Oley Speaks and the Oley Speaks Music Library Archive: A Legacy of the Twentieth Century American Art Song

The purposes of this study were to (1) detail and present reliable biographical information on the Ohio born concert singer and composer, Oley Speaks (1874-1948); (2) describe and document the inception and development of the Oley Speaks Music Library at the Canal Winchester High School, Canal Winchester, Ohio (ca. 1949); and (3) organize and catalog extant materials of the Library now in the possession of the Canal Winchester Area Historical Society and stored at the Prentiss School, Canal Winchester, Ohio.

A plethora of anecdotal biographical information has obscured many of the facts regarding the life and career of Oley Speaks. Points of contradiction present in the reviewed literature have been examined and researched, and supported or refuted as inaccurate or lacking the sufficient data to draw conclusions.

The Oley Speaks Music Library was conceived to pay tribute to a successful native son of Canal Winchester and to fulfill the needs of a growing high school music program. George C. Schultz, Superintendent of Schools in Canal Winchester, along with Margaret Speaks (1905-1977), acclaimed soprano and niece of the composer, jointly supervised the project from its earliest inception in 1943. In fact, it is Miss Speaks who was responsible for the Library's transformation from a lifeless shrine to do homage to her uncle, into a vital and dynamic collection of materials that reflected the style and developments of American musical culture of the early twentieth century.

The Library no longer exists as it did in 1949, but as an archive maintained by the Canal Winchester Area Historical Society. This collection totals over 1000 items of printed music, manuscripts, and memorabilia. Of particular interest are photographs and scrapbooks that belonged to Oley Speaks, and a large body of correspondence between Margaret Speaks and George Schultz which details the development of the Library's collection.