Performances + Events
Wallace Goodrich
(John) Wallace Goodrich, an American organist, conductor, and writer on music, was born in Newton, MA on May 27, 1871.
He graduated from Newton High School and in 1888 Goodrich began studying organ with Henry Dunham and composition with George W. Chadwick at the New England Conservatory. He also studied with Rheinberger in Munich (1894-1895) and with Widor in Paris. In 1896-1897, Goodrich served as coach at the Leipzig Municipal Theater.
Wallace Goodrich’s History
In 1897, Goodrich returned to Boston and joined the organ faculty at NEC. He was appointed Dean in 1907 and subsequently Director in 1931- a position he held until 1942. Goodrich was organist at Church of the Messiah and later Trinity Church in Boston from 1902-1907. He was the official organist for the Boston Symphony from 1897-1900, performing Handel’s Concerto in D minor in the first pair of concerts ever held at Symphony Hall, in October 1900.
Goodrich founded Boston’s Choral Art Society in 1901 and served as its conductor until 1907. At various points, Goodrich also directed the Cecilia Society (1907-1910), the Worcester County Choral Association (1902-1907) and the Boston Opera Company (1909-1912). Among the operas conducted by Goodrich were Faust, Lakme, La Boheme, Rigoletto, Mignon, Hansel and Gretel, Converse’s The Sacrifice (world premiere) and The Pipe of Desire. In addition, Goodrich held the position of secretary to the Joint Commission on Church Music of the Episcopal Church, from its beginning in 1919 until 1948.
Goodrich composed choral music, including his Ave Maria for chorus and orchestra (Munich, 1895). Goodrich also wrote The Organ in France (1917), “Recollections of my time at New England Conservatory,” and translated A. Pirro’s Johann Sebastian Bach and his Works for the Organ (1902) and d’Ortigue’s Methode d’accompagnement du plain-chant (1905). Goodrich died in Boston on June 6, 1952.
Biographical information taken from Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954 ed.) and New England Conservatory Bulletin. v. 29 no. 2(August, 1952)
Archival Collection
The Goodrich Papers occupy approximately 3.25 linear feet, or 7 document cases and 4 manuscript boxes of varying sizes. The majority of this collection consists of paper files, i.e. correspondence, department files, subject files, external files etc. There are also newspaper/periodical clippings as well as photographs, scrapbooks, and music manuscripts.
This collection includes the materials created by, and belonging to Wallace Goodrich, Director of New England Conservatory from 1931-1942. Some of the materials in this collection had remained at NEC since Goodrich’s tenure. Other materials, such as the photographs were donated to the Conservatory by members of the Goodrich family, including his son John.
Access to the Goodrich Papers is granted by the Archivist. Appointments must be scheduled in advance. There are no restrictions pertaining to this collection. All copyrights to this collection belong to the New England Conservatory. Permission to publish materials from this collection is granted by the Archivist. This collection should be cited as: NECA 1.3. Wallace Goodrich Papers, New England Conservatory Archives, Boston, MA.
The Wallace Goodrich Paper are organized into twelve series:
- Correspondence, Professional
- Correspondence, Faculty
- Correspondence, Selected
- Orchestra Files
- Department Files
- Funding/Endowment Files
- Annual Reports
- Subject Files
- External Files
- Newspaper/Periodical Clippings
- Photographs
- Scrapbooks
- Music manuscripts
The Professional Correspondence dates from 1937 to 1952, covering Goodrich’s last few years as Director and the following decade in which he served as Director Emeritus.
Faculty Correspondence spans the years 1939-1951. These folders are organized chronologically and then alphabetically by faculty member’s name within each folder.
The Selected Correspondence (General) was originally a small separate collection. It has been incorporated into the larger Goodrich collection but has retained its original alphabetical arrangement. For more detailed information, see the item level description. Other Selected Correspondence includes exchanges with Philip Allen (Board of Trustees Chairman), Geraldine Farrar and Gertrude Norman, as well as correspondence regarding former NEC directors, and Goodrich’s compositional arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner. Additional correspondence between Goodrich and Gertrude Norman can be found in the Marcia van Dresser Collection.
