A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Accession Number: Each item in our collection has a unique number, the accession Number, assigned to it. Accession numbers start with a 4 digit year number.
Advanced Search: If you want to search for more than one word, phrase or number in a field, use Advanced Search. Enter the first value and choose one of Equals, Contains etc from the drop-down list, then click Add to bring up space to enter the next value. Choose And if you want only records with both values to be displayed, or Or if you want to see all records with either or both values.
Alt Ref No Alternative Reference Number: These are numbers from earlier reference systems, and are the numbers which are used in much of the literature about Elgar. (While it is possible for us to locate items by their accession number, it is quicker if we have the Alternative reference, too).
Books: Books from Elgar's own library, covering a wide range of subjects.
Collection Group: Our Collection Groups are Manuscripts, Letters, Printed Music, Programmes, Press cuttings, Photographs, Books, Scrapbooks, Miscellaneous Papers, Objects. To make sure your search produces all possibilities, this field should be left blank since there is some overlap, for example there are some letters in Scrapbooks. However, if your Search is producing too many results, try searching the Collection Groups one at a time.
Creator: You should enter the name in this field if you are looking for work by a particular composer/author/artist/photographer. Please note that entering the name in the description field may not produce all the relevant results.
Date (on Search form): When you use search, if you know the exact date, enter it in the form dd/mm/yyyy in the search field date. If this does not produce any results, try entering the year (yyyy) in the year field instead. If you do not have the full date, enter the year in the year field. Using the year field will return many records, so you should use the other search fields as well where possible, to refine your search.
Date (in Search Results): Any date included in the description is the date as on the item. Nd means the item is not dated. The date in the date field is either taken from the item or is known because it has been researched. It is in one of the standard forms dd/mm/yyyy or mmm yyyy or yyyy
Description: Includes title, composer/author, name, date as on the item, description of item and summary of content for letters etc
Key Content: This gives a very brief description of the item.
Letters: Correspondence to and from Edward Elgar and his family. Includes many letters written by elgar, but also many written to him by other people.
Manuscripts: Musical manuscripts, mainly composed or arranged by Edward Elgar, most in Elgar's hand.
Miscellaneous Papers: A wide variety of papers pertaining to Elgar, his wife Alice, and his dughter Carice. This group includes the collection of Alice Elgar's writing.
Names: Anybody referred to in the catalogue will have a standard form of their name, which will be used in any catalogue entry relevant to them, so that this standard name should be used to search. To find out what form to use for a person see the name conventions page
Objects: Although a major part of the collection is comprised of documents of different types, there are some 3-dimensional objcts too, including Elgar's gramophone and his court dress.
Photographs: Photographs of Elgar and of people connected with him.
Press Cuttings: These are in albums, some of which were put together by Alice Elgar.
Printed music: Includes both proofs and scores and sheet music as published.
Programmes: A large collection of programmes which include works by Elgar
Recipient: Use this field to find letters, cards etc written to a person. Please note that entering the name in the description field may not produce all the relevant results.
Scrapbooks: Family albums containing a variety of material including letters, drawings, post cards, photographs, programmes, concert tickets,visiting cards and many other things relating to Elgar and his family.
Year (on Search form): Use this field if you are interested in items from a specific year, or if your search for a precise date has not given any results. The format is yyyy.
