Hevingham-Root Collection

Personal papers of Hevingham-Root, about 100 biographies and autobiographies of opera singers and composers, 460 theatre and concert programs from about 1900 to 1975, vocal scores of about 200 operas, also a number of song books, anthems, sacred songs, oratorio, lieder and folk songs.

Performing arts

Key items in the collection

Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.

The Hevingham-Root Collection contains about 100 biographies and autobiographies of opera singers and composers. The subjects include:

Emma Albani
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ferruccio Busoni
Enrico Caruso
Feodor Chaliapin
Mary Garden
Jenny Lind
John McCormack
Nellie Melba
Adelina Patti
Henry Russell
Charles Santley
Franz Schubert
Giuseppe Verdi.

There are also about 460 theatre and concert programs, mostly Australian, dating from about 1900 to 1975.

The Hevingham-Root Collection contains the vocal scores of about 200 operas, totalling 261 volumes. Some of the most celebrated composers, such as Bizet, Donizetti, Massenet, Rossini, Verdi and Wagner, are represented in the collection. In addition, there are operas by minor composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. They include:

Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932)
Daniel Auber (1782-1871)
Herman Bemberg (1859-1931)
Walter Damrosch (1862-1954)
Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833)
Charles Lecocq (1832-1918)
Ernest Reyer (1823-1909)
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944).

There are also a number of song books, anthems, sacred songs, oratorio, lieder and folk songs.

From about 1935 onwards, Hevingham-Root maintained an extensive correspondence with record collectors and opera historians in various countries and some of their letters are preserved in the collection. In particular, there are many letters from John Dennis, John Freestone and PG Hurst. Other personal papers include:

indexes and lists of recordings
drafts of articles
a discography of Nellie Melba
photographs.

About Edward Hevingham-Root

Edward Henry Laurie Hevingham-Root (1914–1976) was born in Melbourne, where he lived for most of his life. He was educated at St Andrew’s School and Scotch College. After leaving school, he enlisted in the Australian Army, serving for most of his working life.

Musical interests and performance

Hevingham-Root studied music as a boy and became a fine baritone singer and pianist. He was a member of the Melbourne Liedertafel Choir and also worked as a singing coach.

Collecting and contributions to phonography

From an early age, Hevingham-Root began collecting gramophone recordings. He was part of a small group of collectors who met regularly at Hall’s Book Store in Prahran. He specialised in recordings and documents of operatic performances from 1898 to 1912, and owned an almost complete set of the 1902 red label G and T opera recordings, as well as rare discs from the Italian Fonotipa label. He contributed articles to magazines such as The Record Collector and The Gramophone. For over forty years, he served as the Honorary Curator of Phonography at the Science Museum of Victoria.

Background to the collection

The Hevingham-Root collection was purchased in 1976 from Winifred Hevingham-Root, the wife of Laurie Hevingham-Root.

The books and programs in the Hevingham-Root Collection have been integrated in the general and ephemera collections. The books have been catalogued individually. The scores are kept together as a formed collection within the Music Collection. They have been catalogued as a collection, but the works have not been catalogued individually.

The personal papers are held in the Manuscripts collection. Use the finding-aid.

The original Hevingham-Root collection contained 1551 early sound recordings and also an EMG gramophone dating from the early 1930s. The sound recordings and the gramophone are now held in the National Film and Sound Archive.

This guide was prepared using these references:

Don Murphy, Oral history interview with Winifred Hevingham-Root and Gretchen Racine, October 1989, National Film and Sound Archive, 188984
Nicky Robinson, Library is top scorer with opera collection, The Australian, 13 April 1977, p. 6