 | A survey of research materials in Virginia libraries, 1936-37 |  |
Section C. Fine Arts.
On the general subject of the history of fine arts the
libraries at the College of William and Mary and at the University
of Virginia have about 300 volumes each.
The College of William and Mary receives the following
general art periodicals: American Magazine of Art, Antiquarian,
Antiquity, Apollo, Art and Archaeology, Art Bulletin, Art Digest,
Art in America, Arts and Decoration, Connoisseur, Deutsche Kunst
London Studio, Parnassus, and School Arts Magazine. Somewhat
similar lists of periodicals are recorded by Hollins College,
the Richmond Public Library, Sweet Briar, the State Teachers
College at Farmville, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University
of Virginia, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Virginia
State Library.
Carnegie collections on fine arts have been located at
Hampton Institute, Hollins College, Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, Sweet Briar, University of Virginia, Washington and Lee,
William and Mary, and probably at other institutional libraries.
Of the publications of art galleries and institutions and
museums the University of Virginia currently receives the following
bulletins:- Beaux Art Institute of Design, Boston Museum of
Fine Arts, Allied Architects of Los Angeles, Minneapolis Museum
of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of
Design, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, and Worcester Art
Museum. Similar groups of publications of this character can be
found at the Norfolk Public Library, the Richmond Public Library,
the State Library, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and William
and Mary.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is developing
an important reference collection which is available to the
museum staff, the museum membership, and to duly accredited art
research workers. This at present contains approximately 2,000
volumes. The collection embraces both decorative and fine arts.
Certain collections of prints, slides, and photographs have
already been recorded under Part One, Section J, Illustrations.[4]
The notes which follow supplement but do not duplicate that
record.
Collections of prints are accessible at the College of
William and Mary, at Sweet Briar, at the State Teachers College
at Harrisonburg, and at Washington and Lee University. As
slides are usually a part of the teaching materials of the
Carnegie sets, they are likely to be accessible at the libraries
which are so fortunate as to possess these sets. In addition,
the library at Randolph-Macon College owns 715 slides, chiefly
of classical architecture. Sweet Briar has approximately 2,000
slides on various art subjects. Hampton Institute has a collection
of 15,000 mounted pictures for lending purposes. The Norfolk
Public Library also has an extensive loan collection of
pictures and photographs. At Roanoke College, in Salem, the
Davis F. Bittle Memorial Library possesses 7,000 pictures
illustrative of art through the ages. And at the Union Theological
Seminary there is a steadily growing collection of photographs
The decades of severe depression following the War between
the States tended to eliminate the study and practice of
MUSIC from the primary and secondary school systems, and thereby
retarded emphasis in college curricula and in library collections.
At present, however, there are a number of collections
in musicology of fair size scattered through Virginia; several
interesting special subjects are being emphasized; and the
Carnegie collections and the Foster Hall reproductions of the
songs of Stephen Foster have evidently been eagerly welcomed.
Brief notes concerning a dozen or so of the larger collections
in the State are given herewith.
The material on music at the University of Virginia consists
of well over 500 volumes of musicology in the general
library and of 23,103 volumes and pieces in a special music
library, a total of approximately 23,600 items. The section in
the general library includes biography, history, theory and
technique, and works on musical instruments; and there are files
of thirteen serials. The section in the special music library
is composed of the following groups:-
| Bound | Unbound | Total | |
| Books about music | 21 | 63 | 84 |
| Full orchestral and ensemble scores | 20 | 269 | 289 |
| Orchestral parts, without scores | 156 | 156 | |
| Ensemble | 21 | 274 | 295 |
| Piano music | 95 | 1,528 | 1,623 |
| Vocal music | 134 | 18,639 | 18,773 |
| Grand opera | 73 | 88 | 161 |
| Light opera | 19 | 41 | 60 |
| Flute music | 3 | 3 | |
| Organ music | 27 | 27 | |
| Violin music | 12 | 12 | |
| Phonograph records (discs) | 1,164 | ||
| Boston Symphony Orchestra programmes | 380 | 380 | |
| Periodicals | 2 | 49 | 51 |
| Total in special library | 388 | 21,551 | 23,103 |
The library at Hampton Institute contains 1,146 volumes and
pieces on music, including the Carnegie and Stephen Foster collections
and several periodicals. As is fitting for an Institute
so widely and favourably known for its singers, the emphasis is
on negro music and the work of negro composers.
At the Mary Helen Cochran Library at Sweet Briar College
there are 1,005 volumes and pieces of music. These include the
standard biographies, histories of music, and texts on theory,
and the standard collections. Of special interest are the first
madrigals composed by John Wilbye, fifty compositions of Dufay
and his contemporaries ranging from A.D. 1400 to 1440, and such
works as Beck's Les Chansonniers des Troubadours et des Trouvères
and Arnold Schering's Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen.
The Cocke Memorial Library at Hollins College subscribes
to several periodicals in music, and it has the Carnegie collection
with an extensive assortment of phonograph records. There
are sixty-seven volumes on theory and technique, 140 volumes of
biographies of musicians, and forty volumes on the history of
music. The collection contains altogether 639 volumes.
In the library at the Randolph-Macon Woman's College there
are 434 volumes and pieces, including dictionaries and encyclopaedias
and runs of five periodicals.
The library at the University of Richmond has a total of
736 volumes and pieces on music. Of these 112 volumes on
musicology are in the main library and seventy-nine volumes on
musicology are in the Margaret James Memorial Room. In the
latter special collection there are the following musical scores:
| Organ | 39 | pieces |
| Piano | 235 | pieces |
| Violin | 2 | volumes |
| Vocal | 45 | pieces |
| Exercise and teaching books | 25 | volumes |
| Galbraith organ collection | 110 | pieces |
| Watson collection | 89 | pieces |
At the College of William and Mary there is a collection of
about 3,000 scores in the custody of the Music Department. The
library itself has a good collection on musicology, twenty-six
volumes of song scores and spirituals, and an interesting old
collection of fifty bound volumes of English and American scores
dated before 1820.
Let who will make either the laws or the songs of the State,
the Virginia State Library has proved its readiness to collect
both. It contains a good selection of works on musicology and
has files of several music serials, the total number of volumes
and pieces being about 850. There are also fifty pieces of Virginia
music, and approximately 100 pieces of Confederate music.
Many of the public libraries contain a useful selection of
books on musicology. Somewhat specially notable in this respect
are the public libraries in Richmond, in Petersburg, and in
Hopewell.
Both the Packard-Laird Memorial Library of the Virginia
Union Theological Seminary have made very good beginnings on
collections of hymnology.
Of general materials on the THEATRE the State Library has
about 300 volumes, these being scattered through the various
topics in this field. Of somewhat special note are a group of
the monumental works on costume, a good selection of the
histories of the theatre and of the stage, and a collection of
early Virginia playbills.
The University of Virginia Library contains approximately
200 volumes on this subject, with some emphasis on the history
of the stage, on costume, and on scenery, stage decoration, and
lighting. In addition there is an extension drama collection
which numbers well over 10,000 printed copies of plays, mostly
modern.
In the library at the State Teachers College at Farmville
there are 152 volumes on theatre history, technique, costume,
dancing, pageantry, and allied subjects which have been so
admirably chosen as to make this well nigh a model collection
of its size.
At Hollins College, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Sweet
Briar, and William and Mary there are also collections on the
theatre which are well selected both for present curriculum use
and also as foundations for possible future expansion.
Of material on ARCHITECTURE the University of Virginia Fine
Arts Library contains 1250 volumes. The attempt has been made
to cover the general field. The works on the history of architecture
are considerable in number, and there is some stress on
the more modern periods, particularly the Renaissance. Current
numbers of the following periodicals are received: American Architect
and Architecture, American Builder and Building Age, American
Home, Architectural Concrete, Architectural Forum, Architectural
Record, Architectural Review, Architecture, L'Architecture
d'aujourd'hui, California Arts and Architecture, House Beautiful,
Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Landscape
Architecture, Moderne Bauformen, and Pencil Points.
At the library of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg
there are about 600 volumes on architecture. This collection
includes fifty-five volumes on the history of architecture
and a dozen or more current periodicals. Emphasis has been placed
on architectural engineering.
About 500 volumes on architecture are to be found at the
of periodicals, and offers material for study of types of
architecture. The period most stressed is that of colonial days
in America.
At the library of Hampton Institute there are over 400 volumes
on this subject and sets of Architectural Forum, Architectural
Record, Architecture and Building, and House Beautiful.
The emphasis is on residences and public buildings.
In PAINTING AND SCULPTURE combined there are a few more than
1,000 volumes at the University of Virginia Library. In sculpture
(584 volumes) the Greek and Roman phases of the ancient period
are stressed; in painting (422 volumes) the division is by schools,
the English, Italian, and Spanish predominating. But these
collections are well balanced, and the works have been selected
with care.
The State Library has 300 volumes on painting and seventy-five
on sculpture. The material covers the whole field but the
emphasis is on American artists.
At Hampton Institute the library collection includes 334
volumes on painting and twenty-eight on sculpture. The number of
works on individual painters is comparatively large.
Sweet Briar College has 356 volumes on these two subjects
combined. This collection is strong in historical works.
Material on OTHER FINE ARTS is not extensive in amount and is
scattered through the State. For example there are fair collections
on drawing and handicrafts at Hampton Institute; on interior
decoration at the Petersburg Public Library, at the State Teachers
College at Farmville and at Fredericksburg, and at the University
of Virginia; on furniture at Randolph-Macon Woman's College and
at the Richmond Public Library; on landscape gardening at the
Farmville State Teachers College, at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, and at the University of Virginia; on engraving at the
Roanoke Public Library and at the State Library; on photography
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the State Library, and the
University of Virginia; and from the Virginia Military Institute
is reported a library interest in sporting as a fine art!
| A survey of research materials in Virginia libraries, 1936-37 | |