Chas A. Arthur Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MUSIC-069

Collection Overview

Abstract

Collection containing one piece of corrspondence between Chas Arthur and his brother as well as manuscripts for Arthur's songs and instrumental pieces written in the 1940s.

Dates

  • Creation: 1941-1945

Extent

1 Boxes

Creator

Scope and Contents

The collecction contains pubblished and unpublished copies of Arthur's compositions, including published copies of Drums of War, compositional notes, and several handwritten manuscripts of scores including songs like Britus Chirus march, Sweet Isabel march, Red Dawn, and Red Sunset, among others. In addition, there is a single piece of correspondence that references manuscripts between Arthur and his brother William. A published copy of Heartbreak Girl, not composed by Arthur, was kept with the collection.

Biographical / Historical

Composer Charles (Chas) Adril Arthur was born in the 1890s in Michigan. Arthur had some commercial success with his compositions, particularly with his popular song “I cannot be as happy as I was a year ago (because my daddy's sleeping over there),” published in 1919. In the early 1920’s Arthur and his brother William started a music publishing company named Arthur Bros. based out of Detroit, MI. In 1943, Arthur resided at Camp Alpena, a camp established during the Great Depression to assist unemployed single men. While living at Camp Alpena, Arthur got his music published through Chicago based company Rayner Dalheim & Co.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Score manuscripts arranged alphabetically.

Related Materials

Any additional published sheet music by Arthur is described in the BGSU Libraries catalog.

Title
Guide to the Chas A. Arthur Papers
Date
2022
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin