Thomas P. Fenner

These concerts were profitable and brought in desperately needed finances to the Hampton Institute, funds which prevented the closure of the school during its early years.

During his time at Hampton, Fenner collected African American folk songs with the intent in having them published so that this music would not be lost.

After leaving the Hampton Institute in 1875, Fenner taught music at Temple Grove Seminary (now Skidmore College) in Saratoga, New York.

[4] Frisell possessed a fine tenor voice and was an accomplished violinist in addition to being proficient on multiple other musical instruments.

[1] When the American Civil War began in 1861 he joined the Union army,[2] and due to his skills as a musician he was primarily employed as an instrumentalist in a military band.

[1] However, he did spend some time on the battlefield and for a portion of the war was stationed at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island.

[2] After the Civil War ended in 1865,[5] multiple sources claim Fenner aided Eben Tourjee in founding the New England Conservatory of Music in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1859 Fenner and Tourjee co-founded the Providence Academy and Musical Institute (PAMI) in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

[8] Fisk University was a similar black college founded after the Civil War, and it too had a strong affinity with music education.

Believing that they had cultural value and deserved to be preserved, Fenner began to systematically collect African American songs with the intent of publishing them.

[17] In 1875 Fenner left the Hampton Institute to join the faculty of Charles F. Dowd's Temple Grove Seminary in Saratoga, New York.