Vernon Russell Sheffield papers

Restrictions: None.

Biographical sketch: Student; college music, mathematics teacher; pianist. Of rural Lanesboro, Iowa; Greencastle, Ind.; Emporia, Kan.

Abstract: Primarily musical compositions written by Vernon Russell Sheffield from ages 5 thru 31, recital programs & news clippings about his performances, and a partial autobiography & other biographical information thru 1979.

Summary: Contents List:

All items written by Vernon Russell Sheffield unless noted otherwise.

Box 1

• Envelope:
  
  
  • Erotique, Hastings, Neb., 1927 Feb. 23, [2] leaves. Original composition
  
  
  • Mozart music book / belonging to Vernon Sheffield, Lanesboro, Iowa, [1914-1918], 1 v. (48 p.). Original and copied compositions. With: Analysis of personal relics from long ago : the green “Mozart” music book, 1950 Mar. 3, 3 leaves.
  
  
  • Copies of some specimens of youthful attempts at composition / Vernon Sheffield, Emporia, Kansas, 1908-1919. 2 v. Contents: v. 1: 1908-1918 -- v. 2. 1918 Dec.-1919 Nov.; copied into vol. 1950-1953.
  
  
  • [Original compositions] 1917-1935. 1 folder (14 items). Includes “From Kentucky,” 1933 July 2: “The principal melody of this piece belongs to a Kentucky Mountaineer. I picked it up near the Cumberland Gap, Easter Sunday, Mar. 31, 1929.”
  
  
  • Rhapsodie americaine, pt. 2 [n.d.]. Cover title: Royal music book
  
  
  • Piano repertoire / Vernon Sheffield : forty years of recitals in Beach Music Hall, Emporia State University, 1937-1977 1 v. Includes original compositions and adaptations, 1935-1972; a program from a recital by Sheffield at DePauw University School of Music, [Greencastle, Ind.,] 1978 Oct. 18; a biographical sketch [n.d.]; and a letter from Everett S. Olive, Indianola, Iowa, to Mrs. Wetter, Sheffield's sister, [ca. 1918?], about his music lessons and ability.


• Vol.: Myself when young (second tome of autobiographical sketches and reminiscences, 1920-1926) : sequel to Vignettes of memory (1904-1920), [written] 1953-1958, 1 v. (420 leaves)


• Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia. [Certificate granting emeritus status] : to Vernon Sheffield, 1969 May 13. 1 v. With: photograph of Sheffield and recital programs, 1942-1944.

• Recitals, 1920-1979, 1 v. Photographs, programs, and newspaper clippings describing performances in which Sheffield was involved. In the back of the binder is a folder labeled “1975-1976” with similar material & a resume and a diamond anniversary program for the Lake City Community High School (Iowa) Alumni Association homecoming, 1966 Oct. 15.

• Letters From Boston, genealogical trip, 1960

• Adventure In Searching For Ancestors

• Four Retiring Teachers at K.S.T.C. to be Honored, published in The Gazette, Emporia, Kansas, May 12, 1969 and Miscellaneous Recollections From School 1920-1921 and Farther Back

Language note: Text is in English.

Biog. Sketch (Full):

Vernon Russell Sheffield was born on 6 February 1904 in Jasper Township, Carroll County, Iowa, near Lanesboro to Frederick Wagner Sheffield (1862-1944) and Mary Elizabeth Freeman Sheffield (1862-1937). He had two brothers and seven sisters including Lottie May (1884-1936), Ora Belle (1885-1955), Mary Esther (1887-1966), Ralph Emerson (1893-1956), Ethel Louise (1894-1942), and Laurence Frederick (1900-1925).

Vernon began playing the piano at four years of age and started composing music the following year. He attended public schools in Lanesboro and graduated from Lake City (Iowa) High School in 1920 at the age of sixteen and entered Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, the following fall. He earned a bachelor of music degree in 1922 with concentrated study in piano under Frank E. Barrows and a bachelor of arts in mathematics in 1926. He also pursued private piano lessons under Paul Stoye.

Following his graduation, he taught piano and music theory at Hastings College in Nebraska from 1926 until 1928. During summers he studied piano under Marian Thalberg. He then moved to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he taught from 1928 until 1932. During the years 1932 and 1933 he traveled and studied extensively in Europe under Edward Steuermann among others. Following his return, he resumed teaching at DePauw until 1934.

He then received a fellowship and studied piano under Max Landow and musicology at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, graduating with a master of arts degree in 1937.

He served as a pianist for a variety of Chautauqua, orchestra, and radio programs and was a frequent recitalist. He also was a church organist.

