Janet Mabon scrapbook
Online Access
Available digital items: https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/collections/MP002701
Abstract
Entitled, "My Memory Book of Musical Experiences," this scrapbook was kept by Janet Mabon (1904–1965), a voice student at the David Mannes Music School from 1923 to 1925. The scrapbook contains black and white photographs of Mabon, her friends, and her voice teacher, Giulio Silva; concert and recital programs; school progress reports; press clippings; and correspondence.
Dates
- 1922-1927
Creator
- Mabon, Janet, 1904-1965 (Compiler, Person)
Extent
.4 Cubic Feet (1 small flat box and 2 folders)
Language of Materials
English
Italian
French
Content Description
This collection consists of one leather bound scrapbook entitled, "My Memory Book of Musical Experiences," containing black and white photographs, concert programs, correspondence, pressed flowers, and other items related to the student career and musical activities of Janet Mabon (1904–1965), a voice student at the David Mannes Music School in the 1920s. There are also additional pages of another scrapbook from Mabon's post-graduation years. The scrapbook contains several photographs of Giulio Silva, a member of the early voice faculty at the David Mannes School of Music, as well as Mabon and other students of Silva on various excursions, progress reports signed by David and Clara Mannes, correspondence and congratulatory cards, and photographs of notable sopranos of the era.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.
Conditions Governing Use
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives and Special Collections. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Biographical Note
Janet Mabon (born 1904, Norfolk, Connecticut–died February 15, 1965, Bad Godesburg, Germany) was an operatic mezzo-soprano and socialite. She was the daughter of banker James B. Mabon, who served as president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1912 to 1914, and was a trustee of the David Mannes Music School in the 1930s. Starting in 1923, Janet Mabon initially studied violin as well as voice at the David Mannes Music School, later pursuing studies in composition with Rosario Scalero and in voice with Giulio Silva, graduating with a diploma in singing in 1925. On December 14th of that year, Mabon gave a song recital in the concert hall of the Mannes Music School.
Mabon gave her New York debut recital on April 6, 1927 at Aeolian Hall, a notice of which is briefly mentioned in the diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Mabon was associated with the American Opera Company, which existed from 1924 until its dissolution in 1930 during the Great Depression, appearing in an English language production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in February of 1928.
That same month, Mabon married banker Charles Sterling Bunnell in a small ceremony. The two were divorced, however, in 1933, and she married William W. Schott, an American Foreign Service officer later that year, after which the couple moved to Mexico, where Schott was posted. Schott served in postings at American embassies in Mexico, France, Hungary, Morocco, Greece, and Germany before his retirement in 1956. The couple eventually settled in Bad Godesberg, Germany, where Mabon died in 1965. Schott died there in 1981.
References
“American Opera Singers to Present ‘Carmen.’” Daily Worker, February 11, 1928, 4. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1980102062/D50C8CC20317491BPQ/39?accountid=12261&sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers.
Course Catalogs. “Mannes College of Music.” College of Performing Arts Course Catalog Collection. 1916-2006. The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.
“Deaths.” Foreign Service Journal, April 1982, 37. https://afsa.org/sites/default/files/fsj-1982-04-april_0.pdf.
“Deaths.” Foreign Service Journal, May 1965, 2. https://afsa.org/sites/default/files/fsj-1965-05-may_0.pdf.
“James Mabon Dies; Exchange Ex-Head.” New York Times, March 11, 1941. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/03/11/85255283.pdf.
“Janet M. Bunnell Wed to Diplomat: Civil Marriage to William Walter Schott Takes Place Here.” New York Times, November 7, 1933, 30. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/11/07/90651096.html?pageNumber=30.
Janet Mabon scrapbook, MP.0027.01, 1922-1927. New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.
“Janet Mabon, Singer, Weds C.S. Bunnell: New York Society Girl, a Member of American Opera Company, Marries Yale Graduate.” New York Times, February 3, 1928. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/03/issue.html.
“Janet Mabon Makes Debut: Mezzo-Soprano Sings to Brilliant Audience at Aeolian Hall.” New York Times, April 7, 1927, 22. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/04/07/99395180.html?pageNumber=22.
“Marriages.” The American Foreign Service Journal X, no. 12, (December 1933: 436). https://afsa.org/sites/default/files/fsj-1933-12-december_0.pdf.
Millay, Edna St. Vincent. Daniel Mark Epstein, ed. Rapture and Melancholy: The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Yale University Press: 2022.
Arrangement
Additional scrapbook pages are housed in separate folders with other pages from the same scrapbooks.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The scrapbook and additional pages were mailed to Andrew Joulas at the Scherman Library of Mannes College of Music in 2014 by Daphne Holzman, the niece of Janet Mabon, with a letter describing Mabon and her relationship to the Mannes School of Music. Mabon had no children, and her niece inherited her scrapbooks and photo albums after her death.
Condition Description
Pages in the scrapbook are yellowed but mostly intact. The additional pages are separated and no longer adhering to one another. Photographs for the most part are firmly attached to the pages and in good condition.
- Art music (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Conservatories of music (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Correspondence (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographs (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Scrapbooks (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Janet Mabon scrapbook
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jason Adamo
- Date
- April 24, 2024
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin