Guide to the Hote Casella Collection, 1946-1977

Tomaquag Museum, Tomaquag Museum Archives
390A Summit Road
Exeter, Rhode Island 02822

Telephone: 401-491-9063
Email: ambelz@tomaquagmuseum.org

Published in 2018

Collection Overview

Title:	Hote Casella Collection
Date range:	1946-1977
Creator:	Casella, Hote
Extent:	2.5 linear feet
Abstract:	Hote Casella, Cherokee, was classically trained as a mezzo-soprano opera singer at both UCLA and the Julliard School of Music. She began her professional career at a relatively young age and toured the United States and Europe performing a classical music repertoire with initially only a portion of her stage show dedicated to Native American songs. Over time, she began to research Native American songs from the 18th and 19th centuries then fully incorporating them into her performances. Eventually the Native songs became her sole focus and she fully took on the role of a Native American cultural embassador. Her professional career took her throughout the United States from the late 1940s until the early 1980s. The collection is an overview of her career as a professional musician and includes promotional materials, newspaper articles, sheet music, photographs and aluminum core lacquer recordings.
Language of materials:	English, Italian, French, German, Cherokee, Japanese
Repository:	Tomaquag Museum, Tomaquag Museum Archives
Collection number:	Ms. Hote Casella

Scope & content

Hote’ Casella, Cherokee, was born Gladys Bland Mathonican in San Angelo, Texas but moved to Los Angeles, California with her family as an infant and was raised there. A classically trained mezzo-soprano singer, who briefly studied at UCLA and Julliard, Hote’ Casella performed Native American songs and stories for school groups and audiences throughout the United States and Europe from the 1940s until the early 1980s. This collection is an overview of her career including sheet music, a notebook, promotional items, press releases, newspaper articles, programs, correspondence, photographs, and lacquer disc recordings. In addition, there are promotional photographs and miscellaneous material from another Native performer named Anita de Frey, a Modoc from California that were found with the Hote’ Casella material.

Access Points

Subject Names

• de Frey, Anita

Subject Topics

• Indians of North America--Songs and music
• Indian women--North America
• Cherokee Indians--Songs and music

Arrangement

This collection is divided into 6 Series. Series 1 is arranged chronologically. The rest of the series are arranged by subject and type of material.

• Series 1. Performance programs, promotional materials, press releases, newspaper articles, correspondence
• Series 2. Photographs
• Series 3. Sheet music
• Series 4. Aluminum core laquer disc records
• Series 5. Miscellaneous
• Series 6. Anita de Frey

Biographical/Historical Note

Hote’ Casella (1909-1990) was a Native American cultural ambassador, educator, and performer. The youngest of seven children, she was born Gladys Bland Mathonican in San Angelo, Texas on April 25, 1909 to (Andrew) John Mathonican (July 15, 1865-January 6, 1948) a billiards hall manager, and Marzella Carter (ca. 1868-May 20, 1937). Her father was a Cherokee, her mother of both Italian and Spanish ancestry. In the early 1920s, she moved with her parents and older sister to Los Angeles, California, where her father worked in the real estate business. She briefly lived in Hawaii in the early 1940s.

By 1946, she was living in New York on Park Avenue and was routinely performing throughout the United States and Europe. For nearly four decades, she traveled extensively, as newspaper articles found online provide a roadmap of her professional life. As a classically trained mezzo-soprano singer who studied at UCLA and Juilliard, her philosophy was to elevate Native American songs and stories to the level other folk songs and performances were enjoyed throughout the world.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Access to the collection is based upon staff availability and by appointment only.
Use of the materials:	Reproduction and use of materials may be subject to fees. The museum requests that a final copy of the publication or academic paper is donated to the museum upon completion of project.
Preferred citation:	Hote Casella Collection. Tomaquag Museum Archives.
Contact information:	Tomaquag Museum, Tomaquag Museum Archives 390A Summit Road Exeter, Rhode Island 02822 Telephone: 401-491-9063 Email: ambelz@tomaquagmuseum.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Processing information:	Rehoused March 2017, Inventory completed May 2017, Finding Aid Revised July, October, November 2017, April 2018; Finalized, October 2019
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Anthony M. Belz.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the RIAMCO EAD spreadsheet, 2018 April
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Inventory

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