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Record Group Number 41Keene Chorus ClubCompiled by John W. Harris January 1985 The Keene Chorus Club, a major city institution in its day, was founded in 1902 and lasted until 1931, when it was dissolved because of financial difficulties brought on by the Depression. (It came back to life briefly in 1932 for a performance of "The Messiah".) The history of the Club is set out in the program notes for the 25th Anniversary Spring Festival (1927) and in a 1979 article in the "Monadnock Observer." Copies of these are in Folder 1. Suffice it here to say that the Club could field a chorus of as many as 300 voices and that it gave concerts at which major singers of the day performed as guest artists. From its inception to 1923, the Club's conductor and music director was Nelson P. Coffin. His note-books (1908-1919) and scrap-books (1906-1909) are in Manuscript Group 27, and should be consulted for additional information. Mr. Coffin's photograph is numbered P-3454. The second and last conductor was George S. Dunham, whose photographs are in Folder 16, as well as at P-3455 (oversize) and P-3456. The papers in this record group came from two sources. About half, including nearly all of those before 1927, have long been in the possession of the Historical Society. Most of the later papers, including the photographs of guest artists and all the newspaper clippings, were in a collection made by Barbara Howe, who was the Club's historian from 1928 until its dissolution. By channels unknown, these papers were acquired by a dealer and were bought and presented to the Society by Charles Nims in 1984. As historian, Miss Howe had pasted the papers - programs, publicity material, photographs and clippings - onto scrapbook pages which had become brittle with age. Consequently the papers were removed from the pages, and the newspaper clippings, which were also brittle, were copied onto acid-free paper. The materials have been organized chronologically into one archival box. Box 1, Folders 1-19  |
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