Scope and Content Note
The Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection on Nicolò Paganini, a sub-collection of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection, spans the years 1810 to 1967 and consists of iconography, music, correspondence, programs, publicity materials, personal papers, publications, and clippings related to Paganini, most of which date from 1830 to 1840.
The Iconography series consists of images in a variety of media that depict Paganini and other musicians, as well as objects and places related to Paganini.
The Music series contains manuscript and printed scores, parts, and sketches for works that Paganini and other composers created.
The collection also contains a significant amount of Correspondence that other musicians, royalty, organizations, friends, and family wrote to each other and to Paganini, as well as letters in Paganini's hand and a small number of envelopes.
The Programs and Publicity materials document the violinist's concerts in England, Germany, and Austria.
The collection contains many of Paganini's Personal Papers, such as awards, contracts, financial papers, invitations, notebooks, poetry, cards, and miscellaneous fragments.
The Publications series includes books and magazine articles about Paganini's life and performance technique.
Numerous Clippings include reviews and advertisements for his performances across Europe.
In addition to these materials, the collection contains Papers of Maia Bang Hohn that provide information about the materials she collected and their provenance.
Nearly every item in the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection on Nicolò Paganini has been inventoried and assigned a number either by the collectors or Library staff. Maia Bang Hohn was responsible for most of the "Catalog no." designations in her collection. Approximately 60 uncataloged items from Hohn were later assigned "MBC misc." numbers, which represent Maia Bang Catalog miscellaneous items. Materials donated by Elisabeth A. Bondy were assigned a "Bondy no.," and items acquired from the Libreria Tolozzi have "WF" ("Whittall Foundation") numbers.