Title: Julius A. Klauser and Adeline T. Ricker Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1876-1939

Creators:

• Klauser, Julius, 1854-1907
• Ricker, Adeline T., 1859-1945

Call Number: Local History Manuscript Collection 28

Quantity: 0.5 cubic ft. (2 boxes)

Repository:

Milwaukee Public Library, Frank P. Zeidler Room

Archival Location:

Milwaukee Public Library (Map)

Abstract:

This collection relates to the careers of musicians and music teachers Julius Klauser and Adeline T. Ricker. They were involved with classical instrumental music performance and education in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between the late 1870s and the late 1920s.

Note:

To request materials from this collection, create/login to your Special Collections Account.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.mwpl-lhmc0028

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Julius Klauser, born in 1854, spent his early years in New York City, where his father, German émigré Karl Klauser, was musical director at Miss Porter’s Young Ladies School, Farmington, Connecticut. Julius Klauser relocated to Milwaukee in the early 1870’s to commence his own career as a musician, music teacher, and music theorist. Klauser became musical director of the subscription musical performance series Euphonia shortly after it was formed circa 1875 and was involved with the organization into the early 1880’s. Lizzie Eldred, one of the organizers of Euphonia and daughter of prominent Wisconsin lumber miller Anson Eldred, became Klauser’s wife during this period.

By 1882, Klauser had begun a music instruction practice in Milwaukee that would continue intermittently for the next twenty-five years. Regular public recitals by his pupils began in 1882 and would remain a significant feature of his pedagogy for the remainder of his career. Klauser became a prominent musical theorist in this period as well, with the publication in 1890 of his book The Septonate and the Centralization of the Tonal System. Two years later, in 1892, Klauser expanded his music instruction practice by establishing the Klauser Music Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which featured a full faculty of music instructors as well as public recitals by students until its dissolution in 1896.

After a two-year sojourn touring Europe with his family, Klauser resumed his individual music instruction practice in 1898. Klauser’s life and career was cut short by his unexpected death in April of 1907. A second book on music theory written by Klauser, The Nature of Music: Original Harmony in One Voice (edited by Lizzie Eldred Klauser), was published posthumously in 1909.

Adeline T. Ricker began her association with Julius Klauser as his student in the early1880’s. She performed in recitals for Euphonia in 1880 and as Klauser’s pupil throughout the 1880’s and early 1890’s. Ricker became a faculty member at the Klauser Music Institute and taught as a colleague of Klauser’s between 1892 and 1896. She was instrumental in organizing a memorial concert in Klauser’s honor in 1908 and was active in the MacDowell Club, another Milwaukee music performance organization, in the 1910s and early1920s. By the mid-1910s, Ricker had established her own individual music instruction practice, with her own students holding occasional public recitals between 1916 and 1928.

This collection consists of materials relating to the careers of musicians and music teachers Julius Klauser and Adeline T. Ricker. They were involved in classical instrumental music performance and education in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between the late 1870s and the late 1920s. The bulk of the items in the collection are music recital programs for public performances throughout the careers of Klauser and Ricker. Also included are materials relating to their teaching careers, programs for recitals by Milwaukee music performance organizations Euphonia and the MacDowell Club, and memorial items relating to Klauser’s death in 1907. The collection is organized into two areas: Julius A. Klauser, 1876-1907 and Adeline T. Ricker, 1882-1939.

The Klauser materials relate to the musical performances and teaching career of Julius Klauser and the collection consists of a mounted picture of Julius Klauser, (not dated); engraved documents relating to the creation of Euphonia and recital programs for Euphonia’s thirteen “Soiree Musicale” programs held between 1876 and 1881; programs for recitals by the faculty and pupils of the Klauser Music Institute, including additional announcements and documents related to the Institute, (1892-1896); programs for recitals by the pupils of Julius Klauser from the first period during which Klauser offered individual musical instruction in Milwaukee, including the program for a recital given by Klauser himself in 1885, (1882-1895); and programs for recitals by the pupils of Julius Klauser from the second period during which Klauser offered individual organized musical instruction (ending with his death in 1907), including a few additional programs for recitals not directly related to Klauser’s pupils, (1899-1907).

The Adeline T. Ricker collection contains materials from her musical performances and teaching career, however, because Ricker was first a student and later a teaching colleague of Klauser’s, there is some duplication of materials between the two collections. The contents of the Ricker collection include programs for recitals by the pupils of Julius Klauser, similar to those in the Klauser collection, (1882-1892); programs for recitals, similar to those in the Klauser collection, by the faculty and pupils of the Klauser Music Institute, of which Ricker was a faculty member, (1892-1896); programs for recitals by the pupils of Julius Klauser from the last period of his career, similar to those in the Klauser collection, (1899-1907); Julius Klauser Memorial Items, including eulogies, condolence letters, and items relating to a 1908 memorial recital given by some of Klauser’s former students (including Ricker), (1907-1908); and programs for recitals by the pupils of Adeline T. Ricker; advertising and informational materials for Ricker’s music instruction services, and additional assorted recital programs, (1916-1928), as well as programs for recitals held under the auspices of the MacDowell Club, several of which featured Adeline Ricker as a musician, (1913-1925). In addition to the recital programmes, other materials included in the Ricker collection are Klauser Music Institute historical materials, Klauser biographical information, and a letter written by Ricker to Klauser’s wife, Lizzie Eldred Klauser, attached to a recital programme referring to the performance of a musical piece that she and Klauser had performed in a Euphonia recital in 1881.

The subjects are arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within each folder.

Klauser, Julius A. and Adeline T. Ricker Papers, 1876-1939, Collection 28. Local History Manuscript Collections, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Nature of Music; Original Harmony in One Voice

The Septonate And The Centralization Of The Tonal System; A New View Of The Fundamental Relations Of Tones And A Simplification Of The Theory And Practice Of Music, With An Introduction On A Higher Education In Music

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on the materials. The collection is open to all in accordance with state law. The public may view Local History Manuscript Collections by appointment at the Central Library. To request an in-person appointment, create/login to your Special Collections Account. If you have any questions, please contact the Archives and Special Collections Department at mplarchives@milwaukee.gov.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

Acquisition Information

No acquisition information is currently available for this collection. Materials were accessioned as Local History Manuscripts.

Processing Information

Processed by Christofer Meissner, Archives Intern, 2007. Rearranged by Casey Lapworth, 2019.

	Adeline T. Ricker
Box   1 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1939
Box   1 Folder   2	Lectures on Beethoven, undated
Box   1 Folder   3	Recital Programs & miscellaneous, 1919-1928
Box   2 Folder   3	Scrapbook, 1896-1916
Box   1 Folder   4	Euphonia – Membership Invitation, circa 1876
Box   1 Folder   5	Euphonia – Soiree Musicale Programs, 1876-1881
Box   1 Folder   6	Memorials, 1907-1908
Box   1 Folder   7	Photograph, undated
Box   1 Folder   8-13	Recital Programs - Klauser Music Institute, 1882-1899
Box   1 Folder   14	Recital Programs - Milwaukee Concerts, 1877-1881
Box   1 Folder   15	Recital Programs - Miscellaneous, 1899
Box   1 Folder   16	Recital Programs - Miss Porter’s Young Ladies School, 1883
Box   1 Folder   17-18	Recital Programs - students, 1899-1907
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Recital Programs - students, 1899-1907