The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Andrew S. Pope with a poster of John Charles Thomas—his first gift to the Peabody Archives. © 1998 Frank Bristow.

Andrew S. Pope was brought up in a small North Louisiana paper mill town. During the war years, a decade before television would come to this small town, he listened to the programs broadcast in radio’s golden years on his car radio. It had better reception than his family’s home model. On a Saturday afternoon, he tuned in a weak AM radio signal beamed from Shreveport and discovered the "Texaco Theatre" starring James Melton. Inspired by Melton’s performance, he attended his first opera performance, a production of Il Trovatore at the old Strand theater in Shreveport.

In 1950 young Andy bought his first recording, a 45 rpm of Leonard Warren singing the Lord's Prayer and Danny Boy. He didn't know who Warren was but thought he must be a great singer. “I got up enough nerve to write Warren asking for a singed photo,” Mr. Pope recalled, “and the great singer obliged and sent a handsome signed photo.”

After receiving Warren’s photograph and a letter of thanks, young Andy set on a life long quest, collecting recordings and record catalogues, books, pictures, programs, letters and printed ephemera documenting the world of opera from the late 1700s to the present. A growing interest in preserving and restoring the vintage recordings he had acquired prompted him to become a producer.

His move to Maryland in 1960 brought him closer to performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center and the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. His research on the world of opera took him to the Peabody Conservatory when preparation for a traveling exhibition, John Charles Thomas: an American Classic, was in progress. Andrew Pope loaned his beautifully restored John Charles Thomas theatre poster to the archives for installation in the exhibit.

In the years that followed, Mr. Pope continued to place other treasures from his splendid collection in the archives where they could be made available to researchers. Michael Maher drew on the Andrew S. Pope Collection of for his recent book on John Charles Thompson.

In 2006 Andrew Pope returned to Louisiana. That same year he gave his extraordinary collection documenting the world of opera to the Peabody Archives.

A Sampling of Objects in the Andrew S. Pope Collection