Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection

In June of 2018, retired Ohio University librarian Nancy Rue donated her vast collection of popular sheet music to the OU Libraries. Housed in the Music and Dance Library, the Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection consists of over 2,000 pieces of sheet music, most of which dates from the early decades of the twentieth century—the Tin Pan Alley era.

Rue recalls that her life as a collector began when she inherited her maternal grandmother’s sheet music collection. This, as the basis of her collection, was expanded over time by acquiring pieces from estate sales and auctions. Rue refined her collecting criteria to the composers, performers, categories, and cover artists she found most appealing and collectable, thereby creating a core collection.

For more information about the collection and its history, see Nancy H. Rue, “The Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection: Background and Recollections” (2018), available within the Rue Collection at the Music and Dance Library.

For access to the collection, contact Carla Williams.