Thor Johnson Photos, 1944, 1964 - 1966, 1972, 1974

Sub-Series

Staff Only

Scope and Contents note

From the Fonds:

Photography has always been important to the National Music Camp, and photos exist from the earliest years of the Camp. Beginning in circa 1944, a concerted effort was made each year to fully document camp life. A professional photographer was on site throughout the season, taking high quality, usually staged, photographs. These consisted of group shots of each of the camper cabins, and numerous individual shots of campers and instructors. These photos were developed on-site in the campus darkroom.

The campers at NMC were divided into age groups called Junior, Intermediate and High School. There was also a University contingent from the University of Michigan for many years. The sequence of negatives reflects these divisions. Two other typical divisions are General camp photos and Post-camp photos. General photos are often simply of the High Schoolers who constituted the majority of the campers at NMC, but also include more generic and candid shots of camp life. Post-camp indicates that camp had concluded, and these photos document the routines associated with closing down the camp for the summer.

When the Arts Academy began in the 1962-63 school year, the tradition of photography was continued, and similar high-quality shots were taken of the students. Theses are generally all numbered sequentially, and not divided into the four classes of Freshman, Sophomore, etc. It was around this time that the 4 x 5 large format was supplemented, and then supplanted, by the 120 film medium format, approximately 2.25" x 2.25".

Dates

1944
1964 - 1966
1972
1974

Biographical / Historical

Thor Martin Johnson (June 10, 1913 – January 16, 1975) was an American conductor. He was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was president of the Alpha Rho chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity. He was the first recipient of the fraternity's national Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1952. A member of the Moravian Church, he was deeply devoted to promoting the music of his faith and was invited to organize and conduct the Early American Moravian Music Festivals from 1950 to 1974. He was an initiate of the Alpha Xi chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. From 1940 to 1942, he was music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was a community orchestra at the time. In 1947 he was appointed conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the youngest American born conductor of a major American orchestra at that time. That same year, Johnson was named the first Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California. He served in that capacity from 1947–1950 and again from 1952–53. He visited Jean Sibelius on the personal invitation of the composer's oldest daughter, Eva Sibelius Paloheimo, in the Summer of 1951 at his home Ainola (since 1972 a national museum in Järvenpää, Finland). In 1952, he was the first recipient of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity's American Man of Music Award. In 1953-54, Johnson made a series of early stereophonic recordings, primarily with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, for Remington Records. From 1958 to 1964, Johnson was a full professor and director of orchestral activities at Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. Johnson was appointed director of the Interlochen Arts Academy and conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Symphony Orchestra from 1964 to 1967. He founded the Peninsula Music Festival in 1952 that still plays every August in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. He is especially well regarded for the dozens of first performances that he personally commissioned and conducted. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. From 1967 to 1975, Johnson was music director for the Nashville Symphony in Nashville, Tennessee. Upon his death in 1975, Johnson was buried in God's Acre, the Moravian cemetery in the historic Old Salem area of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Extent

15 Photographic Prints : 2 - 8" x 10" - b&w contact sheets of negative strips of Johnson conducting 4 - 3.5" x 5" - b&w headshot prints of Johnson 1 - 5" x 7" - b&w print of Johnson posing against table outside 4 - 5" x 7" - b&w print of Johnson conducting 1 - 7.5" x 9.5" - b&w print of Johnson conducting at Leo J. Dvorak Concert Hall at Eastern Illinois Univ. (matted) 3 - 8" x 10" - b&w headshot prints of Johnson 1 - 5" x 7" - b&w print of Johnson conducting, violinist Helen Shideler and flutist Will Gay Bottje in background