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The Center recently acquired the Carl Landrum Collection which includes a wonderful accumulation of historic band photographs, newspaper clippings, concert programs, tour flyers, correspondence, published articles, music scores and parts, and posters documenting American wind band ensembles and performers between the 1850s and 1930s. In addition the collection includes Landrum’s research notes documenting the legacies of many national and local bands including the John Philip Sousa Band and the Quincy, Illinois Park Band, which he founded in 1948.
Carl Landrum (1916-2003) was born in Quincy, IL and graduated from Quincy College. After serving in the military during WWII, he continued working as a performing musician and taught music in Ursa and Lewistown, MO. Landrum eventually returned to Quincy and became the band and orchestra director for the Quincy Notre Dame school, and also founded and served as the director of the Quincy Park Band, which he founded in 1948. After becoming interested in history while participating in the Civil War centennial celebrations in 1965, he started writing a local history column, “From Quincy’s Past” in the Quincy Herald-Whig. A year later, he published his first book, Quincy and the Civil War. Landrum continued directing the Quincy Park Band until 1993, and wrote ten additional books on local Illinois history, including his last book on the musical life of Quincy, published posthumously by his wife, Shirley Landrum, in 2010.
The Sousa Archives’ staff is currently processing this wonderful collection of materials, and we hope to have a complete archival finding aid finished in the next several weeks. For those interested in learning more about this collection, you can get a preview of the collection finding aid here. If you have any questions about this new collection please feel free to send an email to the Center at sousa@illinois.edu.