Joseph Schillinger was a theorist and composer famous for developing the Schillinger System, a method of deconstructing music using geometric phase relationships. The collection contains correspondence, recordings, scrapbooks, photographs, artwork, manuscript scores, and other documents related to his professional and personal life.

Otto Ortmann was the director of Peabody Conservatory of Music from 1928 to 1941 and founder of the conservatory's department of research, where he conducted studies on the education, psychology, and physiology of music. His papers include scores of original compositions, writings on music research, research notes, administrative files, concert programs, photographs, and teaching materials.

The Phoebe B. Stanton papers contain various publications, photographs, notes, and correspondence related to Stanton’s research on architecture. Research topics include architects such as Edmund G. Lind and the architecture of Episcopal churches and the city of Baltimore.

Sounds and Stories began in 2002 as an oral-history project. A Peabody Conservatory musicology seminar of 18 students interviewed dozens of participants in the music of Baltimore's black community to record their memories and to document their world and their legacy. The collection was assembled primarily from 1998 to 2004 and contains oral histories, photographs, and supporting research about African-American musical culture, especially in Baltimore from approximately 1930 to 1960.