Emily Boettcher Bogue (1907-1992) Papers

Boxes 1-11: The Emily Boettcher Bogue Papers fill eleven boxes and span the years 1907 through 1996, with the bulk of the material dating between 1936 and 1954. Included are biographical materials; concert programs; scrapbooks; diaries and notebooks; correspondence; and teaching and professional materials.

Biographical materials include an informal biography, by Elsa Heald, which consists of a typed, chronological arrangement of excerpts from Boettcher's letters and diaries; general materials pertaining largely to her education and career in music; and clippings detailing her concert performances.

Concert programs fill four folders and date between 1920 and 1962; they document Boettcher's appearances as both a student and professional musician.

Four scrapbooks contain concert programs, both of Boettcher's performances and of those of her students.

Of particular interest are Boettcher's diaries, notebooks and correspondence, which together give a vivid picture of her life at Northwestern, her studies abroad, and her professional and daily life in England before, during, and after World War II. Boettcher was a habitual diarist, keeping a separate volume for each year between 1938 and 1992, with the last entry just days before her death. The single interruption is 1940. The earlier diaries, kept while Boettcher was studying in Germany, contain eye-witness accounts of Hitler's public activities; later ones depict life in England during the war and the difficult post-war years.

For forty years, Boettcher maintained a regular correspondence with her family. The majority of the letters were written by Boettcher to her mother; only a few letters Boettcher received have survived. During her early married life, when Boettcher was fulfilling professional obligations, she maintained daily communications with her husband. The correspondence files also contain letters from Boettcher's students, including pianist Margaret Bonds, and her colleagues in the music world, such as Arne Oldberg, Seiji Ozawa and John Alden Carpenter.

Teaching and professional files include small amounts of materials relating to Boettcher's musical compositions and arrangements, folk music, students and teaching.

It is important to note that, throughout the papers, Boettcher's given and surnames appear variously as Emily, and Charlotte, Bottcher (the spelling used by her family), Boettcher, and Bogue. Following her marriage, she continued to use the name Emily Boettcher professionally, but used the name Charlotte Bogue privately.