Thane Edward McDonald Papers
Dr. Thane Edward McDonald served as director of the Wake Forest College Department of Music from 1941 to 1975. This collection includes some of his personal and professional materials, along with scrapbooks from the Wake Forest College/University Department of Music from 1931-1975.
Biographical and Historical Note
Dr. Thane Edward McDonald was a Wake Forest College professor of music and longtime choral director. During that time, he directed, conducted, and played the organ at multiple concerts and performances per year. McDonald was born in Elkhart, Indiana On June 21, 1912, to Chester O. and Maude M. McDonald. He recieved his bachelor and masters degrees in music from the University of Michigan and his doctorate of education from Columbia University. He was member of many societies and organizations, including Phi Delta Kappa professional education fraternity, the American Association of University Professors, the N.C. Music Educators Association, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. Before joining Wake Forest in 1941, he directed the Music Department at Davidson College.
During his time at Wake Forest College, McDonald established a thriving music department. McDonald also served as the minister of music at Wake Forest Baptist Church (1942-1963) while acting as a professor of music (1941-1975). In 1941, he introduced a glee club, small music ensembles, a band, and an orchestra. He left Wake Forest from 1944-1946 to serve in the U.S. Navy. He taught the majority of the music classes, performed with the marching band, and in 1948 he formed a touring choir. The choir would drive across North Carolina and Virginia and perform in churches, hospitals, and at civic meetings. McDonald died in Winston-Salem on August 12, 1978.
Collection Overview
This collection contains personal and professional materials, including biographical materials, family photographs, awards and certificates, and church programs from McDonald's appearances as a guest organist. There are also fifteen scrapbooks containing music department materials. They also include some of McDonald's professional materials and some materials from his time as the Davidson College music department director. The scrapbooks contain concert and performance programs by the Wake Forest band, choir, and traveling choir, newspaper clippings of appearances, concerts, and performances, students performance photographs, and programs of annual campus events the department participated in, like the Magnolia Festival, the Christmas Vesper service, and commencement. The collection is arranged in alphabetical order.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by Meg Campbell, 2021 November
- Revision Description
- Revised by Stephanie Bennett and Nancy Sullivan, small additions to the biographical note, 2024 October
- Access Restrictions
- This collection is open for use.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question or their descendants, unless otherwise designated. Users of this collection are responsible for using the materials in conformance with U.S. copyright law.
- Preferred Citation
- Thane Edward McDonald Papers (MS217), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.