The Orchestra Files and Department Files deal with the operations of these ensembles/departments during Goodrich’s tenure. The Facilities/Equipment folder includes a school directory listing the functions of rooms in the 290 Huntington Ave. building. In addition, there are Dean’s office files relating to student academic performance, as well as two files devoted to library matters.
There are several folders of materials, primarily dating from Goodrich’s service as Director Emeritus, that relate to NEC’s Funding and Endowment. These records document the establishment of several important funds, foundations, and prizes such as the Adamowski Estate, the Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund, the Charles Hayden Foundation, the Walter Naumburg Foundation, the Oliver Ditson Fund, the Paderewski Prize, and the Charles Warren Fund.
Goodrich’s Annual Reports to the Board of Trustees span from the academic years 1930-1931 through 1940-1941. Also included is a report from the Director to the Alumni (1932) and a pamphlet entitled “Degrees in Music”(1933).
The Subject Files are primarily of a historical nature and contain information concerning paintings (perhaps owned by the Conservatory during this period), instruments owned by or donated to NEC, and a Jordan Hall photo collection. Included is a catalog entitled “New England Conservatory: Collection of Musical Instruments” from January 1, 1915. In this book, the numbers given to each instrument are those that were assigned at the Chickering Exhibition of Musical Instruments, held in Boston in 1902. In 1947, Wallace Goodrich also composed a memoir, never published, of his time at the Conservatory. This memoir, entitled “Personal Recollections of the New England Conservatory of Music,” gives a detailed account of the administration, academic life, institutional affiliations, facilities, furnishings, funding, and instrument collections at the Conservatory from 1897, the year Goodrich was hired as a member of the organ faculty, until 1947.
External files primarily relate to Goodrich’s involvement with the Joint Commission on Church Music, Harvard University, and the Boston Opera Association/Metropolitan Opera Association. One folder also contains an article written by Goodrich published in the The Century Church Bulletin (December 1923) entitled “The Correlation of the Conservatory and the Training School in the Education of the Musical Leadership of the Church.” Lastly there is one folder of concert programs from the American Guild of Organists.
In addition, there is a group of approximately ninety newspaper/periodical photo clippings that were collected by Goodrich. Because the majority of people pictured in these clippings have last names beginning with the letters V-Z, it appears that this group of clippings may have been part of a much larger collection.
The next series of the Goodrich collection includes a group of approximately seventy photographs, the majority of which were donated to the Conservatory by members of the Goodrich family. These photographs are organized alphabetically according to the subject’s last name. Among the renowned musicians pictured in the photographs are: Josef Adamowski, Nadia Boulanger, George W. Chadwick, Gabriel Faure, Arthur Foote, Wilhelm Gericke, Franz Kneisel, Serge Koussevitzky, Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Arthur Nikisch, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and Charles Marie Widor. A number of the photographs are of opera singers from this period, including Georges Baklanoff, Geraldine Farrar, Kirsten Flagstad, Mary Garden, Myra Hess, Edward Johnson, Vanni Marcoux, Edith Mason-Polacco, Nellie Melba, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Fritzi Scheff, Milka Ternina, Kerstin Thorberg etc. Two certificates honoring Goodrich are also included. Item level inventories of the photographs and clippings which provide more detailed description are made available in our institutional repository.
There are at least 3 scrapbooks in this collection. One Is a memorial scrapbook that was assembled after Goodrich’s death in 1952. It contains biographies, obituaries, eulogies, letters of condolence , etc from New England Conservatory, other academic institutions, musical organizations and religious organizations. The others date from approximately 1903-1935. They feature newspaper articles (particularly concert reviews) and concert programs relating to Wallace Goodrich. There is also quite a bit of material documenting the early years of the Boston Opera Company.
Lastly there is one box of music manuscripts containing compositions by Wallace Goodrich.
