Description
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at Urbana-Champaign was organized in 1994 with the transfer of the John Philip Sousa and Herbert L. Clarke personal papers, and other related special collections from University Bands to the University Library. The Center holds the world’s single largest archives of original music compositions and arrangements by John Philip Sousa. The principle archival collections of the Center are the papers of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), Herbert L. Clarke (18671945), former directors of the band at the University of Illinois A. Austin Harding (18801958), Mark Hindsley (1905-1999), Harry Begian (b. 1921), and University of Illinois alumnus and Sousa Band member Richard E. Kent (1899-1996). In addition the Center is responsible for unique collections of twentieth-century electronic and avant-garde music, and select ethno-musicological research papers from the faculty and staff of the University’s School of Music.
As a unit of the University Archives, the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music provides professional collection-level management of its collections. It insures students, faculty, researchers and the general public free and open access to its collections and strives to provide the highest quality public service and educational programming possible.
Revised July 2006