
Levi Elwell Correspondence (4 letters, 2 post cards)
| 1908 |
Box 1: folder 33 | |
Levi Elwell Correspondence (7 letters)
| 1909 |
Box 1: folder 34 | |
Levi Elwell Correspondence (1 letter, 4 post cards)
| 1910 |
Box 1: folder 35 | |
Levi Elwell Correspondence (11 letters)
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 36 | |
Outgoing correspondence, Berlin (23 letters)
| 1891 |
Box 1: folder 37 | |
Outgoing correspondence, Berlin (26 letters
| 1892 |
Box 1: folder 38 | |
Outgoing correspondence (7 letters, 1 post card)
| 1910-1932 |
Box 1: folder 39 | |
Music departmental correspondence (36 letters, 2 post cards)
| 1910-1920 |
Box 1: folder 40 | |
Music departmental correspondence (14 letters, 1 catalog)
| 1921-1939 |
Box 1: folder 41 | |
Music departmental correspondence (7 letters, 1 catalog)
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 42 | |
Business correspondence - administration (8 letters)
| 1919-1922 |
Box 1: folder 43 | |
Business correspondence - administration (3 letters)
| 1923-1926 |
Box 1: folder 44 | |
Business correspondence - administration (4 letters)
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 45 | |
Business correspondence - job offers (11 letters) [bulk 1895-1899]
| 1895-1936 |
Box 1: folder 46 | |
Assorted correspondence - holidays (7 letters, 13 post cards)
| n.d. |
Box 1: folder 47 | |
Mrs. Bigelow's correspondence (4 letters)
| 1956-1961 |
Box 1: folder 48 | |
Series 5: MISCELLANEOUS,
| 1887-1941 | ||
Series 5, MISCELLANEOUS, 1887-1941, contains posters, postcards, announcements and programs. These assorted materials relate to various performances of William P. Bigelow, most notably Amherst's colorful "Old Heidelberg" night. A few other items come from European travel between 1898 and 1922. | |||
Musical
| 1887-1941 |
Box 1: folder 49 | |
"Old Heidelberg Night," Amherst College
| 1933-1935 |
Box 1: folder 50 | |
Travel
| 1898-1922 |
Box 1: folder 51 | |