Family Donates Letter Sent to Late Great-Grandmother by Helen M. Hosmer, the Late Longtime Dean of SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music
Stacey Tarbox, left, presents a letter from her great-grandmother’s collection to Brian Kvet, senior assistant librarian, in front of the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall at The Crane School of Music. The letter was written by the building’s namesake, Crane Dean Emerita Helen M. Hosmer, to Tarbox’s great-grandmother Ida Bump.
A piece of Crane School of Music history has found its way home, thanks to the generosity of a local family with ties to one of the school’s most revered figures.
Pierrepont resident Stacey Tarbox, whose great-grandmother Ida Bump served as housekeeper to Dr. Helen M. Hosmer, recently discovered a 1956 letter written by Dr. Hosmer while sorting through family belongings. The letter, addressed to Bump, offers a personal glimpse into the life of the legendary music educator, as she entrusted her beloved cats—affectionately referred to as “the boys”—to Ida’s care while she was hospitalized in New Jersey, following surgery on her eyes.
The message was sent on campus letterhead and marked as having been dictated over Dictaphone to Hosmer’s secretary at the College, Genevieve Bowman, who later became an assistant dean at Crane. Just a few months after finally coming home and being reunited with her pets, Hosmer would hit the road again, to lead a nine-week European study tour, with stops to hear performances and lectures and take in the famous sights of France, Italy, Austria, Germany, England and Scotland. 
Recognizing the letter’s historical and sentimental value, Tarbox reached out to SUNY Potsdam to offer the document to the College’s archives. Senior Assistant Librarian Bryan Kvet gratefully accepted the donation, which will be preserved as part of the historical collection. The family also loaned the College Tarbox’s journals and personal writings dating to the years when she worked with Hosmer, to allow Kvet to research and make high-quality scans of relevant passages related to the prominent figure in Crane history. The journals have notes about her time working in Hosmer’s home, even down to a full accounting of how much she spent on food for the dean’s pet cats.
“This letter is a beautiful reminder of the personal connections and quiet moments that shaped the legacy of Dr. Helen Hosmer,” said Crane School of Music Interim Dean Dr. David Heuser. “We are grateful to the family of Ida Bump for their thoughtfulness and generosity.”
Dr. Helen M. Hosmer, a 1918 graduate of the Potsdam Normal School and the Crane Institute, served as a pillar of the Crane School of Music for more than four decades. After initially declining a faculty position in 1920, she returned to Potsdam in 1922 and ultimately became director of the School, a role she held until her retirement in 1966. Her impact on Crane is difficult to overstate. Hosmer founded the Crane Chorus and conducted many of its most renowned premieres and performances, led one of the first-ever semester-long study abroad programs, and began Crane’s Spring Festival tradition of holding major performances led by guest conductors, including Nadia Boulanger, Norman Dello Joio, Robert Shaw and others.
In 1973, the State University Board of Trustees waived a regulation in order to permit the newly constructed Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall at the Crane Complex to be named for her during her lifetime. The venue continues to host major performances to this day, as the largest performance hall in the region. Following her passing in 1989, Hosmer’s influence on generations of music educators and students remains deeply felt to this day. A biography of her life and work by Crane Professor Emerita Nelly Maude Case, titled “Helen Hosmer, The Spirit of Crane,” was published in 2011.
The letter will be cataloged along with Hosmer’s other writings in the College’s archival collection. To learn more about the history of SUNY Potsdam and The Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/about/college-history.
About The Crane School of Music:
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution and was one of the first Yamaha Institutions of Excellence. For more information, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
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PHOTO: From left, Stacey Tarbox and Brian Kvet pose for a photo near a bust of Helen Hosmer at the concert hall named after the longtime Crane School of Music dean.