Skip to Content
  • Browse
  • Past Issues
  • Search

Arts and Letters

Wagner History

Wagner News

Inside Sports

Alumni Stories

Obituaries

Alumni Events

From the President

Feature Stories
Winter 2022
Winter 2021
Fall 2021
Summer 2019
Winter 2018–19
Summer 2018
Fall 2017
Summer 2017
Fall 2016
Winter 2015-16
Summer 2015
Fall 2014
Winter 2013-14
Summer 2013
Fall 2012
Summer 2012
Fall 2011
Summer 2011
Fall 2010
Summer 2010
Fall 2009
Summer 2009
Fall 2008
Summer 2008

Lauritz Melchior

SHARE
PRINT
BACK TO TOP
Lauritz Melchior

The world-famous operatic tenor left something unusual to Wagner College in his will

Terry Baker Mulligan ’66: Beyond the Storm
Mother Knows Best?

Lauritz Melchior (1890–1973) was the most famous Wagnerian Heldentenor (“heroic tenor”) of his day. From the 1920s through the 1940s, he sang at all the great opera houses — Covent Garden, the Festival Theater at Bayreuth, and, most significantly, the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Also appearing in several Hollywood musicals and on American television and radio, the Danish-born singer (who became a U.S. citizen in 1947) was a household name, with a larger-than-life physique and personality.

As a measure of his significance, biographer Shirlee Emmons notes that the National Park Service asked Melchior “for five or six personal items for their new American Museum to be housed in the base of the Statue of Liberty.” Universities including Syracuse, Yale, and Boston sought his memorabilia as well.

In the end, he left all of his possessions to his son, who donated them to Dana College in Nebraska. Today, that collection is at the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa. Except, that is, for a few items … which is where Wagner comes into the story.

Professor Otto Raths likes to tell the tale that in his early years on the Wagner faculty, in the 1960s, then-President Arthur O. Davidson would often mention his friendship with the elderly Melchior. “He's going to leave something to Wagner in his will,” Raths remembers the president saying on more than one occasion.

Melchior died in 1973 — and, as promised, he remembered Wagner College in his will. He left the College his big-game trophy collection. (See Melchior Memories for more information about his connection to Wagner College.)

Melchior was a lifelong, avid hunter. He went on hunting expeditions all around the world; according to Emmons, at the age of 77 he went on safari in Kenya and bagged a bushbuck “two-and-a-half inches bigger than the world record specimen.” At home, he displayed mounted heads and other trophies, such as ashtrays made of bison hooves.

President Guarasci confirmed that Melchior did, indeed, leave his collection to Wagner College. A 1973 story in the Wagnerian records that the collection comprised 41 trophies, including a reedbuck from Kenya "and a world-record (14-4/8") bushbuck from Mozambique."

It is unclear what happened to most of the collection, but the impressive heads of a North American caribou, a Cape buffalo, and a topi still adorn the walls of Megerle 405, one of the biology labs.

 

Fall 2012

  • Arts and Letters
  • Wagner History
  • music
SHARE
PRINT

Related Stories

image description

Farewell, Seahawks!

Feb 14, 2020 After 13 years as Wagner Magazine editor, the time has come to say farewell to you.
image description

A Wagner Family (Musical) Album

Nov 20, 2019 Chris Sabol ’12 captures the people, talent, and feelings of Wagner in his new release.
image description

Connor Gibbs ’17: Composer

Jul 31, 2019 The high school chorus teacher creates new music for all kinds of instruments.
CLASS NOTES
OBITUARIES
CONTACT US

LATEST NEWS

image description

Pride Collection comes to Horrmann Library

The Horrmann Library is the home of a unique collection of over 2,000 titles on …

image description

Yuliya Johnson: Global Health Guardian

Alumna Yuliya Johnson helps keep her adopted country safe from pandemics, bioterrorism.
by Tim O’Bryhim

image description

Chris Cappelli: Global Health Guardian

If nothing happens, it means alumnus Chris Cappelli has done his job right.
by Tim O’Bryhim

image description

President Araimo makes Staten Island Power 100

City & State N.Y., a magazine dedicated to New York’s local and state politics and …

  • About the Magazine
  • Give to Wagner
  • Wagner Newsroom
  • Wagner Home
FOLLOW US

© 2025 All Rights Reserved