Series 1: Correspondence, Professional
Box 1 – Folders 1-14
Correspondence, Professional, 1937-1940
Box 2 – Folders 1-21
Correspondence, Professional, 1941-1948 (as Director Emeritus, 1943-1948)
Box 3 – Folder 1-3
Correspondence, Professional, 1949-1952
Series 2: Correspondence, Faculty
Box 3 – Folder 4
Correspondence, Faculty, 1938-1939
Box 3 – Folder 5
Correspondence, Faculty, 1940
Box 3 – Folder 6
Correspondence, Faculty, 1941-1943
Box 3 – Folder 7
Correspondence, Faculty, 1944-1951
Series 3: Correspondence, Selected
Box 3 – Folder 8
Correspondence, Selected, General, A-B
Box 3 – Folder 9
Correspondence, Selected, General, C
Box 3 – Folder 10
Correspondence, Selected, General, F
Box 3 – Folder 11
Correspondence, Selected, General, G
Box 3 – Folder 12
Correspondence, Selected, General, H-J
Box 3 – Folder 13
Correspondence, Selected, General, K-L
Box 3 – Folder 14
Correspondence, Selected, General, M-N
Box 3 – Folder 15
Correspondence, Selected, General, P-R
Box 3 – Folder 16
Correspondence, Selected, General, S
Box 3 – Folder 17
Correspondence, Selected, General, T-Z
Box 3 – Folder 18
Correspondence, Selected, Philip Allen (Trustees, Chairman)
Box 3 – Folder 19
Correspondence, Selected, Geraldine Farrar, 1938-1940
Box 3 – Folder 20
Correspondence, Selected, Geraldine Farrar, 1941-1945
Box 3 – Folder 21
Correspondence, Selected, Geraldine Farrar, 1947-1951
Box 3 – Folder 22
Correspondence, Selected, Gertrude Norman
Box 3 – Folder 23
Correspondence, Selected, re: Goodrich’s arrangement of “Star Spangled Banner”
Box 3 – Folder 24
Correspondence, Selected, re: former NEC Directors
Box 3 – Folder 25
Correspondence, Selected, re: Woodward Estate
Series 4: Orchestra files
Box 4 – Folder 1
Orchestra records, 1939
Box 4 – Folder 2
Orchestra records, 1940-1941
Series 5: Department files
Box 4 – Folder 3
Facilities/Equipment, 1936-1949
Box 4 – Folder 4
Registrar, 1939
Box 4 – Folder 5
Student organizations/fraternity/sorority records, 1943-1945
Additional department files housed in Box 9
Series 6: Funding/Endowments
Box 4 – Folder 6
Adamowski Estate, 1943
Box 4 – Folder 7
Adamowski Estate, 1944-1946
Box 4 – Folder 8
Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, 1940-1949
Box 4 – Folder 9
Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, 1952
Box 4 – Folder 10
Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, January-March 1953 (after Goodrich’s death)
Box 4 – Folder 11
Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, April-Dec. 1953 (after Goodrich’s death)
Box 4 – Folder 12
Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund, 1940-1947
Box 4 – Folder 13
Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund, 1948-1952
Box 4 – Folder 14
Converse Foundation, 1944
Box 4 – Folder 15
Oliver Ditson Fund, 1941-1942
Box 4 – Folder 16
Charles Hayden Foundation, 1937-1940
Box 5 – Folder 1
Walter Naumburg Foundation, 1939-1945
Box 5 – Folder 2
Walter Naumburg Foundation, 1946
Box 5 – Folder 3
Walter Naumburg Foundation, 1948-1949
Box 5 – Folder 4
Walter Naumburg Foundation, 1950-1951
Box 5 – Folder 5
Paderewski Prize, 1932-1945
Box 5 – Folder 6
Paderewski Prize, 1946-1952
Box 5 – Folder 7
Rachmaninoff Fund, 1944-1949
Box 5 – Folder 8
Charles Warren Fund, 1946-1947
Box 5 – Folder 9
Conservatory Endowment/Foundation, 1938-1947
Box 5 – Folder 10
NEC Pension/Endowment Fund, January – August 1948
NEC Pension/Endowment Fund, September 1948-1950
Box 5 – Folder 12
Miscellaneous Gifts/Donations, 1939-1947
Series 7: Annual Reports
Box 5 – Folder 13
Annual Reports, 1931-32 – 1935-36
Box 5 – Folder 14
Annual Reports, 1936-37 – 1941-42
Series 8: Subject files
Box 5 – Folder 15
Conferences/Programs
