Music & Dance

Special Collections

Special collection items are available by appointment. For information, call 614-292-2319. Rare or fragile items are subject to restricted use.


American Broadcasting Company Sheet Music Collection

Approximately 16,000 pieces of sheet music of popular songs from c. 1920 to 1960, donated to the Library by the American Broadcasting Company. Card catalog.


Jacques Barzun Recordings Collection

Approximately 700 recordings — mainly vinyl LPs — of music of many styles and genres that the cultural historian Jacques Barzun collected for his personal use from c.1950 to 2000. Donated by him to the Library in August 2009. Barzun's 2-volume Berlioz and the Romantic Century, published in 1950, is still considered a definitive study of the composer; the collection contains a large number of Berlioz performances that Barzun thought particularly good. Also of interest are a number of private recordings, e.g., a recording of Strauss's Daphne made in 1948 for soprano Rose Bampton and a 1924 recording of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore with George Baker, baritone, and Elsie Griffin, soprano. The recordings are catalogued numerically, JBLP 0001 to JBLP 0681. 


Clare Grundman Archive

The collection consists primarily of manuscripts (full scores and sketches) of instrumental and vocal works by American composer and arranger Clare Grundman (1913–1996), an alumnus of OSU. Finding Aid


Donald McGinnis Collection 

Conductor, performer, composer, and educator, Donald E. McGinnis (1917–2016), directed the Ohio State University Concert Band from 1952 to 1979. Dr. McGinnis donated a large collection of approximately 250 reel-to-reel tape recordings of OSU band performances to the OSU Music & Dance Library, and these are being cataloged and digitized in phases. Anyone with a currently active OSU user name will soon be able to request listening access to digitized recordings. Please contact the Music & Dance Library for more information about the collection.


Schumacher Contemporary American Music Collection 

The Schumacher Contemporary American Music Collection is a new collection of works including scores, recordings, and literature about American classical music and jazz written in 1946 or later. The collection was established in 2018, and is funded primarily through a generous gift from Dr. Stanley E. Schumacher (Ph.D., 1976, OSU School of Music) and Susan L. Schumacher. These funds are used to purchase items for the collection. Items chosen for the collection represent a broad range of styles and instrumentation, and selection is based on merit alone. Items are selected for their excellence in enabling the professional musician or the lay listener to understand and appreciate contemporary American classical music and jazz, and for their musicological value for the future. To browse the materials in the collection, search by title “Schumacher Contemporary American Music Collection” in our library catalog.  If you would like to donate funds to the Schumacher Contemporary American Music Collection, click here (OSU fund number 316183).


Lois Sims Sheet Music Collection

The personal collection of sheet music of Lois Sims (1927–2006), scores cataloger for the Ohio State University Music & Dance Library and violinist in the Columbus Philharmonic (predecessor of the Columbus Symphony) and other local groups. The collection consists primarily of American music for voice and piano published between 1880 and 1966. Often featuring distinctive cover art and lyrics with topical allusions, the items document styles, historic periods, popular culture, and trends in entertainment and publishing. Finding Aid in process.


WOSU-FM Recordings Collection

22,500 vinyl LP operatic and classical recordings, given to the Library in the latter 1990s when WOSU-FM began all-digital broadcasting. Finding Aid (card catalog) available. The Collection comprises the classical instrumental and vocal LPs purchased or received as gifts at WOSU-FM beginning in the mid 1950s (the FM station went on the air in 1949), and popular and jazz LPs received by WOSU-AM in roughly the same period (the AM station began broadcasting as WEAO in 1922). The popular discs are distinguished by a red border on their shelf labels. A large part of the classical collection is devoted to opera. Early 1950s stereo recordings are distinguished by an "S" in their call number. By and large, the collection is in excellent physical condition, particularly the classical and operatic recordings. Finding Aid.