In 1937, he joined the faculty of the Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, now Emporia State University, where he rose to the rank of assistant professor of music; he also taught calculus in the Mathematics Department. He remained there until he retired in 1969.

Among his other performances were annual concerts in Emporia for more than forty years that were notable community events. He became organist at the First Congregational Church in Emporia in 1959 and continued in the position for over twenty years. He was a genealogist and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Music Teachers National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia men's musical fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, Kappa Mu Epsilon mathematics honor society, and Emporia's First Congregational Church.

He died in Emporia, Kansas, 11 April 1981 and was buried in the Lanesboro Cemetery.

Scope and content:

This collection contains primarily musical compositions written by Vernon Russell Sheffield from ages five through thirty-one, recital programs and news clippings about his performances, and a partial autobiography and other biographical information. These papers were presumably inherited and kept by his niece and former student, Ruth Sheffield Cunningham.

The music Sheffield wrote starts when he was a child of five years of age and extends until he was about thirty-one years old in 1935. It is unknown whether he continued composing after this time. It is certainly possible his graduate school studies and subsequent teaching duties precluded him from doing much composition in later life, although in the early 1950s he transcribed into books and wrote analyses of his earliest, childhood music. Of particular note in these compositions is “From Kentucky” that he wrote 1933 July 2. Sheffield wrote that he heard the principal melody from a Kentucky "mountaineer" in March 1929 near the Cumberland Gap where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia intersect.

The autobiographical volume and biographical materials give information about his life and his musical activities through 1979. The volume is a particularly detailed account of his life from the age of sixteen in 1920 through the following six years. Unfortunately the first volume of his autobiography covering the years 1904 through 1920 is not part of this collection. It does not appear that any other papers exist in other repositories, and it is unknown if he wrote any more autobiographical details of his later life.

This collection is significant for its depiction of a young musician's training, compositions, and career, an occupation often underrepresented in archival holdings. It also provides details about the music curriculum, programs and activities at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, while Sheffield was a student there in the 1920s and musical performances at the Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, the present Emporia State University, from the mid-1930s through the 1960s and into the 1970s. In a broader sense, researchers can glean a sense of music education efforts in the Midwest during much of the twentieth century.

Items in the collection concentrate on the period 1908 through 1937 by including the music he composed and his partial autobiography and other biographical information. After Sheffield moved to Emporia, the principal materials in this collection describing his activities are newspaper clippings and programs of performances. Regrettably, the collection does not contain any personal correspondence other than one letter about Vernon Sheffield's music ability written to his sister by his piano teacher as the latter was leaving to join the military during World War I. The autobiography provides details about Sheffield's life during the period he was a Simpson College student, but the existence of the predecessor volume or any later, similar narrative is unknown. Aside from descriptions of some performances, there is nothing about his teaching career at either Hastings College in Nebraska; DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana; or his thirty-three years at Kansas State Teachers College.

Because of its relatively small size, little rearrangement of the collection has been done. An envelope contains most of Sheffield's compositions as a child and young man. The extant autobiographical volume follows, and after that is a notebook containing recital programs, news clippings about programs in which he participated, and some biographical material.

Contents: Box 1. Music, 1908-1977, 1 envelope ; autobiography (1920-1926), [written] 1950-1953, 1 v. ; emeritus certificate, 1969 May 13, 1 v. -- box 2. Recitals, 1920-1979, 1 v. ; Letters From Boston Genealogical Trip, 1960 ; Adventure In Searching For Ancestors ; Miscellaneous Recollections From School 1920-1921 and Farther Back ; Four Retiring Teachers at K.S.T.C. to Be Honored, published in The Gazette, Emporia, Kansas, May 12, 1969

Associated materials: Other papers of Vernon Russell Sheffield, 1909-1979, 1 ft., are held by the State Historical Society of Iowa (Iowa City) (Ms 228): http://search.lib.uiowa.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?fn=search&ct=search&initialSearch=true&mode=Advanced&tab=default_tab&indx=1&dum=true&srt=rank&vid=01IOWASHSI&frbg=&vl%28D60006150UI0%29=creator&vl%28D60006150UI0%29=title&vl%28D60006150UI0%29=creator&vl%281UIStartWith0%29=exact&vl%28freeText0%29=Sheffield%2C+Vernon+1904-&vl%2860006149UI0%29=AND&vl%28D60006147UI1%29=any&vl%28D60006147UI1%29=title&vl%28D60006147UI1%29=any&vl%281UIStartWith1%29=contains&vl%28freeText1%29=&vl%2860006146UI1%29=AND&vl%28D60006158UI2%29=all_items&vl%28271569754UI3%29=all_items&vl%28185233740UI4%29=all_items&vl%2860006151UI5%29=00&vl%2860006152UI5%29=00&vl%2860006153UI5%29=Year&vl%2860006154UI5%29=00&vl%2860006155UI5%29=00&vl%2860006156UI5%29=Year&Submit=Search

Related materials:

Provenance:

Cunningham, Glenn, 1909-1988. Glenn Cunningham collection, 1888-2007 (bulk 1932-1988); 6 ft.; Ms. Collection 904; http://www.kshs.org/archives/309360

Topical:

Annie M. P. Bundy Scrapbook, 1904-1906, Ms. Collection 304, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40304

Donald F. Danker Papers, 1928-1989, Ms. Collection 900, 2 cubic ft., http://www.kshs.org/archives/41390 Access closed.