Box 5 – Folder 16
Historical Information
Box 6 – Folder 1
Instruments/Gifts, 1915, 1938-1939
Box 6 – Folder 2
Instruments, 1940-1945
Box 6 – Folder 3
Instruments, 1946-1950
Box 6 – Folder 3a
Instruments – Organ
Box 6 – Folder 3b
Instruments – Cooke- “Landolfi” violin
Box 6 – Folder 3c
Instruments – Hamlin violin
Box 6 – Folder 3d
Instruments – Stainer viola
Box 6 – Folder 4
Jordan Hall Photo Collection
Box 6 – Folder 5
Paintings
Box 6 – Folder 5a
75th anniversary of NEC
Series 9: External files
Box 6 – Folder 6
Harvard University, 1939-1940
Box 6 – Folder 7
Harvard University, 1941-1942
Box 6 – Folder 8
Harvard University, 1943-1946
Box 6 – Folder 9
Harvard University, 1947
Box 6 – Folder 10
Harvard University, 1948-1949
Box 6 – Folder 11
Harvard University/Board of Overseers/Department of Music, 1939-1951
Box 6 – Folder 12
Harvard University – Department of Music
Box 6 – Folder 13
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1920-1922
Box 6 – Folder 14
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1923-1927, The Century Church Bulletin
Box 6 – Folder 15
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1928
Box 6 – Folder 16
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1929
Box 6 – Folder 17
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1930
Box 7 – Folder 1
Joint Commission on Church Music, January – June 1931
Box 7 – Folder 2
Joint Commission on Church Music, July – December 1931
Box 7 – Folder 3
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1932
Box 7 – Folder 4
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1933
Box 7 – Folder 5
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1934
Box 7 – Folder 6
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1935
Box 7 – Folder 7
Joint Commission on Church Music, 1937-1944
Box 7 – Folder 8
Metropolitan Opera Association / Boston Opera Assoc., January/February 1941
Box 7 – Folder 9
Metropolitan Opera Association / Boston Opera Association, March 1941
Box 7- Folder 10
Metropolitan Opera Association / Boston Opera Association, May-Dec.1941
Box 7- Folder 11
Metropolitan Opera Association / Boston Opera Association, 1942-1949
Series 10: Newspaper/Periodical Clippings
Box 7 – Folder 12
Newspaper clippings (photocopies)
Box 7 – Folder 13
Periodicals – Photo clippings, K, T-War
Box 7 – Folder 14
Periodicals – Photo clippings, Weber – Z
Series 11: Photographs
Box 8 – Folder 1
Photographs, A
Box 8 – Folder 2
Photographs, B
Box 8 – Folder 3
Photographs, C
Box 8 – Folder 4
Photographs, F
Box 8 – Folder 5
Photographs, G
Box 8 – Folder 6
Photographs, H
Box 8 – Folder 7
Photographs, J
Box 8 – Folder 8
Photographs, K
Box 8 – Folder 9
Photographs, M
Box 8 – Folder 10
Photographs, N-P
Box 8 – Folder 11
Photographs, R-S
Box 8 – Folder 12
Photographs, T
Box 8 – Folder 13
Photographs, V-W
Box 8 – Folder 14
Photographs, unknown
Box 8 – Folder 15
Negatives, slides
Box 8 – Folder 16
Certificates
Series 5: Department Files (continued)
Box 9 – Folder 1
Dean’s Office, Applications for Junior Exams, 1931-1932
Box 9 – Folder 2
Dean’s Office, Listings, Junior Exams, 1932
Box 9 – Folder 3
Dean’s Office, Applications to Senior Exams, 1932-1933
Box 9 – Folder 4
Dean’s Office, Examination Reports, 1933
Box 9 – Folder 5
Dean’s Office, Applications for Admission to Senior Exams, 1933-1934
Box 9 – Folder 6
Dean’s Office, Student Applications, 1932-1934
Box 9 – Folder 7
Dean’s Office, Individual Junior Exams, 1934
Box 9- Folder 8
Exam Reports, 1934
Box 9 – Folder 9
Library, 1939-1940
Box 9: Folder 11
Library, 1941-1950
Series 12: Scrapbooks
Box 9 – Memorial scrapbook
Box 10 – Scrapbooks
Series 13: Music manuscripts
Box 11 – Music manuscripts
