BIOGRAPHY AND INTENT
The music collection that I steward began in my father’s hands as early as 1915 or 1920. He was a young violinist and pianist and collected the music of the day, twentieth century light opera and stage and film music. Though not a musician myself, I collected American sheet music from 1920 back through the nineteenth century to the eighteenth, including England, British Music Hall and all the way back to the George Bickham Jr. illustrated music engravings of 1736-39. My interest broadened to attractive and rare nineteenth century music sheets published in America, England, on the European Continent and elsewhere around the world. |
In my career working in the Pacific Northwest I was fortunate to work as a regional actor on Northwest stages and then segue into my own business, Lynch Resources, as an arts marketing and fundraising managing consultant. We were able to assist some prestigious arts organizations, including Seattle Symphony, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT Theatre, Tacoma Art Museum, Village Theatre and Seattle Theatre Group, in addition to many others.
My intent is to raise awareness of this passion of ours, collecting these important musical publications, these historical documents, these original prints. From early editions of the Star Spangled Banner to lithographed title pages designed by Winslow Homer, these rag paper folios capsulize the social moods and mores, important issues and individuals, of America’s first full century. They form the very basis of what most paper collectors consider ‘Americana’. The scarcities are nearly innumerable. Great rarities, with perhaps less than ten copies extant, clearly abound.
I’m hopeful that at some point, some sense of relative scarcity will come to light for many of the most prominent, seminal music publications. If a number of the great sheet music archives and privately owned collections can somehow be brought into a single data base (World Catalogue?), for at least a limited number of celebrated items, everyone could have an idea of what some of the rarest publications are. These then would stand out as deserving of attention, conservation and archiving, possibly even exhibiting.
My intent is to raise awareness of this passion of ours, collecting these important musical publications, these historical documents, these original prints. From early editions of the Star Spangled Banner to lithographed title pages designed by Winslow Homer, these rag paper folios capsulize the social moods and mores, important issues and individuals, of America’s first full century. They form the very basis of what most paper collectors consider ‘Americana’. The scarcities are nearly innumerable. Great rarities, with perhaps less than ten copies extant, clearly abound.
I’m hopeful that at some point, some sense of relative scarcity will come to light for many of the most prominent, seminal music publications. If a number of the great sheet music archives and privately owned collections can somehow be brought into a single data base (World Catalogue?), for at least a limited number of celebrated items, everyone could have an idea of what some of the rarest publications are. These then would stand out as deserving of attention, conservation and archiving, possibly even exhibiting.