George Howard Collection

Individual Collection name: George Howard Collection

Repository name: Special Collections in Performing Arts,
Performing Arts Library, University of Maryland

Type: Scrapbooks, correspondence, programs, and recordings.

Collection dates: 1940s-1980s

Extent: 12 linear feet

Description: This collection contains materials relating to the career of George Howard. Most of the items in the collection document his tenure as leader of the United States Air Force Band. The collection includes nine scrapbooks documenting the Air Force Band's national and international tours in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These are further documented by daily logs made by Howard. There is also considerable correspondence between George Howard and Howard Bronson from the 1940s. Bronson was then Music Officer for the War Department. The collection also contains some correspondence between Howard and his former teacher Ernest Williams. The collection also contains approximately 750 sixteen-inch 78 rpm acetate radio transcription disks made by the United States Air Force Band.

Statement of provenance: Gift of George Howard, 23 July 1973. Howard made several later additions to the collection.

Governing documents: Deed of Gift signed by George Howard and Bruce Wilson, 8 August 1983.

SCPA shelf location: SCPA Collections Room, Aisle C. Transcription disks are located in the oversize aisle. Reel-to-reel tapes of these recordings can be found in paged collections.

Access: Materials from this collection must be used in the Performing Arts Library's Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Special Collections Room, 10 to 5, Monday through Friday. Please make an appointment with the curator.

Biography: Colonel George S. Howard, commander and conductor of the United States Air Force Band between 1944 and 1963, was born on 24 February 1902 in Reamstown, Pennsylvania. Howard became a student of Patrick Conway at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music and played clarinet in Conway's professional band. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education and taught at the Ohio Wesleyan University, and later at Penn State University. In 1942, Howard was commissioned into the Army Specialist Corps, and in 1947 Howard's reputation as a conductor led to his commission as leader of the newly formed Air Force Band. In documenting George Howard's career, the George Howard collection also documents the first decades of the United States Air Force Band.

Howard was elected President of the American Bandmasters Association in 1956, and became an Honorary Life Member in 1984. He served as Honarary Life President from 1986 until his death in 1995.

Bibliography:

Howard, George, A Symphony in the Sky. San Antonio, TX: The John Philip Sousa Foundation, 1991.

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