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Title: Ernest Schelling papers
Dates: 1904-1994
Collection Number: 2012C39
Creator: Schelling, Ernest, 1876-1939.
Collection Size:
3 manuscript boxes, 3 oversize boxes
(3.2 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Letters, printed matter, personal documents, photographs, and memorabilia, relating to American military activities in World
War I, and to Ignace Paderewski. Includes typescript translation of official German military history of World War I.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Ernest Schelling papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2012 from the family of Schelling's second wife, Helen "Peggy" Marshall, later
Mrs. Janos Scholz.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Related Material
Ernest Schelling collection, International Piano Archives, University of Maryland
Known affectionately by his youngest fans as "Uncle Ernest," Ernest Schelling was an American pianist and composer, the founder
and for sixteen years the conductor of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Young People's concerts until his untimely death
in 1939. Born in New Jersey in 1876 to a Swiss father and an English mother, Schelling was a child prodigy. His father, Dr.
Felix Schelling, a physician and a musician, was his first teacher. Ernest made his piano debut at the age of four-and-a-half
at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia; at the age of seven, he entered the Paris Conservatory, the youngest pupil ever accepted.
In 1896, Ignace Paderewski accepted the young American as his student. Schelling visited Paderewski during the summer months
in Zakopane, high in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland, as well as in the Paderewskis' palatial villa of Riond-Bosson
in Morges, above Lake Geneva. Schelling's 1900 London and 1905 New York debuts brought him musical acclaim and fame, in no
small measure a tribute to Paderewski. The mentorship soon turned into a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Schelling had
a summer home on Lake Geneva, only a few miles from the Paderewskis', and they spent much time together. In fact, Schelling
and his wife were the organizers of the great pageant in honor of Paderewski on his name day of July 31, 1914, the eve of
the outbreak of World War I, an event movingly described in Paderewski's own memoirs.
The tragic course of World War I on the continent he considered his second homeland and his close association with Paderewski,
who soon became the leader of humanitarian relief and political information work on behalf of Poland in Allied Europe and
in the United States, were important factors in Ernest Schelling's decision to become an active participant. The event that
likely influenced his decision to enlist was the sinking of the Sussex in the English Channel by a German U-boat. Among the
eighty passengers who died were friends of both Schelling and Paderewski, the renowned Spanish pianist and composer Enrique
Granados and his wife, Amparo, orphaning six children. In the spring of 1917, Schelling took a leave from his musical career
and joined the US Army. With his intimate knowledge of European cultures and fluency in several languages, he was sent to
the Army War College and, after completing a crash course, was given a captain's commission and assigned to the military intelligence
branch of the General Staff. From September 1917 until October 1919, Schelling served as assistant military attaché at the
American Legation in Bern, Switzerland. Much of what Schelling did involved translation and analysis, but he also provided
some services for the French government, earning him the French Legion of Honor. Schelling advanced to the rank of major while
still in Europe, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal after the war. Immediately after the November 1918 armistice,
he was sent by the Army into German-occupied area to monitor troop withdrawal and by the American Red Cross to assist with
the release and repatriation of American prisoners and civilians. He then was sent into Poland to liaison with his old friend,
Ignace Paderewski, now the prime minister of the newly reestablished Polish state. Schelling's work in Poland earned him one
of Poland's highest decorations, the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Scope and Content of Collection
Letters, printed matter, personal documents, photographs, and memorabilia, relating to American military activities in World
War I, and to Ignace Paderewski. Includes typescript translation of official German military history of World War I. Schelling's
medals and decorations, service documents and US Army uniform are included. Many World War I photographs and publications
in French, German, and English, as well as photographs of Paderewski and his concert programs are also included.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns.
Paderewski, Ignace Jan, 1860-1941.
United States. Army.