Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Earl V. Moore collection consists of the personal and professional papers of a noted musician, composer and director. Moore taught music at the University of Michigan from 1916 and served as director of the School of Music from1923 until his retirement in 1960.

The papers of Earl V. Moore document his career as professor and dean of the School of Music of the University of Michigan, as well as his career as a composer and performer. Though some of the papers and visual images date from the 1870s, the bulk of the collection dates from the 1920s through the 1960s. Consisting of three linear feet of papers and visual materials, the collection reflects Moore's many accomplishments as conductor, composer, lecturer, organist, and participant in professional societies.

The Moore papers have been divided into seven series: Biographical/Personal Materials, Correspondence, Topical Files, Newspaper Clippings, Musical Scores, Sound Recordings, and Visual Materials.

Records of University of Michigan office (and its predecessor administrative offices) responsible for external fund raising and development activities, including subject files of development officials Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock; staff files; and photographs.

The records of the Vice President for Development date from 1948 to the present and measure 39.5 linear feet. They reflect the basic concerns of the office for these four decades: preserving and improving the university's public image and planning major fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, both activities are incompletely documented. In the area of public relations the records tend to discuss how immediate problems will be dealt with, rather than overall conceptions of the university's image. The thought behind the innovative fundraising devices created or employed by the office is sometimes recorded through consultant reports, but in general is not well documented.

The manuscript records have been divided into two subgroups, one representing the records of the vice president (or senior staff person, for those years in which there was no vice presidency), the other containing records created by the development office. The Vice Presidents subgroup has been divided by the name of each person who has held the office: Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock. Researchers should note that since Nelson and Radock used their predecessor's files for some time before inaugurating their own records, the relationship between office tenure and file dates is not an exact one. The Development Office subgroup contains records of that office and its subsidiary units. Several accessions of Development Office records received in 1989 and 1990 have been grouped together as Development Office subgroup: 1989-1990 accessions.