TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary of the Collection
Scope and Content of the Collection
Series 1: Miscellaneous, 1907-1977
Series 2: Magnetic tapes, undated
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Inventory of the Mina Hager Papers, 1892-1977, bulk 1920-1970
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Lisa Janssen, 2006. ©2006. |
Descriptive Summary of the Collection |
|
| Creator | Hager, Mina |
| Title | Mina Hager Papers |
| Dates | 1892-1977 |
| Dates | bulk 1920-1970 |
| Extent | 2 cubic ft. (2 boxes and 2 oversize) |
| Abstract | Material relating to the career of mezzo-soprano Mina Hager (Mrs. Fred Heidenson), including incoming correspondence from John Alden Carpenter and others, programs, clippings and other memorabilia. Also, practice and demo tapes, sound recordings (78 rpm and 45 rpm, LP) and a collection of manuscript and published sheet music, mostly by John Alden Carpenter. |
| Language | Materials are in English. |
| Repository | Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections |
| Collection Call Number | Midwest MS Hager |
| Collection Stack Location | 3a 39 8 |
Administrative Information
Cite As
Mina Hager Papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Provenance
Gift of Maetta Chase, 1995.
Processed by
Virginia Hay Smith, 2006.
Access
The Mina Hager Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).
Ownership and Literary Rights
The Mina Hager Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
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Biography of Mina Hager
American mezzo-soprano.
Mezzo-soprano Mina Hager was born in Madison, South Dakota in 1891 and graduated from Dakota Wesleyan University in 1911. Her professional career began in Chicago, where she built a reputation for excellence in performing opera, oratorio and song repertoire. She sang with the Chicago Opera Company, toured Europe and Central America, opened a season at the Hollywood Bowl, and sang the first American staged production of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” in 1926 under Frederic Stock in Chicago. Hager’s concerts of contemporary composers included de Falla, Milhaud, Poulenc, Webern and others, but she was particularly noted for interpreting the songs of Chicago composer, John Alden Carpenter.
Mina Hager was married to Fred Heidenson. She died in 1981.
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Scope and Content of the Collection
Collection relates to Mina Hager’s professional career as a successful singer. Besides tapes, recordings and sheet music, there is correspondence from John Alden Carpenter and others, advertisements, brochures, contracts, many programs, miscellaneous memorabilia including two passports and an American Theatre Wing War Service certificate and a few photographs. Among her works is a fragment of her autobiography, an article about John Alden Carpenter and his songs from Music Journal and a few other short articles.
Narrative descriptions of the subject matter, types of material, and arrangement of each series are available through the Organization section of the finding aid.
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Organization
Papers are organized in the following series:
- Series 1: Miscellaneous, 1907-1977. Box(es) 1
- Series 2: Magnetic tapes, undated . Box(es) 2
- Series 3: Sheet Music, 1892-1975. Box(es) 3
- Series 4: Sound Recordings. Box(es) 4
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Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.
Names
- American Theatre Wing War Service, Inc.
- Carpenter, John Alden, 1876-1951
- Fairbank, Janet, 1903-1948
- Hager, Mina
Subjects
- Composers – Illinois – Chicago – Correspondence
- Magnetic tapes
- Manuscripts, American--Illinois--Chicago
- Mezzo sopranos – Illinois -- Chicago
- Musicians – Correspondence
- Opera singers – Illinois -- Chicago
- Photographs – 1929-1975
- Sheet music – 1892-1975
- Singers – Illinois – Chicago
- Sound recordings
- Women singers – Portraits
- Women singers – Illinois – Chicago –History – 20th century – Sources
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Container List
Series 1: Miscellaneous, 1907-1977 |
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| Materials relating to Mina Hager’s musical career, consisting of correspondence, brochures, clippings, programs, a few articles and bits of memorabilia, photographs, and some articles written by Hager including a fragment of her autobiography. | |||||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically by type of material. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Brochures, advertisements, 1924-1932 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Clippings, (many incomplete), 1920-1937 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Clippings, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Clippings, originals, 1926-1937 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Contracts, 1929-1931 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Correspondence: John Alden Carpenter, 1920-1934 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Correspondence, general incoming, 1924-1977 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Memorabilia, 1918-1971 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Photographs, 1929-ca. 1975 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10-12 | Programs, 1907-1949 | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Programs, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Works, 1931-1970 and undated | |||||||||
Series 2: Magnetic tapes, undated |
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| Seven 900-foot and five 1200-foot reel-to-reel tapes that appear to be practice and or demo tapes. In only fair condition, they are mostly unidentified and undated. | |||||||||||
