The majority of the O’Connor collection comprises individual song scores published in London and New York around the 1920s. Many adopt the topic of Irish nostalgia as seen from abroad, with music covers illustrating the idyllic Irish countryside and the iconic image of the harp: My Irish Home Sweet Home (Hanley & Swain), When Ireland Comes Into Her Own (Branen & Stanley), If I Knew That Ireland Was Free (Elinore, Tracey & Williams); I Love The Name of Killarney (Gillen, Fairman & Tunison). As was common in the early twentieth century, music covers presented images of popular music hall performers as a form of promotion. Most prominent in this collection is the set of music covers featuring the actress Miss Dorothy Ward (1890-1987), wife of Shaun Glenville (1884-1968), the Irish-born actor. Unusual are the two copies Clare and Conrad’s Ma (London: B. Feldman, 1921), identical but for the different artists featured on the cover: Miss Hilda Glyder and Miss Daisy Wood. The scores published in New York offer some striking examples of colour lithographs by E.E. Walton and Rolt Armstrong.
The O’Connor collection also contains an owner-bound volume of twenty-seven piano scores (solos and duets). The pieces included present the typical Victorian light-music repertoire of marches, dance tunes and arrangements of selected opera movements. Topicality was fundamental in the popular music of this era and this volume features:
Jullien was an especially well-known composer/conductor in Ireland, as Dublin was included on his regular provincial tours in the 1840s and 1850s. The most notable inclusions in this volume are the vivid colour lithographs by John Brandard, a prolific lithographer of music covers from the 1840’s.
For a full catalogue of the O'Connor collection, see here.
