Scope and Content Note
This collection, in the breadth and variety of its contents, provides a comprehensive look at the life of a virtuoso violinist and teacher. Heifetz's personal music library comprises the Music series and includes his original compositions, arrangements and transcriptions (some of which are unpublished), his annotated parts and scores, holograph and manuscript scores of many of his contemporaries, and hundreds of printed scores, at least some of which appear to have been previously owned by composer and violinist Joseph Achron. Approximately 2,000 concert programs in the Programs series document Heifetz's performances from 1911 to 1974. This series also includes programs of Heifetz's radio appearances (and often the scripts for these shows), program files, and a program notebook. The Correspondence series contains letters from renowned musical figures such as Leopold Auer, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, George Bernard Shaw, and Sir William Walton. The Photographs series contains photographs of Heifetz, as well as other prints. Thirty-four scrapbooks comprise the Scrapbooks series that further helps document Heifetz's life and career. The Miscellany series includes artwork, honoraria, posters, articles, lists, and an advertisement, among other items. Three appendices indicate the disposition of books from Heifetz's library, and one appendix lists the recordings transferred to the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS).