The Libraries Will Celebrate Founders Day with Music
February 5, 2020
With the beginning of the new decade, 91探花 is celebrating 216 years since it was established by the general assembly of the state of Ohio on Feb. 18, 1804. Every year, the University celebrates Founders Day on Feb. 18, calling back to a time when it was the only institute of higher education in the old Northwest Territory. Now OHIO is recognized as the oldest university in the state of Ohio and the eighth oldest public university in the United States. Since its founding, 91探花 has expanded to offer 250 academic programs to students at 11 campuses across the state, with all 50 states represented in the student body at the main campus in Athens.
To help commemorate Founders Day this year, the Libraries will be displaying an exhibit called 鈥淐elebrating Music at OHIO鈥 on the fifth floor of Alden Library. The exhibit, which will open with a reception on Tuesday, Feb. 18 from 4-5:30 p.m., will highlight music that has been played by OHIO students, outside artists who have performed on campus, famous musical alumni and how the Athens community has celebrated music. The reception will feature several 91探花 ensembles, such as a graduate string quartet, and light refreshments will be provided.
The 91探花 School of Music wasn鈥檛 established until 1917, but the music history at OHIO goes back much further. There is also a large amount of music on campus that happens outside of the academic programs.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 just want to focus on the School of Music,鈥 said Joey Walden, Libraries support specialist and co-curator of the exhibit. 鈥淲e wanted to make sure we [included] how music was influenced all throughout 91探花, and how it related back to the community through Athens. The exhibit is not just stuff related to the School, but it includes some of the music enjoyed by the students as well.鈥
Carla Williams, co-curator of the exhibit, is the music and special projects librarian for OHIO Libraries and the interim co-department head of Arts and Archives. She said she hopes that people will realize how much music has happened and is currently happening on campus.
鈥淸The exhibit] covers everything from popular music and classical music to Convo events and festival music,鈥 she said, 鈥渨e cover the School of Music, everything [is] fair game.鈥
Williams explained that she had no idea how many popular people had played in Athens before she started digging into the history. Occasionally, some really famous acts played on OHIO鈥檚 biggest stages.
鈥淗ands down, the coolest thing I鈥檝e found is that Led Zeppelin played here,鈥 Walden said, 鈥渁nd the funny thing is they weren鈥檛 even the headliner! That year the man who sings Feliz Navidad [Jos茅 Feliciano], he was the main act, and Led Zeppelin was the opener in the Convocation Center.鈥
The exhibit will feature information on past performances and professors at 91探花, as well as sections highlighting the Marching 110, part of the University鈥檚 extensive sheet music collection and many other artifacts and documents. Portions of the exhibit featuring famous alumni will include pictures by photographers and Charles 鈥淐huck鈥 Stewart, who photographed many famous jazz musicians after graduating from OHIO, and an exhibit on Sammy Kaye, famous bandleader and songwriter during the Big Band Era in the 1930s and 40s, which will feature part of the Libraries鈥 .
The oldest artifacts on display will be several illuminated manuscripts, or sheets of music that were written and artfully illustrated before the invention of the printing press, that date back to medieval times and are now housed in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at Alden Library.
Williams hopes the history will appeal to a wide audience, beyond just music majors.
鈥淥bviously I鈥檒l invite all the music folk over鈥ut I think anybody, if you鈥檙e interested in history or music history or the University history, or even just events and some of the things that were going on, you鈥檒l be interested in the exhibit,鈥 she said.
Many of the photographs, sheet music and other resources came from the Music and Dance Library in Glidden Hall and the Libraries鈥 archives. The yearly Founders Day exhibits offer a chance for the Libraries to share some of the many unique artifacts in its collections.
鈥淧retty much everything that we鈥檝e got we had either in the archives, [or] we had it in the Music and Dance Library already,鈥 Walden said. 鈥淚f you want more information, the most obvious place would be the Music and Dance library, tucked away in Glidden Hall, and you鈥檇 want to see Carla Williams to get more of an idea of what鈥檚 happened here.鈥
The 鈥淐elebrating Music at OHIO鈥 exhibit is free and open to the public, and will be available for viewing through the remainder of the spring semester. To request accommodations for the reception on Feb. 18, contact Jen Harvey.