Ruth Dabney Smith scrapbooks
Scope and Content
This collection consists of four scrapbooks kept by Ruth Dabney Smith as a young musician in Atlanta, Georgia. The earliest scrapbook consists of programs of concerts and performances she attended. The majority of the other three scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings regarding Smith, her family and friends, her students, and musical performances.
Dates
- 1907-1958
Creator
- Smith, Ruth Dabney (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. All requests to publish, quote, or reproduce must be submitted through the Kenan Research Center.
Administrative/Biographical History
Ruth Dabney Smith, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, was the daughter of John W. Smith and Ruth Heywood. Smith was musically talented, being educated at Washington Seminary (Atlanta, Ga.), the Chicago Musical College (Illinois), where she was a student in 1926, Syracuse University (New York), from which she received a bachelor's degree in music in 1934, and the Juilliard Summer School (New York, New York). Smith performed numerous piano and violin recitals in Atlanta with her first professional performance being in the spring of 1929. Smith was a violin instructor at Washington Seminary (Atlanta, Ga.), Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Ga.), Bessie Tift College (Forsyth, Ga.), and Transylvania Music School Camp (Brevard, North Carolina). She also instructed many children in private violin lessons, having the children perform public recitals. She also shared her interest in music with a much wider audience by writing articles for the North Side Home News, a neighborhood newspaper in Atlanta. Smith was also involved when the Atlanta Philharmonic Society was organized in October 1931 as the Amateurs' Symphony and Choral Society, in which she participated as a member of the string quartet. She remained with the society until the mid-1950s as concertmaster of the orchestra and as first violin. In 1935 Smith also performed a solo with the Buckhead Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Enrico Leide. In 1952 Smith married Roger Wolcott Allen, and in the late 1950s she performed with the Marietta Community Orchestra.
Extent
3 linear ft. (2 oversized boxes)
Language
English
System of Arrangement
This collection is arranged chronologically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, 1996
Description Control
This collection was processed in 2013.
- Amateurs' Symphony and Choral Society (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Associations, institutions, etc. -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Atlanta Junior Music Club (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Atlanta Music Club (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Atlanta Philharmonic Society (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Buckhead Symphony Orchestra (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Linder, Georg F.
- Music -- Performance
- Music -- Societies, etc.
- Music teachers -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Sheets, Walter
- Smith, Ruth Dabney
- Taylor, Hazel
- Washington Seminary (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Title
- Ruth Dabney Smith scrapbooks
- Author
- Josh Hogan
- Date
- July 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository