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Mahoney Music Collection

Need Help? Ask!

Phone: 605-658-3363

Email: speccoll@usd.edu

Hours: The Reading Room is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. -  4:00 p.m. Appointments are strongly encouraged and staff are available to meet with you either in-person or virtually, Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Holidays and other exceptions.

Location: Room 321, I.D. Weeks Library

Webhttps://www.usd.edu/Academics/Libraries/ID-Weeks-Library/Archives-and-Special-Collections

Location

The Mahoney Music Collection is held in the Archives and Special Collections department of the University Libraries on the campus of the University of South Dakota. 

To find us, go up the main stairs, turn right, and proceed to the east end of the building.  We usually hide behind a half-wall, so speak up - let us know you're here!

            

The Mahoney Music Collection

A comprehensive collection of music-related books, periodicals, ephemera, and more

- largely pertaining to the violin family - 

housed at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

Violin workshop from Diderot's book, 1787

D'Alembert Diderot: Encyclopedie Raisonne Metiers, 1767

Subjects Included in the Collection

Treatises, such as the first edition of Leopold Mozart's 1756 treatise, as well as treatises by Francesco Geminiani, Carl Flesch, Ivan Galamian

History of music and a wide range of musical instruments

American, Austrian, Belgian, Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Scottish, South American, Spanish, and Swiss stringed instruments

Instrument makers such as Amati, da Salo, del Gesu, Maggini, Stradivari, Stainer, and Vuillaume

Stringed instrument players such as Ole Bull, Pablo Casals, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, and Eugene Ysaye

Construction of stringed instruments and bows

Varnish dictionaries and encyclopedias

Acoustics

Adult and children's fiction and poetry concerning stringed instruments

Dealers' catalogs

Some Special Highlights

  • Complete collection of The Strad magazine
  • First edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
  • 1616 map of Cremona, Italy
  • First edition of Charles Burney's "A General History of Music"
  • First edition of John Hawkins's "A General History of the Science and Practice of Music"
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