The John Ella Collection

Details

This item is described in 1 online catalogue.?

For the main catalogue entry, see: Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

Description

From Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

This is an extract only. For more information, see the catalogue record in Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts.

Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts contains descriptions of the Bodleian Libraries’ archival collections, including post-1500 manuscripts. Some manuscripts with records in other catalogues are also described here as part of a description of a larger archive. Learn more.

Title

The John Ella Collection

Shelfmark

MSS. Ella 1-36, 38-163

Summary

Archive of the Victorian violinist, concert manager and author John Ella (1802-1888).

Date

[c 1820]-2002

Language

English

Physical extent

2.86 Linear metres

162 physical shelfmarks

Custodial history

As far as is known, the materials in the collection were, with a few exceptions (all indicated), in Ella's possession during his lifetime.

After Ella's death, the collection passed into the possession of the family of a cousin, Ella Harley, and thereafter (during the 1950s) was saved from destruction by the remarkable antiquarian-scholar John Ravell, who took possession of the materials and used them for his own research, annotating the collection and pasting in materials such as research notes as he worked. His short sketch of Ella's life in Music & Letters (1953), was for a long time the only secondary scholarship on Ella.

It was at John Ravell's house in north London in the late 1980s that Christina Bashford first consulted the materials in connection with her research on Ella and chamber music concerts in London, and became closely acquainted with Mr Ravell. The Ella papers were moved to Oxford from London in December 1995 and, according to John Ravell's wishes, were placed under John Wagstaff's curatorship at the Faculty of Music Library for her exclusive use, so that she could complete her research with ease and work on a full-length biography of Ella. The completion of the book was facilitated by an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Board in 2003-4. Once she had finished the book, the materials were to be made available for wider public consultation.

Acquisition

Transferred from the Faculty of Music, 2005.

Subject

Musicians -- Correspondence

Music

19th century

Composers -- Correspondence

Concerts -- England -- London -- 19th century

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Connections

People associated with this object

Ella, John, 1802–1888