Top of page
Posted by: Neely Tucker
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” went without a song for years, from the tail end of the Depression through World War II and nearly until the midcentury before a musician named Johnny Marks began to consider it. Marks studied music in college in the 1920s, penned a good song or two for Guy Lombardo’s orchestra in …
Posted in: Christmas, Film, Kids, LCM, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin died in poverty at age 48 in 1917 and left few personal artifacts behind; only three photographs of him are known to exist. The song that made him famous was the spirited "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899. So 125 years later, when the Library's music staff pulls the two copies of "Maple Leaf Rag" sheet music that Joplin and his music publisher mailed in for copyright registration, it can produce an audible gasp.
Posted in: African American History, Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Burt Bacharach, one of the most popular songwriters and composers in American history, was awarded the Gershwin Prize in 2012. He wrote or cowrote dozens of pop standards -- "Walk on By," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," "The Look of Love," "I Say a Little Prayer," "(They Long to Be) Close to You" -- mostly with lyricist Hal David. He also composed, arranged, conducted the band or orchestras for the recording sessions and recorded his own albums. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists around the world. His papers are now at the Library.
Posted in: Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters
Posted by: Neely Tucker
“Chicken Heart,” a 7-minute episode of the “Lights Out” radio series that aired just before midnight in March 1937 was a cheesily effective landmark of the Golden Age of Radio. Living on for decades through rebroadcasts, remakes, in syndication and on records, it snaked its way into the childhood memories of everyone from horror master Stephen King to comedian Bill Cosby, becoming a campy horror cult favorite. It was the brainchild of playwright Arch Oboler, a major star of radio whose name has since faded from popular recognition.
Posted in: Halloween, Manuscripts, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Performing Arts, Radio, Writers
Posted by: Maria Peña
In his epic “El Norte,” award-winning filmmaker Gregory Nava charted the tragic journey of siblings Enrique and Rosa from Guatemala to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American dream. The 1983 film was inducted into the Library's National Film Registry in 1995 and still resonate in this Hispanic Heritage Month, two decades into a new century. It's one of the highlights of the Library's work in preserving Latino films.
Posted in: Film, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, LCM, Library Work and Employees, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, National Film Registry, Performing Arts
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The folklorist Sidney Robertson was one of the trailblazing American women of the 1930s and 1940s, the kind of life you’d associate with Martha Gellhorn, Dorothea Lange or Zora Neale Hurston. Her work directing the California Folk Music Project from 1938-40 is the subject "California Gold," a new book from the Library and the University of California Press.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, Library Work and Employees, Lomax Collection, Music, Performing Arts, Preservation and Conservation, Women's History, Writers
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The Library's custom-designed multitracking studio at National Audio-Visual Conservation Center was built to house and preserve the collections of guitarist and audio-engineering innovator Les Paul. But it's also used to convert, preserve and save recordings made on formats that may not last. It's one of several labs that use cutting-edge technology to save the nation's recorded sound history.
Posted in: Gazette, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Music, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Performing Arts, Preservation, Preservation and Conservation, Technology
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Oscar-winning songwriter and composer Richard Sherman, whose musical work with his brother was such an essential part of Walt Disney Studios that the company renamed their premier soundstage after them, passed away over the Memorial Day weekend. He was 95. Sherman was in good spirits in 2022 when "It's a Small World (After All)," their song for the Disney theme park ride of the same name, was inducted into the National Recording Registry. He spoke about their career of writing music and lyrics for hit Disney films such as "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book" and "Winnie the Pooh."
Posted in: Film, Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts
Posted by: Neely Tucker
This June, the Library will open “Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” an exhibition that explores the ways cultures preserve memory and shows off some of the Library's most valuable holdings. The exhibition is the first in the Library’s new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Collections, Comics, Geography and Maps Division, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Music, Performing Arts, Rare Book and Special Collections, Thomas Jefferson Building