Historical harps

Six historical harps now have a home in the Willam and Gayle Cook Music Library. The instruments were donated to the University in 1982 by late world-renowned harpist Mildred Dilling, who’s known as the “First Lady of the Harp.”\nBefore going on display, the harps sat for 20 years in a storage closet at the Musical Arts Center. The school had no place for the collection, said Eleanor Fell, co-owner of Vanderbilt Music Company and a former student of Dilling.\n“It’s a valuable collection for the school,” Fell said. “We’re privileged that we’re able to display lost instruments like these.”\nEach harp was given new strings and cleaned before going on display. \nThe harps are no longer playable.\n“They’re too fragile, too old and the wood is too porous,” Fell said. “They’ve been sitting around for 20 years.”\nPhil Ponella, director of the Cook Music Library, provided a space for the display. He said it was important for students to value this collection, and he wanted to be a part of that.\n“It is a special thing that no other school in the nation can claim to have,” he said. “So it would be a shame to see them sitting in a closet somewhere. I think it’s important that we bring these out; it’s very prestigious and I think it brings that out.”\nPonella said his 10-year-old daughter is a harpist, and her favorite harp is the Irish Royal Portable, the smallest in \nthe collection.\n“The Irish harp is the symbol of Ireland and appears on the country’s flag and on every coin that is minted in the Irish Free State,” Dilling once wrote. “This harp belonged to Thomas Moore, the Irish poet.”\nDilling composed a brief history of the harps, and her quotes were gathered in a booklet by Fell.\nFell said she cannot choose a favorite of the six harps because she considered them to be “abused children in the closet.”\n“They all have their own specific interests. I can’t choose from them,” Fell said. “It’s like asking you to choose which child is your favorite.”\nDenver Wrightsman, Facility Coordinator for the Jacobs School of Music, was responsible for building the harp display cases.\n“They’re beautiful instruments and everyone did a really good job on the cases,” he said. “It’s a good thing for the school itself. If you haven’t seen them it’s worth the trip, it’s worthwhile.”\nDilling was known for her large harp collection. She also taught Harpo Marx how to play the instrument that eventually made him famous. Dilling wanted these harps to be donated to Susann McDonald, chair of the IU Harp Department, who donated them to the library. \nHer legacy and love for the instrument will permanently live on in the halls of the Cook Music Library.\n“For the school, for the history of the harps in the Dilling collection and what was visualized for them,” Wrightsman said, “I think it’s a great thing not only for the school but the harp program itself.”\nThe Cook Music Library is free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday.