Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ records

Collection

Identifier: Coll. 4278

Staff Only

Scope and Content note

This collection represents the institutional archive of Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ (FOKO), as gifted to MHS in 2023. The material documents the organization’s administration, press and publicity about the organ, the work and music of municipal organists supported by FOKO, the history of the organ and its namesake, and over 100 years of organ concerts. Contents include correspondence, meeting minutes, publications, news clippings, programs, music scores, photographs, scrapbooks, posters, digital files, and an array of audiovisual material.

Dates

1880 - 2019
Majority of material found within 1912 - 2019

Creator

Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ (Portland, Me.) (Organization)

Access

Unrestricted

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Administrative note

The non-profit organization Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ (FOKO) was formed to manage and raise funds for the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ, a pipe organ housed in Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine.

The Kotzschmar Organ was built in 1911 by the Austin Organ Co. in Hartford, Conn., and donated to the city by Portland native Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, founder of the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia. Curtis was named after Hermann Kotzschmar, a close family friend and his childhood music teacher, who, having relocated to Portland in 1849 from his native Germany, became one of the city’s most prominent musicians. The organ was installed in 1912 in what was then the City Hall Auditorium. It was the first municipal organ in the United States and remains one of the only still owned by its municipality.

In 1912, the City of Portland established the position of municipal organist, and at the time of processing this collection, eleven organists have filled the role. In 2012, after 100 years of service, the organ was removed and underwent a full renovation, completed in 2014. FOKO continues to fund and oversee the position of municipal organist and maintenance of the Kotzschmar Organ.

Extent

14.5 Linear Feet (12 boxes + 10 reels)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in five series.

1. Administration, 1967-2019
2. Publications, 1897-2018
3. Performers and performances, 1880-2017
4. Music scores, 1892-1919
5. Graphic and audiovisual material, 1889-2017

Provenance

Gift of Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, June 23, 2023 (acc. no. 2023.148).

Separated Materials

The following related material was separated and can be found in the MHS Library collection.

Half-hour lessons in music: class work for beginners at the piano, Mrs. Hermann Kotzschmar, S.C. 996 c.2
The life and times of Cyrus H. K. Curtis (1850-1933), B C941
Hermann Kotzschmar, QJ B K849h c.3. Note that it is copy 3 of this title that was donated with this collection, and it includes inscriptions transcribed in Minerva record.
Diary of a farm family, 1912, Coll. S-8881. Note that the diary describes a viewing of the "great organ" in the entry for December 17, 1912.

Processing note

The collection arrived arranged primarily in binders housed in labeled archival boxes. Representing a portion of the FOKO archive as described in their inventory (a copy of which is housed in this collection’s source file), original order was retained, though record groups were combined into larger series where appropriate.

Material was removed from sleeves and binders and rehoused in archival folders. News clippings were photocopied and originals discarded. Scrapbooks were removed from covers and binders and rehoused in folders; oversize scrapbooks were housed in flat boxes. Posters and oversize publications and photographs were likewise housed in flat boxes. Media of various formats was included with the collection and housed with like items. Reel-to-reel audio recording tapes had been lying flat and were rehoused in an upright position. Digital files on CDs 18-22 and Thumbdrive 1 were migrated to the MHS server. CDs 1-17 and 23-24 house audio files that could not be transferred.

Published works were separated. Copies of titles already held by the Brown Library were not retained, while new titles were added to the collection. A 1912 diary of a Brunswick man that includes mention of attending a reception for the "grand organ" on December 17, 1912, was also separated and added as an S-collection. See Related material for relevant works.

Finally, a selection of objects were separated and added to the MHS museum collection, including drawings and prints of the organ, engraved print blocks, a tuning iron used by Burt Witham (see photo in Box 8/Folder 8), and two Edison Amberol wax cylinder recordings of "Serenade (Kotzschmar)," by the Tollefsen Trio, ca. 1904 (see also Box 12/Record 1). These items can be located using the MHS museum catalog.