Lowell Mason Collection

Umbrella Collection name: Music Educators National Conference Historical Center

Individual Collection name: Lowell Mason Collection 

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

Type: Published music, correspondence, writings, programs, tributes, and manuscript items

Collection dates: 1810-1941

Extent: 10 linear feet

Description:  Songs, hymns, and anthems composed and/or arranged by Lowell Mason; a letter from Mason to George F. Root; books, articles, and addresses written by Mason; musical programs and advertisements; articles written as tributes to Mason and programs commemorating his life; articles and pamphlets on Mason and his influence on and contributions to music education and church music; material that relate to members of Mason's family; correspondence of Mason's grandson Henry Lowell Mason from 1918, 1936, and 1941

Statement of provenance: Gift was made in December 1972 by Mrs. William Endicott (see Helen Mason, daughter of Henry Lowell Mason, the grandson of Lowell Mason), through Dr. Timothy Clifford. Mason's personal library of 10,300 items were donated to Yale University

Governing documents:  Deposit Data Sheet (no. 72-36) with inventory received December 4, 1972, Letter of thanks to Mrs. William Endicott dated January 3, 1973

Finding Aid: An unpublished finding aid by Jo Anne Barry (date unknown) is available in the repository, revised by Stephanie Keller, June 2001

SCPA shelf location: Collections Room, MENC aisle J

Biography: Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is best known as the founder of American school music education. Although he also composed and arranged hymn tunes and published many influential tune books that had a national audience, his work as a pioneer music educator, first at the Boston Academy of Music which he co-founded in 1833 with George James Webb and soon after in the Boston public schools, where he taught for over twenty years, remains his greatest historical legacy. The Lowell Mason Papers are at the Yale University Music Library.

Life Chronology:
 

1792	Born, January 8, Medfield, MA
1805	Attended his first singing-school and was taught by Amos Albee, compiler of The Norfolk Collection of Sacred Harmony
1808	Directed the choir of the Medfield church and later the Medfield band
1812	Went to Savannah, Georgia where he worked in a dry-goods store
1813-1824	Led singing-schools and concerts in Savannah
1815-1827	Was the superintendent of the Sunday School and also a leader in the Independent Presbyterian Church where he was appointed choir director and organist
1817	Began studying harmony and composition under German-born Frederick L. Abel
1818	Was a founder and an active member of  the Savannah Missionary Society
1822	The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music was published, a collection of hymn tunes compiled by Mason and based on the Englishman William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies
1827	Accepted an invitation to supervise the music of three Boston Congressional churches and served as president of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society until 1832
1827-1832	Was president and music director of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society
1829	Compiled what he believed to be the first Sunday-school collection with music, the Juvenile Psalmist, followed in 1830-31 by the Juvenile Lyre
1831	Became choirmaster of Lyman Beecher's Bowdoin Street Church
1832-1833	Taught a children's vocal music class at Bowdoin Street Church and gave children's concerts
1833	Established the Boston Academy of Music along with George James Webb
1834	Published The Manual of the Boston Academy of Music, an edited translation of G.F. Kuebler's Anleitung zum Gesang-Unterrichte in Schulen
1837-1845	Was superintendent of music in the curriculum of Boston schools where he continued to teach until 1851
1844-1851	Was organist and choirmaster of the General Church, where the choir of about 100 maintained his reputation for excellence
1845-1855	Was a staff member of the teachers' institutes of Massachusetts State Board of Education and was involved in state sponsored teacher training.
1851-1853	Lectured in the British Isles on congregational singing and the Pestalozzian method of teaching
1855	Awarded an honorary doctorate in music by New York University
1872	Died, August 11, Orange, NJ

Source: Eskew, Harry and Carol A. Pemberton, "Mason, Lowell"  (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. S. Sadie, 2001, xvi, 31-35)

SERIES ARRANGEMENT:

Series I: Published Music
Series II: Correspondence 
Series III: Writings
Series IV: Programs 
Series V: Tributes
Series VI: Writings on Lowell Mason and His Influence 
Series VII: Writings Relating to Mason's Work and Family
Series VIII: Miscellaneous Manuscript Items
Series IX: Henry Lowell Mason Correspondence

DESCRIPTION OF SERIES:

Series I: Published Music 
Series I includes published songs, hymns, hymn-tunes and anthems composed and/or arranged by Lowell Mason from 1810 through 1860. 

Series II: Correspondence 
This Series contains a single item, a letter from Mason to George F. Root, dated July 27, 1868.

Series III: Writings 
Series III contains published books, articles, and addresses written by Lowell Mason. It includes the unpublished manuscript "Harmony" written by Mason with additional materials by his son William Mason. 

Series IV: Programs
This series consists of musical programs and advertisements, some including Mason as a participant, or in the case of school programs, as faculty.

Series V: Tributes
Series V contains articles written as tributes to Lowell Mason and programs commemorating his life. It includes a scrapbook compiled by Henry Lowell Mason, the grandson of Lowell Mason, and includes articles, poems, and quotations about Lowell Mason published both before and after his death and programs held in honor of Mason.

Series VI: Writings on Lowell Mason and His Influence
This series, spanning the dates 1844-1941, includes articles and pamphlets on Lowell Mason and his influence on and contributions to music education and church music.

Series VII: Writings Relating to Mason's Work and Family
Series VII contains materials that relate indirectly to Lowell Mason and to members of Mason's family. 

Series VIII: Manuscript Items
This series comprises miscellaneous materials that relate to Lowell Mason including a diary and calendar with notations regarding Lowell Mason's lectures, thirty-two short praeludia for keyboard, and two pencil and ink anatomical drawings.

Series IX: Henry Lowell Mason Correspondence
The four items contained in this series are incoming and outgoing letters of Henry Lowell Mason from 1918, 1936 and 1941.

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.

Or for a specific question about the collection feel free to ask the curator.