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Headshot of composer Ada Richter in a blouse with a ruffled neck and dark jacket looking sweetly toward the camera.
Publicity photograph of composer and arranger Ada Richter, circa 1930. Photographer unknown. Box/folder 1461/20, Theodore Presser Company Archive, Music Division, Library of Congress.

Women of the Lost Generation in the Theodore Presser Company Archive

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The following is a guest post by Archivist Jane Cross, who joined the Library of Congress Music Division in the Fall of 2019.

When I began processing the Theodore Presser publishing company’s archive last October, I quickly encountered holograph scores and printer’s proofs of many well-known composers in this vast and wide-ranging collection. I was excited to see works by Amy Beach, Chen Yi, Henry Hadley, William Schuman and John Philip Sousa. But some names that were new to me kept recurring among the pallets of music. Who was Ada Richter? Anna Priscilla Risher? Louise Stairs? Lily Strickland? 

No one jumped out at me more than Ada Richter. I saw her name repeatedly, both as a composer and as an arranger. And each time I handled yet another one of her pieces, my curiosity grew. I learned that Richter was born in 1900, and in addition to publishing under her own name, she also worked under the pseudonyms Hugh Arnold, Eileen Gail, and Wilma Moore. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Theodore Presser published Richter’s music, most of which was teaching material for children, with titles such as “Caterpillar Ride,” “Hippity Hoppity Hop-Toad,” and “More Stunts for the Piano.” She died in 1988. My work with Richter’s music led me to wonder about other women of her era whose names I noticed in the collection.

Excerpt of Anna Priscilla Risher’s holograph score for piano titled “In Remembrance.” Copyright 1942, Theodore Presser Company. Box/folder 603/8, Theodore Presser Company Archive, Music Division, Library of Congress.

I wasn’t familiar with Anna Priscilla Risher (1875-1946) until the Music Division received a reference inquiry about her works in the Presser archive. When I pulled together a list of her compositions that we had located so far, I was surprised to see just how many there were, including her Easter cantata He Lives, the King of Kings. Interestingly, Risher had once taught the more widely known George Wakefield Cadman, whose works also appear in the Presser archive.

The plethora of music composed by Louise E. Stairs and Lily Strickland was most apparent when I sorted all of the music by composers with last names starting with “s.” Although Peter Schickele (aka P. D. Q. Bach) and Ralph Shapey were the most prolific of the “s” composers, Stairs and Strickland also stacked up impressively. While Louise Stairs (1892-1975) composed many works in the collection, she also did some arranging, and at times worked under the name Sidney Forrest – not to be confused with the celebrated clarinetist of the same name. Stairs was active with Presser from the 1930s through the 1950s. Lily Strickland was born a few years before her, in 1884, and published music with Presser from the mid-1920s through the late 1940s that includes primarily songs and her children’s operetta “Out of the Sea.” She died in 1958.

Annotated publisher’s proof of “Out of the Sea,” children’s operetta by Lily Strickland and Ethel Watts Mumford. Box/folder 1359/4, Theodore Presser Company Archive, Music Division.

It wasn’t until I considered the four composers together that I realized the many similarities they shared. Though they were daughters of the Gilded Age, they were moreover a part of the so-called Lost Generation, usually defined as those born between the early 1880s and 1900 and who came of age in the first two decades of the twentieth century. This placed their composing and publishing activities squarely in the decades defined by both the Great Depression and World War II. As teaching was one of the few professions available to women of the era, it did not surprise me that their medium was largely educational music – songs and method books for young beginners. They also composed and arranged sacred music, including hymns, anthems, and cantatas. I was impressed that this quartet expanded their reach beyond their own pews and students; through publications of their works, they influenced future generations of musicians. As thrilled as I was to see scores and correspondence by more recent women composers including Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Shulamit Ran, and Melinda Wagner in the collection, I was equally glad to become acquainted with the contributions of this earlier generation.

The music of many generations of composers and arrangers from 1814 to 2019 is now available for research in the Theodore Presser Company Archive.

Comments (3)

  1. Another reason why libraries, all libraries, matter. Thank you for introducing us to these extraordinary women of the lost generation in the Theodore Presser Company Archive. Everyday is women’s history day!

  2. This is a great Blog. It is wonderful learning about the part women played in the music world.

    • Thanks kindly for your positive feedback. I’m passing along all of the appreciative comments to archivist Jane Cross, who authored the blog post and, with the processing team, readied the Presser collection for public access.

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