Music Instruction

An excerpt from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ending 1881, containing the second annual report of the Carlisle Indian School. The lengthy report includes discussions of curriculum, student recruitment, the school's campus, the success of the sending students on…

An excerpt from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ending 1903, containing the Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The report, submitted by Superintendent Richard Henry Pratt, includes a school population table and discussions of the…

Caption: A MUSIC ROOM.

Very early in the School experience it was found that there were good voices among the pupils and ability to acquire both vocal and instrumental knowledge. Music proves a pleasing study to the Indian youth, and is useful and entertaining to the School.

This image appears in…

A white female teacher and a female student posed seated at a piano, as if having a music lesson. A label identifies the teacher was "Mrs. Sawyer;" according to school records, Rebecca Sawyer was an assistant music teacher in 1896. 

Male and female students posed, seated and holding sheets of music, with a white female teacher standing in front, in a class room. 

A note on the reverse of the image identifies the teacher as Miss Senseney.

Johnston took two very similar photographs of…

Male and female students posed, seated and holding sheets of music, with a white female teacher standing in front, in a class room. 

Johnston took two very similar photographs of this classroom. The other version can be seen in Related Images.…

The caption reads: INDIVIDUAL LESSON IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

This image appears in The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa.: 23rd Year (Carlisle, PA: The School, 1902).

Richard Henry Pratt requests authority to employ a singing teacher as well as purchasing 400 song books.

Richard Henry Pratt requests action in employing Professor Brown for 20 music lessons.

Richard Henry Pratt provides a report responding to questions from the Office of Indian Affairs on the needs of the Carlisle Indian School. Included are discussions on the need for more land, additional educational needs, and industrial training including the limitations of the industrial instruction received at Carlisle.

Pratt also…

Richard Henry Pratt responds to an Office of Indian Affairs letter regarding a change in the music department at the Carlisle Indian School (not specified). Also included is a letter from Ella G. Hill who was left without a position as a result of the change

Alfred John Standing responds to an Office of Indian Affairs letter regarding Gertrude Simmons' studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Note: Gertrude Simmons later became known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin and Zitkala-Sa. 

Richard Henry Pratt informs the Office of Indian Affairs of the new for a new piano at the school's chapel gatherings. Pratt notes that he has negotiated with the Steinway company for a used piano for $700 as well as repairing their other pianos for an additional $100.

Richard Henry Pratt responds to an Office of Indian Affairs letter regarding a request by Senator Thomas Bard for an increase in the salary of music teacher Jeannette Senseney and forwards information about her instruction in the classroom.

Richard Henry Pratt informs the Office of Indian Affairs that with Annie B. Moore leaving the Service at the close of year that Jeannette Senseney is moving to the instrumental instructor with William Davies becoming the vocal instructor. As a result, Pratt requests a male teacher to replace Davies.

Correspondence regarding the retention of Jeannette Senseney as a teacher at the Carlisle Indian School following the abolition of her old position as instrumental teacher.

The document contains correspondence concerning a request made by Elizabeth Penny towards further educational opportunities. Discussed options included continued music education at Carlisle or college education at Wilson College in nearby Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

These materials include correspondence and a draft of Superintendent Friedman's 30th Annual Report for the Carlisle Indian School, reflecting the period ending July 31, 1909. Friedman forwarded the draft to a Bureau official, along with information on how to have news published in Carlisle's student newspaper. The annual report includes…

Pamphlet issued by the Office of Indian Affairs to provide a manual for physical instruction in Indian Schools. Includes suggestions for equipment, reference books, and instructions on various singing, rhythmic, games without singing, and parlor games.

This document contains a list of student musicians recommended for possible Indian Service employment. 

The typed transcript of Mamie Richardson's testimony before the Joint Commission to Investigate Indian Affairs. At the time Richardson was a student at Carlisle. In the testimony she is referred to as May Richardson.

Richardson discusses the friction between the female students and Matron Anna Ridenour, her inability to take music lessons…

The typed transcript of Claude M. Stauffer's testimony before the Joint Commission to Investigate Indian Affairs. At the time Stauffer was employed as band director at Carlisle.

In his testimony Stauffer answers questions about his proficiency in agriculture and an incident of corporal punishment in which he was involved.

In the…

Mrs. Rose Collins asks the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells why her daughter, a student at the Carlisle Indian School, has to pay for her own music lessons. Second Assistant Commissioner C. F. Hauke forwards Collins' letter to Supervisor in Charge of the school Oscar H. Lipps. 

Lipps informs the Commissioner that vocal,…