Custodial History
John Philip Sousa began the music library for his Sousa Band in 1892, which was lost in litigation to the widow of his manager David Blakely in 1900 and then sold back to Sousa in 1924. Sousa picked out a few works, then gave the rest of this music to fellow band director Victor Grabel in 1931. Grabel used the music with his Chicago Concert Band and added to the collection. He sold a small portion of the music to Louis M. Blaha, band director at J. Sterling Morton High School in Cicero, Illinois. (The high school later gave this music to the Library of Congress.) Grabel kept the majority of the music and took it with him to Stetson University in Deland, Florida, in the 1940s, which was then given to the United States Marine Band in 1969.