Collection

McCain Auditorium records

• 1951–2010 (Creation)

96.00 Linear Feet, 71 Boxes

These materials are records documenting the development and history of McCain Auditorium, the campus cultural center for the live performing arts since 1970. The bulk of the collection consists of programs, broadsides, contracts, newspaper articles, administrative files, and photographs. Of note, are programs from the first performance in the auditorium and early performance broadsides.
The McCain Performance Series includes handbills, programs, and season brochures of performances between the years of 1970 and 2010.
The Internal Records includes advertisements of McCain performances, contracts with performers, correspondence between McCain and the performers, financial reports on the cost of events, grants that were written to help pay for various events, and press kits made available to newspapers, television, and radio stations to advertise events. There are also 105 3.5" floppy disks and 62 5.25" floppy disks with internal documents.  The 3.5" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, database files, events, and Friends of McCain mailing list.  The 5.25" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, budgets, calendar events, fonts, lighting information, mailing lists, newsletters, photographs, postcards, posters, press releases, programs, sponsors information, surveys, system disks, and workshop information.  There are two boxes that are oversized that house advertisement mock-ups of performances and events.
Photographs and Slides include some of the artists participating in the McCain Performance Series and the Other McCain Performance and Events Series. Box 59 houses oversize photographs that include photographs of McCain Auditorium and the Philharmonic of China.
Other McCain Performances and Events include Kansas State University (KSU) organizations such as KSU Bands, KSU Chamber Music Series, Department of Music, Theater, and Dance, K-State Orchestra, K-State Players, K-State Singers, Men and Women's Glee Clubs, and Spring Dance.
The Friends of McCain includes advertising and promotion of Friends events, list of board of directors, monthly board minutes, yearly budgets, correspondence between the board of directors and members of Friends, financial reports of funds raised and spent on events, reports from the KSU Foundation Center of donors designating their donations to Friends of McCain, fundraising brochures and campaigns such as the Yearly Holiday Home Tours, membership lists of Friends of McCain, Friends of McCain newsletters, and season campaign brochures.
Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes, and Reel-to-Reel Tapes are made up of one box. It contains two CDs, 24 audio cassettes, three reel-to-reel tapes. The two CDs are titled McCain Movie and are not dated.  The audio cassettes titles include Women Light 21, Women Heavy 40, Men Light 10 and 5, Men Heavy 13, 16 and 22 Dolby, Men Heavy 28 and 40, McCain Auditorium with Tag, Frances Mayes Lecture, Posing Music, Cathy Hougland, and Women Light 25, David and Cathy Hougland "Cool the Exgines," Big River "Running to the River," and Reduced Shakespeare Company, "The Bible."  The titles of the Reel-to-Reel tapes are New York City Opera National Company "Figaro" and La Boheme Radio Ads and Gypsy Radio Ad.
Newspaper articles about McCain Performance Series and Events are from the K-State Collegian and The Manhattan Mercury </emph>as they covered performances and events.
Oversize is made up of McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performance and Events Broadsides and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium.  The broadsides are extra large posters advertising the date and time of a particular performance. The broadsides include performances such as ballets, plays and musical plays, operas, and concerts.  Some ballets performed were The Nutcracker by Ballet Oklahoma, Kyiv Ballet and the Tulsa Ballet, Swan Lake by the Russian National Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty by Houston Ballet, and Romeo & Juliet by Ballet West and The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre.  Plays and musical plays performed include Winnie the Pooh, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by the Montana Repertory Theatre, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Hairspray, Babes in Toyland, Fiddler on the Roof, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Diary of Anne Frank by the Montana Repertory Theatre, The Sound of Music, John Amos in Halley's Comet and Ted Neely in Jesus Christ Superstar.  Some operas performed include La Boheme by the Texas Opera Theatre, Rigoletto and Madame Butterfly by the New York City Opera National Touring Company, The Barber of Seville by the Western Opera Theatre, Die Fledermaus by the Kansas State University Opera Theatre, The Merry Widow by the London City Opera and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) presented by Mozart Festival Opera. Concerts performed include Vienna Choir Boys, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Russia, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, The Uptown String Quartet, Canadian Brass, Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet.
The Blueprints of McCain Auditorium are of when the auditorium was first being built.  These blueprints are of the lighting systems throughout the auditorium.

The collection has been arranged into eight series: 1) McCain Performance Series, 1970-2010; 2) Internal Records, 1951-2007; 3) Photographs and Slides, 1970-2010, undated; 4) Other McCain Performance and Events, 1960-1995; 5) Friends of McCain, 1980-2007; 6) Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes and Reel-to-Reel Tapes, 1991, 1999, undated; 7) Newspaper Articles About McCain Performance Series and Events, 1960-2006; 8) Oversize: McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performance Events Broadsides and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium, 1967-2010, undated.

No access restriction: All materials are open for research.

The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

• English

• Latin

It received accession number U2010.17. The records were at McCain Auditorium until they were transferred to the university archives. The McCain Performance Broadsides were given Accession Number U2008.14. These have been integrated into the McCain Auditorium Records and are now part of U2010.17 and are stored in Boxes 62–70.

Acqusition Source: McCain Auditorium
Acqusition Method: Transfer.
Acqusition Date: 20080101

With very few exceptions, records were retained according to the records retention policy and schedule and exceptions were approved by the university archivist.

Disaster Recovery 2023 note: Box 76 (A83412073235) contains floppy disks labelled "McCain Auditorium" and "Friends of McCain." There is not an accession record listed anywhere in the box, so this box will need further review.

• Citation: Preferred Citation: [Item title], [item date], 4-H Youth Programs Papers, Box [number], Folder [number or title], Morse Department of Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries.

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Finding Aid Author: Ashley Stark and Cynthia A. Harris
Processing Info: The majority of the collection was processed by project archivist Ashley Stark from 2010 to 2015, and processor Cynthia A. Harris processed part of the Newspaper articles about McCain Performance Series and Events, Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes and Reel-to-Reel Tapes and Oversize: McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performances and Events and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium and described the records from 2015 to 2016. University archivist Cliff Hight processed the digital records and reviewed the finding aid in 2016.
Publication Date: 2016-02-01

• Kansas State University history » Institutional records
• Kansas State University history