Wesley V. Blomster papers
Scope and Contents
The Wesley V. Blomster papers comprise personal and professional materials encompassing his dual career as music critic and German language professor from 1955 to 2012. A majority of materials in this collection are arranged chronologically by year and include a wide assortment of Blomster's original newspaper article clips and memorabilia from his travels and concert-going, intermingled with letters of correspondence, binders of Daily Camera photocopies, and volumes of typewritten Daily Camera drafts; program note folders arranged alphabetically by composer's last name within genre-specific binders; and boxes of VHS review copies of operas and historical programs. The pre-arranged organization of materials reveals Blomster's deliberate attempts to maintain a specific presentation of his materials. Some materials, such as personal diary entries, were originally interspersed in collections of typewritten Daily Camera drafts. These and other carefully-selected materials from the collection have been restricted due to their extremely personal nature. Some items, mostly book reviews, are at times outside of the chronological order for the series. The arrangement order of materials follows Blomster's pre-arranged organization.
Dates
- 1955-2012
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research. Records containing sensitive personal information have been restricted.
Publication Rights
The American Music Research Center does not control rights to any material in this collection. Requests to publish any material in the collection should be directed to the copyright holders.
Biographical Note
Daily Camera music critic, Wes Blomster, was a locally and internationally-known writer and professor of German at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Blomster was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1929 and grew up in a rural area near Ipswich, South Dakota. He earned his BA in German from the University of Iowa and his MA and Ph.D in German from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Blomster’s interest in classical music began during his time at the University of Iowa where he attended orchestra concerts given by the university's orchestra conductor and composer, Stephan Clapp. After graduating from the University of Iowa, he served in the U.S. Army as a German and Russian interpreter overseas from 1951 to 1955. Blomster finished his dissertation in 1960 Thomas Mann’s Commentary On His Own Work and thereafter taught German at the University of Colorado in Boulder for the next thirty-two years.
In the early 1970s while teaching at CU, Blomster began writing for the Boulder Daily Camera as a local music critic. Throughout his career, Blomster also wrote music articles for local, national, and international newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. After retiring from CU in 1992, he devoted himself wholly to music criticism, writing for many publications in addition to his work with the Camera. He traveled all across the globe to attend concerts, always returning to Boulder where he continued to attend local classical music concerts up to a week before his death, on October 1, 2011, at the age of 82.
Extent
27 boxes
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement of Wesley V. Blomster Papers
Collection is arranged into 6 series:
- Series 1. Writings, Memorabilia, Correspondence
- Series 2. Program Notes
- Series 3. Typewritten Newspaper Drafts: Daily Camera
- Series 4. Article Xeroxes
- Series 5. Commercial VHS Tapes
- Series 6. Personal Materials
Physical Location
Housed in the American Music Research Center
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated by Thomas Blomster, son of Wesley V. Blomster, in 2013.
General
- Processed and Encoded by:
- Jenna Palensky
- Date completed:
- December, 2014
- Blomster, Wesley V. -- Archives Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Music Critics -- United States -- Archives Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- The Wesley V. Blomster Papers 1955-2012
- Subtitle
- An inventory of holdings at the American Music Research Center
- Status
- Conversion Draft
- Author
- Jenna Palensky
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written inEnglish.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Rare and Distinctive Collections Repository