Horace Reynolds papers, 1802-1954

(bulk, 1802-1838)

John Hay Library, Special Collections
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
email: hay@brown.edu

Published in 2013

Collection Overview

Title:	Horace Reynolds papers
Date range:	1802-1954, (bulk, 1802-1838)
Creator:	Reynolds, Horace, 1896-
Extent:	.25 linear feet (58 items)
Abstract:	Correspondence, account books, ledgers, invoices, documents, and music relating to Gottlieb Graupner, John Rowe Parker and the music-publishing industry in Boston, Massachusetts from 1802-1838, collected by writer/editor Horace Reynolds.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, Special Collections
Collection number:	Ms.Reynolds

Scope & content

Correspondence, account books, ledgers, invoices, documents, and music manuscripts, relating to music, musicians, and the music-publishing industry in Boston from 1802-1838. There is a small section of materials Persons represented are:

• John Rowe Parker
• Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner
• Samuel Greene
• John H. Grillier
• Karl Keller
• The Parker family
• John H. Shaffer
• Benjamin Tighe

Post cards in the file labeled "Correspondence about purchase of Parker-Graupner material" suggest Reynolds purchased the Parker-Graupner materials from rare book dealer Benjamin Tighe of Worcester around 1953. While it is not clear what his motives were at the time, the collection contains several laid in notes and two folders of notes that Reynolds made on the collections (in one case with the help of his son, John H. Reynolds, later a prominent geophysicist) showing a marked interest in the career of Gottlieb Graupner and a few drafts of text suggesting he may have been intending to publish something about Graupner.

Gottlieb Graupner, the central figure of the collection, was a German-born musician, teacher and music publisher who arrived via Canada and Charleston, South Carolina before settling in Boston in 1797. He became the major publishing figure in Boston in the early decades of the nineteenth century but he was also well known as a music teacher and oboist. (see Lee, Douglas A. "Graupner [Graubner], (Johann Christian) Gottlieb" in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (NY: Grove's Dictionaries, 1986)). John Rowe Parker, a music dealer and publisher, worked with or for Graupner in Boston before establishing his own Franklin Music Warehouse in 1817. He is primarily known as the publisher of the Euterpiad: or Musical Intelligencer, one of the most important early American music journals (1820-1823) (see Shapiro, Anne Dhu "Parker, John Rowe" in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (NY: Grove's Dictionaries, 1986)).

Access Points

Subject Names

• Graupner, Gottlieb, 1767-1836
• Green, Samuel, 1743-1799
• Grillier, John Henry
• Hewitt, James, 1770-1827
• Keller, Karl, 1784-1855
• Mackay, John, d. 1841
• Nutter, Valentine, 1741-1836
• Parker, Anne Collins, circa 1795-1828
• Parker, John R. (John Rowe), 1777-1844
• Parker, Samuel Hale, 1781-1864
• Reynolds, Horace, 1896-
• Schaffer, Francis C. (Francis Christian), 1732?-1827
• Shaffer, John H
• Shaw, James, Sir, 1764-1843
• Tighe, Benjamin, 1895-1975

Subject Organizations

• Franklin Music Warehouse
• True & Green

Subject Topics

• Music trade--Massachusetts--Boston
• Music--Manuscripts
• Music--Performance
• Music printing--Massachusetts--Boston
• Cost and standard of living--Massachusetts--19th century

Occupations

• Music publishers
• Dealers (Retail trade)

Document Types

• Invoices
• Letters (Correspondence)
• Account books
• Scores

Subject Topics

• Rhode Island/Local Interest

Arrangement

The collection is divided into 6 series:

• Series 1. Account books, ledgers, etc.
• Series 2. Documents
• Series 3. Letters
• Series 4. Correspondence about purchase of Parker-Graupner material
• Series 5. Manuscripts
• Series 6. Manuscript music

Items within Account books, ledgers are ordered by the author of the letter, and then chronologically. The remaining series are arranged chronologically.

Biographical note

Horace Mason Reynolds was born October 2, 1896 in New York, New York and died October 27, 1965 in Belmont, Massachusetts.

A writer and professor of English, Horace Mason Reynolds (Horace Reynolds) received his education from Harvard: A.B. in 1919 and an A.M. in 1923. After teaching at Brown University from 1923 until 1929 (Instructor, 1923-26; Asst. Prof., English, 1926-1929) he taught for two years at the College of William and Mary, then returned to Harvard (1931-1934) where he held the post-graduate Willard Scholarship from 1932-1934. In the 1950's he held teaching posts at Emerson College and Tufts University.

He served in the Army in 1918 in World War I and in the Army Air Force from 1942 to 1943 in World War II. After his military service, he became a free lance writer contributing regularly to the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor as a reviewer and essayist until shortly before his death.

In 1927, The Brown Alumni Magazine notes that Reynolds was embarking on a tour of Ireland to include meeting with the important intellectual figures of the day and "assisting in making a collection of the best new Irish books for the John Hay Library." His discovery upon meeting W.B. Yeats that Yeats had written for the Providence Journal in the late 1880s led to his writing several articles in the Providence Journal in 1928 about Yeats and the other notable Irish literary figures (including Katherine Tynan, John Todhunter, Rose Kavanagh, Alfred P. Graves and others) who contributed to the Journal in the 1880s and early 1890s. These articles were subsequently gathered together and published as A Providence Episode in the Irish Literary Renaissance (Providence: Study Hill Club, 1929). Reynolds collected the articles and poems Yeats published in the Journal along with others from the Boston Pilot and published them as Letters to the New Island (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934). His interest in the Irish literary renaissance led to his publication of an edition of Oliver St. John Gogerty's Selected Poems (New York: Macmillan, 1933; published in the United Kingdom in 1938 as Others to adorn) as well as numerous articles and reviews on Irish literary figures in the New York Times.

His long list of reviews and essays reveal not only a strong interest in Irish literary figures including Joyce, Synge, and O'Casey, but also American authors such as Faulkner, Thoreau, and Emerson. His interests also encompassed American folklore and American folk music where he reviewed some of the important early publications of the Lomaxes and Woody Guthrie. During his time at Brown University his efforts on behalf of the John Hay Library in Ireland, perhaps led him to suggest somewhat immodestly in A Providence Episode that: "There is … a much more complete collection of Anglo-Irish books in the John Hay Library in Providence than is to be found in the combined libraries of Trinity College and the National University of Dublin."

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can be seen only by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Horace Mason Reynolds papers, Ms. Reynolds, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, Special Collections Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Tel: 401-863-2146 email: hay@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The Horace Mason Reynolds papers were purchased by The Friends of the Library of Brown University in 1966 and given as a gift to Brown University.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Jayati Chaudhuri
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013-03-26

Additional Information

Inventory

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