Belle Brown Collection
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010563516
General International Standard for Archival Description
Music Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C.
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Music Division, 2010
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Belle Brown Collection 1865-1912
Brown, Belle
Biographical History for: Belle Brown Collection 1865-1912
Biographical Note Though little biographical information exists concerning Belle G. Brown, the contents of her collection document her relationships with prominent and respected European performers at the turn of the twentieth century. Miss Brown was born in Massachusetts to Joseph and Maria Brown and, aside from her studies in Europe, remained a Bostonian until at least the early 1900s. During the decade leading up to 1900, Miss Brown enjoyed the privilege of studying with such celebrated performers and pedagogues as Désirée Artôt, Pauline Lucca, and Jean and Edouard de Reszké. In 1893, Bronsart von Schellendorf (General Intendant of the Court Theatre at Weimar from 1887-1895) offered a five-year contract to Miss Brown to perform for the Court Theatre. Two years into her contract, on December 15, 1895, the Boston Globe printed an announcement that “Miss Belle Brown of Newbury Street [had] received by cable an offer of an engagement at the opera house in Weimar.” Both her contract signed by Schellendorf and the cable offer to perform in Weimar reside in this collection. There is also a limited amount of information available concerning Miss Brown’s professional opera career abroad as well as the remainder of her life, which was presumably spent in Boston (correspondence indicates that she resided in Boston’s Hotel Puritan when she gifted her materials to the Music Division in 1933 and 1934).
Scope and Content Note The Belle Brown Collection spans the years 1865-1912 and includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, Miss Brown’s contract with the Court Theatre in Weimar, a program of Anton Rubinstein concerts, and iconography related to Miss Brown’s vocal training abroad as well as her brief opera career in Weimar. The collection also documents Miss Brown’s professional and personal associations with influential European artists. The “Correspondence” series spans 1865 to 1912 and includes letters and cards from performers and pedagogues, most notably Désirée Artôt and Pauline Lucca. There are also eight letters to Miss Brown and Lucca from Bronsart von Schellendorf dated 1893-1894, reflecting the first years of Miss Brown’s contract with the Weimar Court Theatre. Other significant musicians whose correspondence appears in the collection include Frieda Hempel, Arnold Rosé, and Anton Rubinstein. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent and then by topic. The second series, “Miscellaneous Documents,” is comprised of a small number of newspaper clippings and obituary notices concerning musicians, most significantly Lucca. In addition, there is a program of Anton Rubinstein concerts and the contract Bronsart von Schellendorf offered to Miss Brown in 1893. This series is organized alphabetically by the subject of the document. Finally, the “Iconography” series, which is the largest series of the collection, offers 114 prints and photographs of influential figures in European musical society around the turn of the century. Nineteen photographs are autographed by the subject of the photograph or inscribed to Miss Brown; most impressive of these signatures are those of Lola Artôt de Padilla, Leschetizky, and Liszt. The majority of these photographs are also annotated by Miss Brown, often indicating the person and his/her relationship to Miss Brown’s music career. Iconography is arranged alphabetically by subject of the photograph.
series
Correspondence, 1865-1912
file
Artôt, Désirée, 1890-1892
to Miss Belle Brown (4)
to Mr. and Mrs. Brown (3)
Bronsart von Schellendorf, Hans August Alexander, 1893-1894
to Miss Belle Brown (6)
to Pauline Lucca (2)
Brown, Belle, undated
Ehrenstein, Gisela von, 1892
Hempel, Frieda, 1912
Krebs, Maria, 1893
Kullak, Franz, 1897
Leisinger, Elisabeth, undated
Leschetizky, Theodor, 1887
Lucca, Pauline, 1865-1900
Palmer, Nevada, undated
Reszké, Marie de, 1912
Rosé, Arnold Joseph, undated
Rubinstein, Anton, undated
Schönheit, Wilhelm, 1893
Miscellaneous Documents, circa 1873-circa 1908
Contract with the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar. Signed May 8, 1893 by Bronsart von Schellendorf
Cable invitation to perform at the Deutsches Nationaltheater, 1895
Lucca, Pauline
Newspaper clippings
Obituary card
Marchesi, Mathilde
Newspaper clipping
Rubinstein, Anton
Programme of the Rubinstein concerts, 1873
Seidl, Anton
Obituary
Iconography
Arnoldson, Sigrid
2 photographs (1 autographed)
Artôt de Padilla, Lola
4 photographs (2 autographed)
1 postcard
Bach, Johann Sebastian
1 photograph of Toby E. Rosenthal’s painting “Morgen andacht bei Sebastian Bach” (1870)
Barblan, Otto
1 photograph
Beethoven, Ludwig van
2 photographs [portraits]
1 photograph of Beethoven’s Geburtszimmer
1 photograph of painting by Stieler
1 photograph of Beethoven’s death mask
Beethoven, Ludwig Van
Photograph of painting by Rödig
Bernhardt, Sarah
2 photographs
Brahms, Johannes
1 photograph of painting by Eichhorn
3 photographs
Chopin, Frédéric
1 photograph of Félix Barrias’s painting “La Mort de Chopin” (1885)
Czesek
Fuchs, Frau Robert
Fuchs, Robert
Gadski, Johanna Emilia Agnes
2 autographed photographs
Goetschius, Percy
Gounod, Charles François
Krakauer, Alexander
1 tintype
Lebert, Sigmund
Lehmann, Lilli
Leschetizky, Theodor
Liszt, Franz
Löwe, Adele
10 photographs
Malten, Therese
Materna, Amalie Friedrick
Mead, Olive
Melba, Nellie, Dame
1 autographed photograph
Meriam, Alice
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
1 photograph of Mozart’s Geburthaus
Nilsson, Christine
Padilla y Ramos, Mariano
Patti, Adelina
1 photograph with Patti's niece
Petzner
Plank, Fritz
Rosé, Arnold Josef
3 photographs (2 autographed)
Rosé String Quartet
1 photograph with Anton Door
San Carlo Theatre [Naples]
Scheidemantl, Karl
Schmerling, Mme. Pessiack
1 photograph with Belle and Bessie Brown
Schumann, Clara
Schumann, Robert
Schwarz, Franz Josef
Singer, Edmund
Speidell, Wilhelm
Staudigl, Gisele Koppmayer
Stepanoff, Varette
Sucher, Rosa Hasselbeck
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich
Tua, Maria Felicita
Van Dyck, Ernest Marie
Verdi, Giuseppe
Vogl, Heinrich
Wagnertheater
Wallhoffen, Emil Maria
Weber, Carl Maria von
Group photograph
Photograph of Désirée Artôt, Carmen Artôt de Padilla, Lola Artôt de Padilla, and Belle Brown (2 copies)
Unidentified
6 photographs