| Unarranged | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 2 | Reel-to-reel tapes, n.d. | ||||||||||
Series 3: Sheet Music, 1892-1975 |
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| Manuscript and published music from Mina Hager’s repertoire, some photostats, some original, mostly the works of John Alden Carpenter. | |||||||||||
| Carpenter pieces are listed first, with other composers following in alphabetical order. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 3 | 15 | Carpenter, John Alden - Bid Me Live (eight songs), 1912 | |||||||||
| 3 | 16 | Carpenter, John Alden - Blue Gal, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 17 | Carpenter, John Alden - Breathin' Sorrow, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 18 | Carpenter, John Alden - Four Negro Songs, 1927 | |||||||||
| 3 | 19 | Carpenter, John Alden - Gitanjali, 1914 | |||||||||
| 3 | 20 | Carpenter, John Alden - Go, Lovely Rose, 1912 | |||||||||
| 3 | 21 | Carpenter, John Alden - The Green River (eight songs), 1912 | |||||||||
| 3 | 22 | Carpenter, John Alden - The Heart's Country, 1912 | |||||||||
| 3 | 23 | Carpenter, John Alden - The Hermit Crab, 1929 | |||||||||
| 3 | 24 | Carpenter, John Alden - Infanta Suite, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 25 | Carpenter, John Alden - Khaki Sammy, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 26 | Carpenter, John Alden - Light, My Light, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 27 | Carpenter, John Alden - Morning Fair, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 28 | Carpenter, John Alden - Oh! Soeur Divine!, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 29 | Carpenter, John Alden - Le Petit Cimetiere, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 30 | Carpenter, John Alden - Serenade, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 31 | Carpenter, John Alden - Les Silhouettes, n.d. | |||||||||
| 3 | 32 | Carpenter, John Alden - Slumber Song, 1920 | |||||||||
| 3 | 33 | Carpenter, John Alden - That Soothin' Song, 1926 | |||||||||
| 3 | 34 | Carpenter, John Alden - Worlds, 1934 | |||||||||
| 3 | 35 | Carpenter, John Alden - Wull Ye Come in Early Spring (three songs), 1918 | |||||||||
| 3 | 36 | Carpenter, John Alden - Young Man, Chieftain!, 1930 | |||||||||
| 3 | 37 | Argento, Dominick - From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, 1975 | |||||||||
| 3 | 38 | Beeson, Jack - Against Idleness and Mischief; Indiana Homecoming, 1973 | |||||||||
| 3 | 39 | Binkard, Gordon - Three Songs for Mezzo-soprano, 1971 | |||||||||
| 3 | 40 | Dougherty, Celius - Abend in Dome; Fur; Intermezzo; Vor der Ernte, 1931 and undated | |||||||||
| 3 | 41 | Dvorak, Anton - Biblische Lieder, vol. 2, 1895 | |||||||||
| 3 | 42 | Hageman, Richard - Little Things; O Why Do You Walk?; Voices, 1943-1950 | |||||||||
| 3 | 43 | Jefferson, Peter - April in the Snow, 1957 | |||||||||
| 3 | 44 | Neidlinger,W.H. - Spirit of God, 1907 | |||||||||
| 3 | 45 | Robinson, Hollande - The Ching-ting Mountain; A Javanese Lullaby; Minuet du Printemps; Peasant Pictures; Rain, 1921-1928 and undated | |||||||||
| 3 | 46 | Rorem, Ned - Absolom; To a Young Girl, 1941-1972 | |||||||||
| 3 | 47 | Trunk, Richard - Abendgang, 1915 | |||||||||
| 3 | 48 | Van de Water, Beardsley - The Penitent, 1892 | |||||||||
| 3 | 49 | Weaver, Powell - The Night Will Never Stay, 1937 | |||||||||
| 3 | 50 | Unidentified - Im Treibhus; "Slowly" [no text], undated | |||||||||
Series 4: Sound Recordings |
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| Collection of 4 rpm, 78 rpm, and LP recordings, many unlabeled, almost all presumably of Mina Hager. | |||||||||||
| Songs by John Alden Carpenter are listed first by titles, with other compositions on the disk noted. The recordings which follow are listed in rough alphabetical order by one of the titles on the disk, and include a recording by Janet Fairbank. The incompletely identified material and blank disks are last. Broken and disintegrating disks have been discarded. All undated unless otherwise noted. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 4 | 51 | Carpenter, John Alden - Berceuse de la Guerre; On a Screen; The Odalisque | |||||||||
| 4 | 52 | Carpenter, John Alden - Birthday of the Infanta; Debussy - Mandolin | |||||||||
| 4 | 53 | Carpenter, John Alden - Side 7 and Side 8 (no title) | |||||||||
| 4 | 54 | Carpenter, John Alden - Four Songs From Gitanjali | |||||||||
| 4 | 55 | Carpenter, John Alden - On the Seashore of Endless Worlds; Lawrence - Let Us Break Bread; Boatner - Salve Regina; Wolf, E. - Fairy Tales; Ewig | |||||||||
| 4 | 56 | Christmas Greetings from Mina and Fred Heidenson, 1945 | |||||||||
| 4 | 57a-57b | Christmas greetings (two disks), n.d. | |||||||||
| 4 | 58 | Faure - Au Bord de l'Eau; Wilda - Summer the Lovely; Everyone Sang | |||||||||
| 4 | 59 | Schumann -- Dichterliebe | |||||||||
| 4 | 60 | Wagner - Der Engel; Traume | |||||||||
| 4 | 61 | German Folksongs | |||||||||
| 4 | 62 | Faure - Mandolin; Hahn - Mandolin | |||||||||
| 4 | 63 | Read in the Gospel (spiritual) | |||||||||
| 4 | 64 | Salve Regina | |||||||||
| 4 | 65 | Salve Regina; Die Forella; Der Erlkonig | |||||||||
| 4 | 66 | Gounod - Serenade; Negro Spiritual | |||||||||
| 4 | 67 | Gounod - Serenade; Londonderry Air; Mush, Mush, Mush | |||||||||
| 4 | 68 | Wilda - Summer the Lovely; My Heart; The Time Everyone Sang | |||||||||
| 4 | 69 | Schubert - Der Tod und das Madchen; Rogers - Dumb Dora; Ferrari - Le Mirroir | |||||||||
| 4 | 70 | Victory Concert | |||||||||
| 4 | 71 | Messiaen: Chants de Terre et de Ciel, sung by Janet Fairbank | |||||||||
| 4 | 72-80 | Miscellaneous incompletely identified | |||||||||
| 4 | 81-88 | Unmarked disks | |||||||||