Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Kalamazoo Oratorio Society was founded in 1955 by a group of individuals who were interested in bringing the message of Christmas to life through an inspiring oratorio performance of George Frederick Handel’s Messiah. The Society’s annual performance began a tradition that would grow to become one of the area’s largest non-professional arts organizations. In the 1960s, the Society added a spring performance of other major oratorios that steadily developed its national and international...

Scope and Contents From the Collection: One of Kalamazoo’s oldest music organizations, the Kalamazoo Bach festival was founded by the Professor of Music at Kalamazoo College, Henry Overley, in 1946. He wanted to bring the town together to experience the joy of making music and create something inspiring, in particular, to recreate the instrumental music and choral of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Participants include visiting artists, local professional musicians, college and high school students, and even amateur performers....

Scope and Contents An ivory-colored scrapbook containing letters from the Simm family to Merze Tate written between September 1942 to May 1950. Most letters were written by Ida Vandaliah (Larkin) Simms, an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority member with Merze Tate, concerning Ida's daughter Jacquelyn (born September 9, 1942). Some leaves include birth announcements and invitations to Jacquelyn's christening, black-and-white photgraphs of Tate with baby Jacquelyn, her mother or her father. Some letters are written on...