AMP COLLECTIONS

At the heart of the AMP are ten single-source collections, each drawn from a single estate, family, or institution.

The Chaw Mank Collection, the largest archive devoted to the psychic country producer and fan-club pioneer, holds [contents]. The “Doc” Tommy Scott Collection preserves photos, recordings, administrative papers, and more from the country singer and last purveyor of the medicine show tradition, and the Hutchinson Family Singers Collection holds photographs, letters, scores, and more from America’s “first pop band.”

The Dane Rudhyar Collection preserves letters, handdrawn horoscopes, handwritten essays, and more from the influential composer, artist, astrologer, and author, while the W.W. Harmon Collection includes rare illustrations and personal papers by the theosophist, optometrist, and artist. The Israelite House of David Collection features rare musical materials from the Benton Harbor, Michigan, religious community famed for its traveling bands. The Rev. Sherman J. Hester Papers / Universal Hagar’s Spiritual Church Collection holds diverse materials from an Ohio congregation within the Black Spiritual Church movement, and the Country Church of Hollywood Collection gathers publications, audio recordings, and more from this 1930s fantasy radio church that became a brick-and-mortar house of worship. 

The Bread and Puppet Theater Collection includes 1970s posters, banners, handwritten notes, and musical scores from company member Ruth Barenbaum, and the Chief Oskenonton Collection holds the stage jewelry and drumstick the Mohawk baritone wore in performance.

The archive also holds numerous multi-source collections and significant materials on artists including Radie Britain, Alan Hovhaness/Hermon di Giovanno, Irma Glen, Mary Hallock-Greenewalt, Mary Lou Williams, Vincent Lopez, Carlyle Petersilea, and May Wright Sewall. While its thematic collections focus upon tone-color metaphysics, spiritualist/séance music, liminal perspectives on country music, and occultism in American opera culture.