This collection was donated by Susan Pickett in 2018. The accession number is 2018-006.
Susan Pickett is a violinist and musicologist, and a professor emeritus of Whitman College. Over the course of her career she has uncovered the music of several hundred women composers from the 17th to 20th centuries, and collected over 50,000 pages of music by them. Dr. Pickett has also published several editions of music by classical and romantic-era women. She served as concertmaster for the Walla Walla Symphony from 1987 to 2006.
The Susan Pickett women composers collection contains several original music manuscripts by the composer, Marion Bauer, who was born in Walla Walla in 1882, and went on to spend her career in New York City. It also contains a few very rare copies of her published music. Susan Pickett published a biography about Bauer in 2014. The collection includes correspondence between composer Vally Wiegl and 1954 Whitman graduate, Donald Mousel. There is also correspondence between Mousel and Vally Weigl's husband, Karl Weigl, who was also a composer.The collection also contains the music manuscripts of composer Hascal Stewart. Additionally there is a brief biography of her, a picture, and a handwritten letter to Susan Pickett.