The Cook Music Library’s special collections preserve and highlight unique and diverse resources that document musical creativity, performance, and scholarship across history. These holdings include 19th-century first and early editions of orchestral, chamber, and operatic works; theory treatises from the Renaissance through the 19th century; and extensive collections representing Russian and Soviet music, Black and Latin American traditions, and early keyboard and violin repertoires.

The library also curates several distinctive sound recording collections, such as the Jussi Björling Collection—the world’s largest gathering of the Swedish tenor’s recordings—and the Ross Allen and Alvin Ehret collections of vocal and operatic repertoire, which together preserve thousands of historically significant performances. Ranging from rare scores and historical editions to unique sound archives, the materials we collect and make available offer researchers, performers, and students’ extraordinary opportunities to engage directly with primary sources that document a significant span of musical history.

Represented here are the types of special collections the Music Library holds, along with examples. Additional collection descriptions can be accessed at ArchivesOnline; for further information about undescribed materials, please contact mlref@iu.edu.