Information Sheet

 

 

R         Small, Hubert Edwin, 1880‑1952.

474                  Papers, ca. 1910‑1952.

                                    Three folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection includes a scrapbook, correspondence, and miscellaneous printed mate­rial of Hubert E. Small, a musician, chautauqua performer, and music teacher at Kansas City and Spring­field, Missouri.  Some material pertains to his wife, Vera (Whitmore) Small, also a pro­fes­sional mu­sician.

 

Hubert E. Small was a native of the Kansas City area.  A flutist and professional musi­cian, he studied with members of the Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and St. Louis sym­phony orchestras, and was a graduate of the University School of Music at Lincoln, Nebraska.  Small was ac­tive on the Chautauqua circuit during the first quarter of the twentieth century, performing with the Red­path, Harrison, and Horner companies.  By 1917 he was associated with the Watahwaso‑Lieurance Company, and made recordings on the Victor label.

 

Small married Vera Whitmore, a soprano and soloist, in 1917.  For several years thereaf­ter the pair traveled together.  In 1926 the Smalls moved to Alton, Illinois, to teach music and choir at the Western Military Academy.  After filling similar positions in public schools at Jef­ferson City and Columbia, they relocated to Springfield, Missouri, where Hubert was teacher of flute at Drury College and Vera was choir director at Grace Methodist Episcopal Church.  Hubert E. Small died in Springfield in 1952.

 

The Hubert E. Small collection consists of three folders pertaining to Small’s career as a pro­fessional musician.  Most of the material, which includes a scrapbook, correspondence, and miscel­laneous printed material, concerns his activities as a Chautauqua performer, 1914‑1922.  There are also a few items regarding the professional accomplishments of Vera Small.  The scrapbook pro­vides an overview of the Chautauqua movement during the golden age before cinema and radio di­minished the audience for lyceums and Chautauquas.  Small’s correspon­dence with his wife, 1915‑1918, is useful for its descriptions of the life of a traveling musician.  In 1917 alone, Small’s circuit included West Virginia, Minnesota, Ohio, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.  His comments on travel connections, cramped hotel rooms, fellow per­formers, and homesickness will sound quite contemporary to any musician who has spent time on the road.  Folder 3 contains cop­ies of programs for Horner and Redpath Chautauquas, 1914‑1917.

 

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