Ernest Drucker Collection

The Ernest Drucker Collection chronicles the professional, and to a smaller extent, personal life of the violinist Ernest Drucker. Much of the collection focuses on the developments in his professional life, from his time in orchestras and chamber music groups in Germany through his emigration and positions in the United States. The collection consists largely of correspondence, but also includes official documents, biographical articles and notes, contracts, newspaper clippings, reviews, performance programs, a few copies of photographs and some sketches.

The core of this collection is the extensive amount of correspondence in Series II, which has been further subdivided into correspondence of specific individuals and more general letters. It primarily consists of correspondence sent to him by others, many of them friends and fellow musicians. This series also holds letters about employment, such as those from the Jüdischer Kulturbund or Bronislaw Huberman. Details of Ernest Drucker's own life, especially anecdotes and highlights of his life, as well as significant experiences of others are often mentioned in these letters. A smaller amount of his own letters to others are present in Series II.

Ernest Drucker's professional work, including material related to performances given by groups of which he was a part, is located in nearly every series of the collection. The abovementioned correspondence of Series II is one such area. Series I holds copies of professional documents, such as contracts and reference letters from employers and former instructors. Series I also contains papers that pertain to his employment while in the U.S. Air Force; related may be the unidentified sketches of musicians in uniform, located in Series V. In Series III are numerous programs and clippings with reviews of performances of ensembles that included Ernst Drucker, both those in Germany and later in America.

Biographical summaries of Ernest Drucker's life are located in several series. Series I includes Drucker's curriculum vitae along with a letter with a detailed description of his life. Series V also contains some biographical data.