Smyth Archival Collections
Smyth’s correspondence and autograph scores do not reside in one location but instead are found in libraries and private collections around the world. The following list is by no means exhaustive. If you know of sources that are not included below, please contact us so that we may continually update this page.
— Amy Zigler
- Austrian National Library.
www.onb.ac.at
[Three music manuscripts.]
Streichquartett E-moll.
Fête Galante: A dance-dream in one act.
Three Moods of the Sea: (Gesang, Klavier). - British Library, Archives and Manuscripts, Music Collections. www.bl.uk
Ethel Smyth Collection. Add MS 45934-45950. Vols 1-17.
Ethel Smyth Collection, Second Series. Add MS 46857-46863 Vols 18-24.
‘Main Book (Music) of Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE’. Add MS 49196.
Most of her music manuscripts are housed here.
The British Library also has several letters, plus restricted photocopies of items held by other libraries or person. - Durham University Archives and Special Collections.
Dame Ethel Smyth Music Manuscripts. GB-0033-SMY.
String Trio in D major.
Piano Trio in D minor.
String Quartet in C minor. - Hildebrand-Brewster Archive at Villa San Francesco di Paola, Florence, Italy.
The Smyth-Brewster correspondence, including over 1,800 letters. [No website available yet.] - Hochschule für Musik und Theatre – Leipzig, Library Archive.
Online Publication of the Ethel Smyth Letters.
A total of 57 letters from Smyth during her years in Leipzig, 1877-1887.
https://www.hmt-leipzig.de/de/hmt/bibliothek/hmtarchiv/ethel-smyth - The Keep, affiliated with the East Sussex Records Office, Brighton and Hove City Council, and the University of Sussex.
thekeep.info
Collection includes correspondence. - London School of Economics Women’s Library
https://archives.lse.ac.uk/
Various items including photographs. - McMaster University, William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections.
Ethel Smyth Collection. RC0651.
Several letters to and from Smyth. - New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building – Berg Collection, Room 320.
Virginia Woolf Collection of Papers, bulk (1912-1940).
https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b15859246
Collection includes correspondence. - Royal College of Music Library
Fête Galante Suite, score and set of orchestral parts
The Wreckers, score and set of orchestral parts
Search the Library Catalogue and Additional Manuscripts for sources.
https://www.rcm.ac.uk/library/collections/
There also exists a named collection but has not yet been made digitally available. - University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center.
Ethel Smyth Collection, 1910-1962.
Collection includes manuscripts and diaries, research notes, and correspondence.
https://search.lib.umich.edu/catalog/record/004055092 - University of Huddersfield, Heritage Quay, British Music Collection.
Scores and recordings available.
https://heritagequay.org/archives/BMC/SC*/?author=ethel+smyth
https://heritagequay.org/archives/BMC/RE/?author=ethel+smyth - University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Special Collections-Manuscripts Collection, Jackson Library.
Ethel Mary Smyth Letters, 1894-1937.
Primarily correspondence to Emmeline Pankhurst and from Empress Eugenie of France. - University of St. Andrews Library Department of Special Collections.
Various letters.
https://encore.st-andrews.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rx1939715
Printed edition of the Mass in D with inscription.
https://encore.st-andrews.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1301093
Special Collections Blog – “International Women’s Day: Dame Ethel Mary Smyth” by Rachel Hart. - Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.
Ethel Smyth Letters, 1908-1934.
Cage 4761 - Yale University, Manuscripts and Archives.
Misc. Ms. 418, Ethel Smyth Letters and Scrapbook, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/6/resources/10570
Mary Smyth Hunter Correspondence. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1020