Glee Club Records

Collection

Call Number: UA170

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains scrapbooks, photographs, and songs related to the Tufts College Glee Club.

Dates

Creation: 1889 -- 1951

Creator

Tufts College Glee Club (Organization)

Language of Materials

English

Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Digital Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish.

No documentation is available regarding the intellectual property rights in this collection.

Biographical / Historical

The first Tufts College Glee Club was formed in 1863, but the club was inconsistently organized until 1885, when the permanent Glee Club was formed. Its first concert was held on March 15, 1886. Leo R. Lewis, A’87, was the organizer and founder of the permanent club in 1885 and went on to serve on the Tufts faculty from 1892-1945. He was the conductor and leader of the Glee Club throughout his tenure on the faculty. Elbridge Newton, A’90, wrote “The Brown and Blue,” the first Tufts song, for the club in 1888. The club published the Tufts Song Book in 1895 and in 1906.

The Glee Club was all male from its founding. An all-female Glee Club, the Tufts Girls Glee Club, was formed at Jackson College in 1906. The two clubs performed separately until 1928, when they began to have occasional concerts together. They formally merged in World War II to create a Combined Tufts and Jackson Glee Club.

The Glee Club disbanded after the 1948-1949 academic year.