While Walter Kent and Kim Gannon are the only names credited on the original copyright deposit for the Christmas classic, "I'll be home for Christmas," the label on Crosby's recording credits the song to three names: Kent, Gannon, and Buck Ram. Read about the history of the song and its copyright backstory, illustrated in records from the US Copyright Office. Download the original printed sheet music, registered as an unpublished copyright deposit on September 28, 1943.
Music Reference Specialist Heather Darnell has a conversation with Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for progressive rock band Dream Theater, about a letter he wrote to Leonard Bernstein as an eight year-old boy. The letter is now held in the Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress.
As we recognize the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, the Music Division highlights Marian Anderson's iconic 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial by sharing a program and related telegram from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation Collection.
The Library of Congress celebrated the acquisition of the Neil Simon Papers by hosting a conversation with actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker who currently star in the Broadway revival of Simon's comedy Plaza Suite. Watch a recording of their conversation with Plaza Suite director John Benjamin Hickey, as well as a video overview of the Simon Papers featuring Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz.
British composer Ethel Smyth's 1911 song "The March of the Women," dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst and the Women's Social and Political Union, became a suffrage anthem in the United Kingdom and abroad. Learn more about Smyth's involvement with the WSPU and access sheet music from the Library of Congress digital collection "Women's Suffrage in Sheet Music."
The Library of Congress By the People project launched its first campaign to feature sheet music in February 2022. "Women's Suffrage in Sheet Music" features approximately 200 titles created before 1923 either for, about, or against the suffrage movement. Once the campaign is transcribed and approved, researchers will be able to keyword search across all text included in the sheet music, including lyrics.
James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is one of the most significant hymns in American history. Read more about the genesis of the song and download sheet music published in 1900 and 1921.
