Notable Collections

The Francis Hopkinson Collection includes Hopkinson's personal collection of music, along with manuscript music and transcriptions. Complementing these are other printed and manuscript materials by or relating to Hopkinson. These materials provides important sources for the study of early American music, the early history of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, and colonial and early federal American culture.

The Keffer Collection of Sheet Music contains 2,531 scores ranging in date from ca. 1790 to 1895.

Philadelphia bandleader and composer Francis Johnson (1792-1844), a free African American, achieved extraordinary renown and respect through performances of his band. The Kurt Stein collection includes forty-two rare printed examples of Johnson's sheet music, along with research materials on Johnson.

Marian Anderson (1897-1993) was world-renowned as a contralto. She also challenged racial barriers in the United States. Her dramatic open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after she was banned from singing in Constitution Hall, was delivered to 75,000 listeners. She was the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.