Scope and Content Note
The John McGlinn Collection primarily consists of scores and parts for original Broadway orchestrations compiled, edited, and (in some cases) discovered by McGlinn over the course of his career. These include full scores for both complete shows and individual numbers from them, along with a variety of popular songs and other vocal or instrumental works. Composers Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter are overwhelmingly represented among these materials. Works by George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren, and Kurt Weill are also present, albeit in lesser quantities. Large portions of the Herbert and Kern materials, in particular, are photocopies of manuscripts from their respective collections held in the Library of Congress Music Division. McGlinn often annotated and spliced these scores as part of editing projects, including his acclaimed reconstructions of Show Boat and Anything Goes.
Music materials are arranged in two subseries: Show and Concert Materials (by title) and Individual Songs. The former is chiefly full scores and part sets for complete shows and recordings, while the latter consists of scores and parts for any of the following: miscellaneous numbers from musicals and concert performances; compilations for singers; and other instrumental and vocal works. There is some amount of overlap and inconsistency between these subseries, as many of the individual songs are also present in the full scores for the complete shows. The container list reflects McGlinn's personal organization of his scores and project materials. The collection includes a fair amount of librettos that compliment these scores, mostly for productions by Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert, as well as narrative script material for special events.
McGlinn was a prolific writer who recorded diary entries on a constant basis between 1976 and 1994. He also wrote several scripts and monographs, the most substantive of these works being The Childhood Manufacturing Company and The Gumshoe. Also included among the writings are notebooks that contain everything from personal correspondence to research notes. The remaining collection materials include small quantities of business papers, letters, bios and clippings, photographs of McGlinn and several stage productions (namely Gold Diggers of 1933-1935), programs, posters, and other assorted items that document McGlinn's life and career.