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The collection was donated by Margaret Summerhays in several installments which have been combined and organized to form the present collection.
Collection is available to public use.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from Margaret Summerhays Papers must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.
Margaret Summerhays was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 12, 1884 to Joseph William Summerhays and Mary Melissa Parker. At an early age she showed a talent for singing and spent most of her life studying, teaching, and performing music. She graduated as a soloist from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1916 and obtained a B.A. in music from Brigham Young University in 1936. During the course of her career she taught singing privately, and at the McCune School of Music, Brigham Young University, Frederick Haywood's School in New York, and the L.D.S. School of Music under Cecil Gates. She performed extensively throughout Utah and Idaho and directed many church choral groups. She also served from 1921 to 1922 on the General board of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and the General Church Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). She was still living in 1980.
The collection consists of some of the papers accumulated by Margaret Summerhays during the course of her life. They primarily document her education, career, and travels. There is very little autobiographical information in the form of journals and writings.
When received by the library, some of the papers were in a condition which made them impossible to clean thoroughly. The scrapbook pertaining to her trip to Europe in 1936 was dismantled and its contents integrated into the collection. Other scrapbooks, however, were left intact (primarily because of the extreme difficulty in dismantling them) and are found in box 1.
The papers are organized into seven major categories: biographical information, correspondence, writings, education and career, professional associations, memorabilia, and financial records.
The biographical information includes a short diary and two scrapbooks. The scrapbooks also include correspondence, memorabilia, a patriarchal blessing, and materials pertaining to her parents.
Correspondence covers the years 1897 to 1973 and includes, in addition to finished, dated letters, undated Christmas cards with messages inscribed.
Her writings include musical scores, notes for talks, and a draft of a published article entitled "Education Through Music."
The section on her education and career primarily consists of teaching and class notes and related materials and correspondence pertaining to home study courses, as well as a partial list of her former students. Where clearly identifiable as such the materials were arranged under "Education" and "Teaching". Because of the fragmentary nature of many of the notes, it was often difficult to tell whether they were teaching or student class notes. Most of the materials in the "Education" section document her early student years but she took courses throughout her life and some of that material is also present.
The professional associations section comprises materials pertaining to various clubs and organizations in which she participated.
Memorabilia includes theatre programs covering the period 1917-1967, guidebooks and memorabilia pertaining to travels, printed verses and newspaper clippings.
The financial records which were returned to the donor are represented in a folder which contains a sampling of checks and lesson account records.
The papers are organized into seven major categories: biographical information, correspondence, writings, education and career, professional associations, memorabilia, and financial records.
One box of photographs was transferred to Photo Archives and assigned the number MSS P 122. Miscellaneous blank postcards removed from a scrapbook pertaining to her trip to Europe in 1936 also were separated to the Photo Archives. Several boxes of books, pamphlets and magazines were transferred to the Acquisitions Department of the library. Miscellaneous theatre programs were added to the Theatre Program Collection of Archives and Manuscripts. A complete list of transferred materials is available on request.
Cancelled checks and other financial records, some early school notes and teaching notes for Relief Society lessons were returned to the donor. A representative sampling of the financial records appears in box 9, fd. 15. Christmas cards which carried the sender's name only have been discarded and the names recorded in the Appendix. Duplicate programs and envelopes appear in brackets in the upper right hand corner of the letters they accompanied.
Arranged chronologically. Additional correspondence can be found in the scrapbook in box 1 and in box 6, fd. 4.
Programs in which Margaret Summerhays appeared: