The papers contain documentation of Coates' formative years in the United States, primarily from 1946 to 1969. They consist of materials from her high school and college years in Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as documentation of her theater and music activities in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York, and her marriage and subsequent career in Louisiana. Documentation of her life and career in Germany after 1969 is limited to a cassette tape containing two live performances, a commercially-produced disc, and posters advertising musical events with which she was associated. In addition to these recorded performances the collection includes sheet music for four brief youthful compositions. Although much of the remaining documentation in the SHSW collection is only associational memorabilia, Coates has provided many annotations that denote the meaning and importance of the items. More information on Coates' career and activities in Germany, where she is better known, can be found at Columbia University, in the Moldenhauer Archives at Harvard University, and at the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center.
The papers are arranged as GENERAL FILES and GEOGRAPHIC FILES. The second series is subdivided into files on Coates' activities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Germany. This arrangement is loosely chronological.
The GENERAL materials consist of documentation that cuts across the events of Coates' life or that is not associated with her residence in one specific place. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, ephemera, information about Roland Kannenberg, photographs, a scrapbook, sheet music for an unidentified musical composition, and a sketchbook.
The biographical material includes an annotated draft of an article by Jane Weinter LePage that appeared in Volume 3 of Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century: Selected Biographies in 1988. There is also some limited discography, a list of first performance dates, and other materials of a similar nature.
The correspondence includes incoming personal correspondence from friends and teachers as well as family members. The letters are concentrated in her early college years, approximately 1951-1953, when she was traveling, taking instruction at many schools, studying with different teachers, and participating in different theater activities. The letters seldom contain information about her musical or artistic interests, and they are usually personal in character. An exception is the correspondence of Elizabeth Silverthorn (died 1976), Coates' voice teacher in Wausau. These letters (about ten in all, 1951-1953) cover a wide range of subjects and include advice on schooling and music, as well as boys and other interests typical of a teenage girl. Other frequent correspondents include Val Kryshuk, a high school sweetheart, and Sudad Babar, her college sweetheart. Family correspondence includes letters from her immediate family as well as a few from more distant relatives. The letters from Roland Kannenberg are short and concentrate on inconsequential matters, such as her financial needs. There is no information on his important political career. (The separately foldered material about her father is scant and includes only a few newspaper clippings and memorabilia.) On the other hand, the letters from her mother are more personal and informative.
The scrapbook documents Coates' high school and college years, as well as some experience in summer stock. It features original illustrations along with writings, photos, ephemera, and newspaper clippings. Because of its artistic and artifactual qualities, the original scrapbook is available in the SHSW Visual Materials Archive, with a photocopy housed with the papers. The slim file on her association with UW-Madison include notices for a lecture and a master class as well as letters of endorsement including one from Otto Luening, apparently solicited in association with this aspect of her career.
Photographs corresponding to this section include portraits and candid photographs of Gloria and her family. One group of photographs concerns a ceremony of the Order of Job's Daughters in Wausau at which Gloria was the honored queen. The original photographs are housed in the Visual Materials Archive in Madison, with a complete photocopied set with the papers.
Within the GEOGRAPHIC FILES, the Wisconsin materials primarily document Coates' life in Wausau, including her education and early involvement in music and theater. Included is “Fantastic Dream,” an artwork painted by Coates at age 13 for her father, an artist's sketchbook, educational memorabilia, and newspaper clippings from the Skyrocket by and about Gloria. (The Girl Scout friendship book originally in this folder has been separated to the Girl Scouts collection in the SHSW Visual Materials Ephemera File.) This section documents her involvement in writing and theater, although more material about her theatrical activities during high school can be found in the scrapbook described in GENERAL FILES. The materials about music filed here include an award and judges' rating sheets from National Federation of Music Clubs competitions, 1948-1951, and a poster advertising the Northwoods Music Festival in Mercer, Wisconsin, at which Coates and her sister Natalie performed. Also here are materials about her study at the Wisconsin College of Music, 1952-1953, which include several greeting cards from Nene Baalstad and a recital program containing additional information about Baalstad.
The Illinois files document her association with the Chicago Stage Guild Summer Theater and her years at Monticello College, Godfrey, Illinois, where she continued her theatrical and musical training. Of particular interest is an engagement calendar that Coates used as a diary of sorts in 1951-1952. Also included are memorabilia, a school song by Coates, schedule cards, and writings. The Chicago Stage Guild file contains audition information and an annotated script for the Midwestern premiere of On Monday Next in which Gloria performed under the name Gloria Kannen.
The Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New York materials consist almost exclusively of documentation of theatrical activities such as annotated scripts, playbills, correspondence, and memorabilia. (Participation in the Brookside Playhouse in Pennsylvania and the Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina are also included in the theater scrapbook mentioned above.) Of special note is a mimeographed script and sheet music from the off-Broadway musical Dakota, in which Gloria played the lead. The New York materials also include newspaper clippings concerning her marriage to Francis M. Coates, Jr., which took place in New York.
The Louisiana files contain some of the best documentation of her career as a composer, although even these materials cannot be considered complete. Here are scripts, playbills, clippings, memorabilia, and a music composition notebook (with the instructor's corrections and comments) from her study at Louisiana State University. Of special interest are the favorable acting reviews of LSU productions by Rex Reed. Original compositions represented here include sheet music for the Baton Rouge Little Theater (Overture to Saint Joan and Thieves Carnival) and Five Abstractions. These files also document some of her non-musical activities in Louisiana, such as her participation in the Baton Rouge Little Theater and various church and children's productions. The documentation of her writings as an art, music, and drama critic for the State-Times consists of newspaper clippings and a fan letter. Since her husband was a lawyer with a prominent firm, Coates participated in many social events in Baton Rouge and these activities are similarly documented by clippings and memorabilia.
The material on her life in Germany is only a small part of the extant historical documentation about her career in that country. Coates has deposited other primary materials for ll part of the extant historical documentation about her career in that country. Coates has deposited other primary materials for this period at Columbia University, in the Moldenhauer Archives at Harvard University, and at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. More information on these collections can be found in the Coates Case File. The SHSW collection includes 24 posters spanning the years 1972 to 1985. They document performances of Coates' own compositions as well as events she produced in Germany. Some of the posters possibly relate to the German-American Contemporary Music Series in Munich which she produced and organized. Also included is a cassette tape of live performances of two compositions: Sinfonietta della Notte, performed by the Swedish Orchestra and conducted by Leif Segerstam in 1982, and Music on Open Strings, performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Elgar Howarth in 1980, and a commercially-produced disc containing the same performance of Music on Open Strings with a 1983 performance by the Kronos Quartet of her String Quartets, Nos. 1, 2, and 4, composed between 1966 and 1976. The record jacket for this disc recording is illustrated with a painting by Coates.
