Papers (1975-2008, undated) of an organist and music professor at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, consisting of correspondence, doctoral thesis, seminar presentations, printed materials, handwritten research journal articles, clippings, and slides with images of medieval English Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Castles and depictions of musical instruments in them. The slides were taken during her six-month research sabbatical in Oxford, England, in 1982.
Dr. Jeanie Rebecca Little was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on May 15, 1943. She received her bachelor's degree in music from Lynchburg College in Virginia, her master's degree in music with an organ emphasis from Indiana University and held a Ph.D. in Organ Literature and Pedagogy from Iowa University. She taught organ, piano, counterpoint, music history, music appreciation and art appreciation at historically black and Baptist-affiliated Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, for 24 years (1967-1991). While at Virginia Union University, she did post-doctoral studies at Oxford University in 1982 during a sabbatical leave financed by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dr. Little was an active member of the American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society, and also a recognized scholar on Georgian England and medieval cathedral architecture. She married Capt. Ernest C. Castle, USN, retired, on August 3, 1991. On Tuesday, September 9, 2008, Dr. Jeanie R. Little Castle died of cancer in Richmond, Virginia.
The bulk of the collection pertains to the research that Jeanie R. Little conducted while in Oxford, England, during a six-month sabbatical in 1982 from her job as a music professor at Virginia Union University. Her research related to the depiction of musical instruments in medieval English cathedrals and abbeys. Jeanie documented her findings through notes, a diary, and slides that she later used when creating a Catalogue of Research Conducted on Cathedrals and Abbeys in England. There are about 1,280 35mm slide images that show Cathedrals (and Misericords in their choir stalls), Abbeys, other church structures, and castles located in England.
This collection also consists of letters written by Dr. Jeanie R. Little to her sister Martha Elmore and husband Mickey, and to her brother Paul Little and wife Marjorie during her 1982 stay at Oxford, England. In these letters, she describes her work researching at the Bodleian Library, photographing cathedrals, and travels to Cirencester, Gloucester, Brighton, Arundel Castle, Merton College, Ely, Peterborough, Norwich and York. She also describes living in the YMCA in Oxford, and gives her impressions of the English people she meets and aspects of daily life in England. The diary she kept also included accounts for all her expenses encountered during the sabbatical.
Seminars Jeanie participated in and papers she wrote based on her research into "The Use and Meaning of Musical Instruments in Medieval English Cathedrals and Abbeys," and clippings related to her death are also part of the collection.
June 13, 2023, (addition 2), 2.5 cubic feet; This addition (1975-1999) includes research notes, slides, and floppy discs related to Dr. Little's research (1982-1984) on the depiction of musical elements (especially on misericords) in cathedrals and abbeys in England. A good bit of this research was done while she was on a sabbatical to do post-doctoral studies at Oxford University in England in 1982. Also included are her doctoral thesis, several seminar presentations and a diary kept while she was in England in 1982. Donor: Martha G. Elmore.
Gift of Mrs. Martha G. Elmore
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Processed by Jonathan Dembo and& Cathryn E. Trew April 2010
Processed by Ashlyn Racine June 2023
Revised by Martha Elmore October 2023
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
42 floppy disks included.
Labeled Apple Works - The Apple II