Originally published 12.28.22
If you read about R. Nathaniel Dett, you are bound to encounter conflicting information. This is not anyone’s fault, really, but it still results in a lot of unnecessary confusion. So, here we go:
1. The Name. The first thing we need to do is get his name right. “R. Nathaniel Dett” was how he signed his name. The “R.” stands for Robert, which was his father’s name: Robert Tue Dett. However, Dett did not have a great relationship with his father, who divorced his mother and essentially estranged himself from Dett and his brother Samuel as well. Further, Robert Tue Dett was a bit of a big name in Niagara Falls, NY, building his own hotel (a rather fancy one that no longer survives) and owning several properties. People close to Dett called him “Nate,” and I have not found any evidence that he answered to the name “Robert.”
2. The Birthplace. Dett was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, in a village named Drummondville. This one-time village should not be confused with the city of the same name in the province of Québec, nor is it spelled as “Drummondsville.” Rather, it was later incorporated into the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Just to ensure everyone’s confusion, the Dett family moved across the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, NY.
3. Where he earned degrees. Dett was an early Black alumnus of the Oberlin College Conservatory, but he was not the very first. That honor belongs to Harriet Gibbs Marshall, who went on to found the Washington Conservatory and School of Expression. Technically, she received a BA from Oberlin College, completing its course in Piano. Her degree was converted retroactively to a BM once the Conservatory began issuing them. Since Dett graduated in 1908, he would have been among the first to receive a full-fledged BM. Furthermore, he never claimed to be the first Black alumnus of Oberlin. Rather, he did make it known that he was the first to major in both Composition and Piano.
Dett earned honorary doctoral degrees from Oberlin (1926) and Howard University (1924) before he completed an MM at Eastman in 1932, making him Eastman’s first Black alumnus. These are the only degrees he received, which is more than Howard Hanson had as the Director of Eastman! By the way, Hanson was referred to as “Doctor Hanson” even though he did not have any doctoral degrees, honorary or otherwise, and nobody has seemed interested in correcting the record…
Dett completed coursework or audited courses at other places, but it is very difficult to establish exactly where. I have seen hard evidence of studies at Columbia, Northwestern, and Harvard. In a recent research development (January 2023), I have learned that he was never enrolled at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in France; whether he studied privately, one-on-one with Nadia Boulanger still remains to be seen (in my humble opinion, however, I doubt it). You might read on the internet that he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, but I have yet to find concrete evidence of that. Similarly, he took summer courses at conservatories in Chicago and New York, but the school names were in flux and it is difficult to pin down exactly where he was.