The correspondence in this subseries dates from Emma Thursby's days at music school in Pennsylvania as a young girl, and continues until a few days before her death. Her letters to her family from her travels abroad detail her musical education, career, and burgeoning social life on the European continent. Letters to friends such as Sara Bull and her cousin Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Bennett Comfort also contain thoughts on her life outside her career, and philosophical interests such as Eastern religion.

Letters from pupils attest to Emma Thursby's popularity as a voice teacher. These letters, most of which are mainly devoted to requesting or confirming dates of lessons, were foldered separately at the time of the accession of the collection, and so have been kept segregated from the other correspondence. Many of Emma Thursby's voice students went on to become operatic or concert stars in their own right; correspondence from these women is contained in Series 6, Subject and Biographical Information; Subseries 1, Emma Thursby. Emma and/or Ina Thursby seems to have kept a file on each of these women, evidenced by the number of clippings and programs kept with these women's correspondence.

General alphabetical files of correspondence include letters from the following people: Edward Bok, Ole Bull, President Grover Cleveland and family, Count Chinda, Isadora Duncan, P.S. Gilmore, Percy Grainger, Phoebe Hearst, Mrs. Warren Harding, Herman Marcuse, Julia Marlowe, Kate Willard Parker, John D. Rockefeller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Nicola Tesla, Mark Twain, David Todd, and [Swami] Vivekananda. Letters date from Emma Thursby's entire career, and are both letters of adulation as well as personal correspondence. Performers and pupils represented are Regina Arta (aka Emma Loeffler,) Dula Drake, Emma Eames, Blanche Marchesi, Emma Nevada Palmer, Duchess de Richelieu, Erminia Rudersdorff, and Maurice Strakosch and family. Corresponding institutions (often letters of thanks for concerts given) include Bushwick Reformed Church, Etude magazine, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Musician magazine, Old Bushwick Church, Peabody House for Aged and Indigent Women, and Plymouth Church.

Many letters are addressed to both Emma and Ina Thursby. These letters, as well as those addressed to "Miss Thursby" have been filed in this subseries, unless clearly identified (based on information in the letter or on original envelope housing) to belong to Ina Thursby.

The four volumes are red cases labeled "A -- G," "H -- M," "N -- R," and "S -- Z" and contain letters written to Emma Thursby between 1871 and 1910. These letters were item-level cataloged at the time of their accession; a complete listing is available at the reference desk. Some of the correspondents included here (Edward Bok, Sara Bull, Olea Bull, Sarah Farmer, Patrick Gilmore, May Jackson, Jeannie Ovington, Maurice Strakosch, Maggie Van Cott, and [Swami] Vivekananda) also are represented in Boxes 1 -- 5. However, most of these letters were from one-time correspondents. The topics range from thanks given for complimentary concert tickets, to sympathy at the death of Thursby family members.

General alphabetical correspondence files contain letters from Ralph Bartlett, May Jackson, Charles Schwab, and David Todd. Former pupils and associates of Emma's included are Peggy Green (Princess Viggo,) Meta Reddish, Duchess de Richelieu, Amalia Strakosch, Geraldine Ferrar, and Emma Nevada Palmer. Much of the general correspondence letters are condolences to Ina upon the death of Emma Thursby. Ina also planned many memorial events for Emma, including the installation of a mosaic at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; many letters address these projects.

In 1903, both Emma and Ina Thursby made many friends in Japan with whom they corresponded for years. Letters from Japanese friends in this series discuss visits and friend Kakuzo Okakura's work establishing an Eastern Art wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Letters to family members, especially Alice and her brothers, give great detailed accounts of Ina's first trip with Emma to Europe in 1880 -- 1882.

Consists of letters from Alice Thursby to her aunt Mary C. Moore and to her brothers Louis and John Thursby during her time abroad with Emma. Also contains letters written by Alice to her parents from her time at the Moravian Seminary. Letters to Alice are mainly condolences on the death of her mother.

Contains correspondence to Jane B. Thursby from her son Louis while he was vacationing in Florida, and a business letter about a monetary settlement granted her.

Contains letters written between John B. Thursby and his mother Hannah, and brother Samuel, mainly during his trip to France and England just before his death in 1859. Also includes letters written about Emma's musical education, and about John B. Thursby's career.

Contains letters from Louis Thursby to John J. Thursby and a letter to Samuel Thursby from the United States Consulate in London informing him of the death of his brother John B. Thursby.

