Conserving the Perry Music Company Collection, Part Two

The owner has graciously turned over much of the Perry part of what exists currently consisting of seven deteriorating cardboard boxes. Sedalia’s superb local historian, Rebecca Imhauser, is perusing some of the Sedaliana portion. There is much more to come. This month I’ll offer some observations and describe some of what I have accomplished so far. My activity has centered on trying to halt deterioration and carefully sort the documents into categories. About half of these first boxes consisted of sheet music, and of that, half was published by Perry (with a lot of duplicate copies) and half primarily classical music by other publishers. Some of the latter consists of multiple copies that may have been for sale in the Perry shop. In all, there were 93 new sheet titles plus the 40 different titles already in the Sedalia Ragtime Archive. Some sheet music discoveries include “Carondelet Waltz” by Austin Waite Perry, published by Lee and Walker (Philadelphia) and A.W. Perry (St. Joseph). There isn’t a copyright date, but it is likely pre-1872 before the Perry’s migrated to Sedalia. Daughter Kate Perry’s name is penciled at the top. It is dedicated to the Civil War USS Carondelet Gunboat officers and crew. I have to wonder if Perry served on that vessel. There are also nice copies of “The Grave of Hood,” 1879; an “In Dreams I’m A Child Again,” 1880; and “Swee