Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, ca. 1790-1895 Content and design by John Bewley

History of the Collection

The Keffer Collection of Sheet Music was compiled by Dr. Edward Iungerich Keffer (1861-1933), a Philadelphia dentist and accomplished amateur musician. The collection was bequeathed to the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia upon Dr. Keffer's death and i t was housed at the Free Library of Philadelphia. The society deeded the collection to the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.

Dr. Keffer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1883 and for fifty years was one of Philadelphia's most devoted music patrons, taking a leading role in the formation of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a violinist, Keffer served as concertmaster of the Philadelphia Symphony Society from 1893 to 1900. He was admitted to membership in the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia in 1897. Founded on 29 February 1820, the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia is the oldest music society in the United States in continuous existence. Its objectives, as stated in its charter, were "the relief of decayed musicians and their families, and the cultivation of skill and diffusion of taste in music," objectives it continues to address in the present day. Keffer served as its Vice President from 1927 until his death. During the years following the turn of the century, he hosted weekly chamber concerts in which the city's most highly-regarded musicians participated.

Keffer was a pioneer in recognizing the value of documenting America's musical heritage, as is evidenced in his extraordinary collection of American sheet music. The collection consists of 2,518 items bearing publication dates that range from the 1790s t hrough 1895. Almost half of the titles were printed in Philadelphia by such publishers as John Aitken, G.E. Blake, Benjamin Carr, George Willig, and Lee and Walker, and included among them are many works composed by Musical Fund Society members. The col lection's importance, however, exceeds the boundaries of Philadelphia and encompasses the whole of the country, representing one hundred years of the music publishing trade. Indeed, the portion of the collection from 1790-1825 was considered important eno ugh to be indexed in Oscar Sonneck's A Bibliography of Early Secular American Music (Washington D.C. : Library of Congress Music Division, 1945) and Richard J. Wolfe's Secular Music in America, 1801-1825: a Bibliography (New York: New York Public Library, 1964). (It should be noted that the collection was housed at the Free Library of Philadelphia at the time both these works were written. It was relocated to the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.)

Eleven manuscript scores were removed from the collection to form the Keffer Collection of Manuscript Music. These scores date from approximately 1798 to 1869. They are shelved as Ms. Coll. 126 in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library.

Keffer arranged his collection by topics. This order was maintained and the topics, with their respective box numbers, are shown below.