This past spring semester (2019), APH student Conor Snow interned with New York Philharmonic Archives in New York City. Below you’ll find Conor’s blog post about his experience.
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This past semester I interned at the New York Philharmonic Archives. Founded in 1984 by Barbara Hawes, the archive’s main function is to serve the larger Philharmonic institution by providing reference services and materials for event promotion. With a small staff, the archive relies heavily on help from interns and volunteers. During my time there, I worked under the direct supervision of archivist Gabryel Smith, and my main project, along with smaller ones, was to process the collection of Lillian Libman’s papers on the conductor Igor Stravinsky. Cool, right?
My office at the New York Philharmonic Archives (Photograph courtesy Conor Snow)
Libman was Stravinsky’s manager and press agent, and the collection was donated to the Philharmonic by her niece. The materials were partially organized into five boxes, comprised of various items including professional and personal correspondence, concert itineraries, tour expenditures, press lists, and photographs of the composer. Luckily for me, the papers were already separated into labeled folders. My job was to go through the folders in detail and describe the papers at the folder level.
The stacks at the Philharmonic Archives (Photograph courtesy Conor Snow)
Perhaps the most fascinating part of the collection is a series of very rare photographs of Stravinsky traveling around Europe with other famous artists of his day, including Pablo Picasso. Familiar with The Rite of Spring? There is actually a photograph of Stravinsky composing it while he was in Switzerland! I was absolutely blown away and so grateful that my internship provided me with this fantastic opportunity.
After describing the collection, I determined that the Libman papers, although fascinating, did not belong at the Philharmonic. Collecting policy at an institutional archive is so important, and this collection had very little to do with the New York Philharmonic. After doing some research on more suitable repositories, I assumed the role of a researcher with a reference request and contacted the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Switzerland, which holds a large Stravinsky collection, to see if I could get any more information on how they functioned as an institution. I really wanted to see how professional their staff was before conducting any business. They were very responsive, and my supervisor and I concluded that this should be the collection’s final home. We still have yet to negotiate donating the material, but working with the Libman papers on Igor Stravinsky has certainly been an exciting and informative adventure. Also, can’t leave out the fact that I got to go to free concerts at the Philharmonic!
Photographs of Stravinsky during his time in Switzerland. Top right: Composing the Right of Spring. (Photograph courtesy Conor Snow)
Lillian Libman (Photograph courtesy Conor Snow)