Overview of the Collection
The Marian Anderson Papers at Penn
The Marian Anderson Papers (Ms.Coll.200) and related collections at the University of Pennsylvania are the principal repository for documents concerning Marian Anderson's career and personal life. The Papers comprise 495 boxes and include correspondence, business records and contracts, manuscript and typescript biographical materials; plus Anderson's notes, journals, calendars, and financial documents. Programs and publicity materials documenting her career as a world-class contralto are extensive, as is the collection of awards and honorary degrees she received during her long and memorable life. Also included are scrapbooks, memorabilia, and some materials belonging to her sisters Alyse Anderson and Ethel De Preist; her mother, Anna D. Anderson, and her husband, Orpheus H. Fisher.
After her death in 1993. another group of her papers were donated to the University (MS. Coll. 708). Housed in 48 boxes, this group of materials include correspondence (general and fan mail); business correspondence, records and contracts; manuscript and typescript biographical materials; some materials belonging to her sisters Alyse Anderson and Ethel DePreist, her mother Anna D. Anderson, and her husband, Orpheus H. Fisher; Anderson's notes, journals, calendars, and financial documents; correspondence and memorabilia from James DePreist; programs and publicity materials; clippings; awards and tributes; and memorabilia.
In addition to these two groups of materials, there are thirteen additional Anderson sub collections including 4500 photographs dating from 1898 to 193, over 1000 pieces of music manuscripts, more than 1000 pieces of printed sheet music; copies of many of her commercial recordings and numerous hours of non-commercial recordings.
You can see a full listing of the contents of the Marian Anderson Papers and the Supplementary Papers by using Penn's Finding Aids and you can download a PDF version of the entire listing.
Papers Finding Aid Supplementary Papers Finding Aid.
You can see downloadable images for each item and its accompanying bibliographic data in the Library's new Colenda repository.
Digital Images in Colenda