SMITH, HAROLD D.

MUS 113

Harold D. Smith fonds. - [ca. 1915-ca. 1935]. - 3 linear m. of textual records. - 896 photographs. - 108 negatives. - 11 lantern slides.

Biographical Sketch

Harold D. Smith was a manager with the Victor company from 1915 to 1935, in Camden, New Jersey. He first worked in the educational section, and then moved to the foreign languages section. He helped to prepare the catalogues for these two sections.

Scope and Content

The fonds contains records pertaining to the professional activities of Harold D. Smith: recordings ledgers (artists, repertoires and sales); ledgers of daily sales reports; internal mail and business letters of the Victor company; The Thing Talked, unpublished text by H.D. Smith on the history of the phonograph, and other writings by H.D. Smith for the Victor company; files consisting of correspondence, contracts and clippings pertaining to celebrated artists such as Juliette Gaultier de la Vérendrye (Canadian folk singer), Maria Gay, Giovanni Zenatello, Lily Pons and Thurlow Lieurance; posters; publicity material; concert programmes; photographs of artists who recorded for the Victor company or company managers.

Immediate source of acquisition: acquired by purchase through agents of the Smith family, the Smolian Sound studios of Catskill, New York, in 1979.

Restrictions: none.

Finding aids: brochure entitled "The Harold D. Smith Collection at the National Library of Canada". - Ottawa: National Library of Canada. - Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1980.