Contains letters written to the Mynah bird owned by Emma and Ina Thursby, generally thank you notes to him for entertaining visiting children.

This subseries is made up of letters that are not to or from any of the principal members of the Thursby family, as above. People for whom more than ten pieces of correspondence exists were given their own folder. The letters include people who played a large part in Emma Thursby's life, such as her friend Jeannie Ovington, and her friend and manager Maurice Strakosch. Much of the Strakosch correspondence is letters in foreign languages attempting to schedule Emma Thursby concerts. Letters written to Richard Gipson, Emma Thursby's biographer, are included here, as are letters detailing an incident in which a Mrs. Edyth Ellerbeck Read wrote a profile of Emma Thursby and was denied publication by the Ladies' Home Journal.

General correspondence includes letters to Emma Thursby's Parisian friend May Jackson from Jeannie Ovington, a facsimile of Longfellow's last letter, and letters to unnamed managers of Emma Thursby requesting concert dates.

One folder of calling cards is in this subseries. Blank stationery with notable letterhead, as well as photography envelopes and letter envelopes which could not be matched with an actual letter, also make up this subseries.

This subseries contains both personal and career-related material. Newspaper clippings of reviews of Emma Thursby's performances are included. The folders pertaining to some of Emma Thursby's most successful pupils include correspondence, programs, and clippings of announcements and reviews. A typed list of attendees at Emma Thursby's Friday salons is included, as is a handwritten list of her 1891 engagements (a complete listing of each concert given by Emma Thursby can be found in Gipson's biography.)

The 'Clippings' folder contains clippings about Emma Thursby. 'Biographical Notes' consist of typed and handwritten biographical details. Notes on musical education and voice training, including drawings of scales and transcription of songs, are housed separately. Emma Thursby possessed a Russian amulet, given to her by Emilia Rudersdorff, which was lost in 1919. Sketches of the amulet and information about its origins and loss are included here.

After Emma Thursby's death, Ina Thursby worked hard to assure that her sister's memory would be preserved. She organized a radio broadcast of tributes to Emma on what would have been Emma's 90th birthday, and commissioned a mosaic to be created in memory of Emma. This mosiac, which featured St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music and Emma's namesake, was donated to and installed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Information and clippings about both ventures is included in this series.

This subseries includes information about Emma Thursby's immediate and extended families and pets. 'Geneological Information' includes information on Thursby, Van Cott, and Bennett family ancestors. Much of the Thursby information comes from the Thursby family members in England whom Emma met during her time there in 1878.

The Mynah bird material includes an issue of The Phrenological Journal and Phrenological Magazine with an article about Emma and the mynah bird in which it was purported that the two had similar shaped skulls; thus accounting for their musical exploits. It also includes information about how to care for the bird and a letter from the Pullman's Palace Car Company giving permission for the bird to travel on the train with Emma Thursby.

Other subjects are based on large amounts of information and clippings compiled by Emma or Ina on important subjects to them; some of these subjects were originally housed in their own envelopes upon accession.

Folders are devoted to Emma Thursby's close friends Ole Bull and Sarah Farmer. The material on Sarah Farmer also includes correspondence pertaining to Ms. Farmer's illness in the 1910s, and subsequent attempts to raise money to continue the colony Green Acre in Eliot, Maine. Material devoted specifically to Green Acre, such as programs of lectures and clippings, are housed separately. A blueprint of the Green Acre property is housed in the oversize folder.

The folder 'Old Brooklyn' contains mainly clippings about and sketches of churches Emma Thursby attended or was engaged by early in her career. A separate folder is dedicated to items pertaining to Henry Ward Beecher, the pastor of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. This includes information on Beecher, and his church after the time of his pastorship. The folder entitled 'Clippings' contains information about friends of Emma Thursby, and other articles that do not fall under a more specific heading.

Emma Thursby spent much of the later part of her life engaged with inquiries into philosophy and religion, as evidenced by her support of and attendance at Green Acre programs and lectures, as well as her correspondence and friendship with the Swami Vivekananda. Notes taken by Emma from lectures given by Vivekananda, as well as clippings on pertinent topics and pamphlets detailing Eastern religious philosophies, are included in this series. Some of Emma's notes describe yogic practices of breathing, others are transcriptions of prayers.

Many amateur poets were inspired by Emma Thursby, judging from the volume of poetry found in the collection. As well as those poems directly dedicated to her, Emma collected clippings of poems from newspapers and magazines, and copied other poems herself. These are all collected here.