Edward Flentje Papers, 1979-2007, 2 cubic ft., http://www.kshs.org/archives/309505

Frank Hodder Correspondence, Lincoln Notes, 1905-1928, Ms. Collection 52B, http://www.kshs.org/archives/44024

William E. Koch Collection, [ca. 1957]-1981, http://www.kshs.org/archives/42513

James Claude Malin Papers, 1916-1976, Ms. Collection 183, 20 cubic ft., http://www.kshs.org/archives/40183

Ray A. Maul Papers, 1947-1950, http://www.kshs.org/archives/226755

Barbara Mertz Papers, [ca. 1961]-1978, 7 cubic ft., http://www.kshs.org/archives/43066

Rendering: Music Hall, State Teachers' College, Emporia, Kansas / Kansas. Office of the State Architect, [ca. 1927], http://www.kshs.org/archives/194805

Janet Ruth Nuzman Collection, 1969-1981, 2 cubic ft., http://www.kshs.org/archives/309900

Raymond Family Collection, 1872-[ca. 1999], ca. 3 cubic ft. (3 boxes), Ms. Collection 797, http://www.kshs.org/archives/44863

Barbara Rondelli Perry Collection, 1954-2012, http://www.kshs.org/archives/227930

Robert Taft Papers, 1918-1955 (bulk 1933-1955), 29 cubic ft., Ms. Collection 172, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40172

Neil B. Thompson Papers, 1862-1977, 1.4 ft. (1 box + 1 oversize folder), Ms. Collection 752, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40752

Also see http://www.kshs.org/dart/units/search/keywords:college%20teacher%20music/mattype:9/level:9

Geographical:

Alvord's Photo Studio Records, 1924-1942, Ms. Collection 256, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40256

Teresa Davis Dieker Papers, 1948-1981, 0.2 ft. (1 box), http://www.kshs.org/archives/44826

Orlin H. Graves Papers, [ca. 1850]-1946, 0.2 ft. (1 box), Ms. Collection 360, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40360
Link Chemical Company Records, [ca. 1935]-1949, 0.4 ft. (1 box), http://www.kshs.org/archives/45692

Lyon County history collection, 1866-1939, 2 ft., Ms. Collection 707, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40707

Anna Randolph Margaret Watson Randolph Collection, 1701-1988, 3 ft., Ms. Collection 238, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40238

Roy Wilford Riegle Papers, [ca. 1927]-1983, 17 cubic ft. (17 boxes), http://www.kshs.org/archives/43623

St. David's Society of Kansas Records, 1939-1992; 1 microfilm reel, 35 mm.; roll MF 1771; http://www.kshs.org/archives/220288

William A. White Papers, 1899-1961, 7 ft., Ms. Collection 87, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40087

Additional collections are listed at http://www.kshs.org/dart/units/search/keywords:Emporia/mattype:U/begyr:1937/endyr:1979/level:A

Finding Aid Bibliography:

"Vernon R. Sheffield," Emporia Gazette, 13 Apr. 1981, p. 2.

"Vernon Russell Sheffield," Ancestry website: http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/vernon-russell-sheffield_61746904 (accessed 8 Nov. 2015).

Restrictions: None.

Use and reproduction:

Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). The user is cautioned that the publication of the contents of this collection may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the copyright law of 1976 as amended, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of a user or his or her publisher to secure the permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing.

Copyright to those items to which the donor inherited copyright were given to the Kansas State Historical Society upon donation. Copyrights to other items in the collection may be owned by their authors, heirs, employers, or assigns.

Ownership/Custodial Hist.: Presumably inherited by Vernon Russell Sheffield's niece and former student, Ruth Cunningham, and thence to the donor.

Cite as: Vernon Russell Sheffield Papers, 1908-1979, Ms. Collection No. 905, Kansas Historical Society.

Action note: Arranged and described by Robert L. Knecht, volunteer, 2015.

Holder of originals: Kansas Historical Society (Topeka).

General Note: Title supplied by cataloger.