Drexel Collection

The Drexel Collection is a collection of over 6,000 volumes of books about music and musical scores owned by the Music Division of The New York Public Library. Donated by Joseph W. Drexel in 1888 to the Lenox Library (which later became The New York Public Library), the collection, located today at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, is rich with materials on music theory and music history as well as other musical subjects. It contains many rare books and includes a number of significant 17th-century English music manuscripts.

The musical library of Joseph W. Drexel had its origins in the library of Henry F. Albrecht (1822-1875). Born in Germany and trained as a musician, Albrecht's passion for collecting books on music had been fueled by Siegfried Dehn, musician and librarian of the Royal Library (today the Berlin State Library), whom he had met in Berlin. Albrecht emigrated to the United States in 1848 where he was one of the organizers of the Germania Musical Society, a touring orchestra in which he was the second clarinetist. Visiting many locations in the United States enabled Albrecht to collect music literature and scores. The Society disbanded in 1854, while in residence at Newport, Rhode Island.

That year, Albrecht decided to join the Icarians in Nauvoo, Illinois, which required that members donate all their belongings. Albrecht created an inventory of his collection of 661 volumes, intending to donate them to the Icarians. In writing about the demise of the Germania Musical Society and Albrecht's plans, John Sullivan Dwight remarked "His library of music and of musical books, for one collected by so young a man, is really quite a wonder." Quoting from an unidentified article in the Newport Daily News, he added: "It is a well known fact that libraries of this kind are very rare" and that Albrecht's was "one of the most complete in America." The Icarian community at Nauvoo failed by 1856 and its members dispersed.

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