Endowments; Conservatories of music; Music--Instruction and study; United States; National Conservatory of Music and Art (U.S.); Thurber, Jeannette, 1850-1946; National Conservatory of Music of America
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Date
[between 1901 and 1919?]
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 81
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF A NATIONAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC AND ART AND THE PLAN PROPOSED Is to establish one conservatory in the city or vicinity of Washington,D. C., which will be a building containing forty studios sufficiently large for classes of fifty students of music, and twenty studios for painting; one large assembly concert hall for ensemble. It is to be known and called The American National Conservatory of Music and Art. The second to be established of a similar character at New York; another at or near Chicago, IlI., and a fourth in the vicinity of San Francisco, Cal. Certain States are to be apportioned to each conservatory, and to be known as the district to which the pupils of the several States that shall be so apportioned will, attend. The purpose is to reach the respective parts of the Union making the Boston Conservatory meet the demands of the East; Washington the South; Chicago the Middle West, and California the extreme West. Only advanced pupils in music and art will be admitted, after passing an examination, the standard of which will be fixed by the board of regents or directors." [SOURCE: United States, Congress, Senate. Committee on Education and Labor, and Kowalsky, Henry I. National Conservatory of Music and Art: Argument in Favor of a National Conservatory of Music and Art, by Henry I. Kowalsky, of San Francisco, Cal. (To Accompany S. 5872). Hearing Before the Committee On Education and Labor, Senate, 57th Congress, 1st Session, Doc.359, 16 May1902. ProQuest Congressional, congressional.proquest.com/congressional/docview/t47.d48.4245_s.doc.359?accountid=10226. Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.] "STATEMENT OF MR. VERNON E. WEST, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. WEST. I appear here in behalf of the National Conservatory of Music of America. You will notice this institution has almost identically the same name as the institution provided for in this bill. The National Conservatory of Music of America was established in New York in 1885, through the efforts of Mrs. Jeannette M. Thurber and her friends. Mrs. Thurber is a lady of means and well known in the musical world... ...In 1918, Mrs. Thurber and her friends, desiring to extend their work and make it of a more national character had introduced in Congress a bill which was passed on March 3, 1891. It was reported in the Twenty-sixth Statutes at Large, page 1093, a bill which incorporated them as the National Conservatory of America, and provided, in part, which I shall read: 'Said corporation is hereby empowered to found, establish, and maintain a national conservatory of music within the District of Columbia for the education of citizens of the United States and such other persons as the trustees may deem proper in all the branches of music. The said corporation shall have the power to grant and confer diplomas and degree of doctor of music or other honorary degrees.'" [SOURCE: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education. To Establish a National Conservatory of Music And Art for the Education of Advance Pupils In Music In All Its Branches, Vocal And Instrumental, And for Other Purposes: Hearing Before the Committee On Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-fifth Congress, Third Session, On H.R. 12803. January 8, 1919. Washington: G.P.O., 1919, pp. 19. HathiTrust, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112112044877. Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.] "The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber. The conservatory was officially declared defunct by the state of New York in 1952, although for all practical pedagogical purposes, it had ceased to function much earlier than that; however, between its founding and about 1920 the conservatory played an important part in the education and training of musicians in the United States. A number of prominent names are associated with the institution, including that of Victor Herbert and Antonín Dvořák, director of the conservatory from Sep. 27, 1892 to 1895... ...The idea of federally funded national conservatory in the United States had been a dream of Thurber's, who had studied at the Paris Conservatory in her teens. In the early 1880s she convinced a number of philanthropists, including Andrew Carnegie. to sponsor the founding of such an institution. The idea was to model the institution after that of Paris in order to create a 'national musical spirit.' The conservatory (originally the 'American School of Opera') was incorporated in the state of New York on September 21, 1885... ...After three years of existence, the conservatory petitioned the US congress for $200,000 to support the institution, saying that '…hundreds of candidates have had to be rejected from lack of room to accommodate them and of funds to increase the staff of Professors which would be required by their admittance….' The petition failed. Thurber changed strategy and then proposed moving the conservatory to the nation’s capital, Washington D.C.. A bill to that effect was passed in congress and signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison in March, 1891... ...By 1900, the school had educated about 3,000 students. After that date and after a rapidly changing series of directors, the National Conservatory of Music of America started to fade, not from a single catastrophic failure such as bankruptcy, but more through the declining energies of its driving force, Mrs. Thurber, herself. Additionally, there was increasing competition from other institutions in the area, including The Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York, founded in 1904 and then becoming the Juilliard School of Music in 1924. As well there were concerns from many private institutions that a federally funded national conservatory on the European model would reduce their own schools to the role of a 'feeder system.'... ...By the 1920s, Mrs. Thurber’s National Conservatory of Music of America had faded to such obscurity that proposals from other quarters to fund a 'national conservatory' were made in apparent ignorance that such an institution already existed. As late as 1928, Mrs. Thurber was still making her case that 'At no time more than the present has the necessity for a national conservatory of music been so evident…the National Conservatory of Music, which was founded in 1885 and has been in existence for over 40 years, is the only institution of its kind which in scope and in organization is in conformity with the old established models…From its inception the plan…has been to establish a national conservatory of music in Washington with branches….' The stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression dried up monies from many philanthropic sources and spelled the end of conservatory. There is no record of operations after 1930." [SOURCE: "National Conservatory of Music of America." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Conservatory_of_Music_of_America. Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.]