A Brief History of the Collection

The Indianapolis pharmaceutical manufacturer, Josiah Kirby Lilly, established the Foster Hall Collection in 1930. What began as a retirement hobby based upon his life-long love of Stephen Foster' s music, later turned into a major contribution to American music and history.

Mr. Lilly and his staff, with the help of some of Foster's relatives and through contributions prompted by the publication of the Foster Hall Bulletin, accumulated over 10,000 Foster items, which were housed in Indianapolis in a small limestone building he called "Foster Hall." Before his effort began, there had been no exact knowledge concerning the total number of Foster's works, nor any accurate literature published about the composer. Foster Hall's staff identified 201 original works, and Foster Hall became a resource center for John Tasker Howard's biography Stephen Foster: America's Troubadour (1934). Mr. Lilly's purpose in establishing the collection was to revive interest in Foster's music. To achieve this goal, Foster Hall published reproductions, recordings, books and pamphlets on Foster and his works.

Concerned about the future of his collection, Mr. Lilly offered to transfer Foster Hall's holdings to the new Stephen Foster Memorial in Pittsburgh. The collection was moved in 1937 and, over the years, it has been greatly expanded. Today, the Foster Hall Collection of the Center for American Music is an archive, museum, and research library. It receives over 1,000 reference questions each year regarding Foster and American music.

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