Nearly 16,000 pages of material from the Library of Congress Leonard Bernstein Collection have been transcribed and reviewed via our "By the People" crowdsourced transcription campaign. Transcriptions will ultimately be made available in loc.gov, and the Leonard Bernstein Digital Collection will soon be keyword searchable.
This is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Vin Novara, with Senior Music Specialists Mark Eden Horowitz, Kate Rivers, and Ray White. Nick Hornby’s book “High Fidelity” (1995) features an entertaining look at the quirks of people who intensely collect on music. Top five lists feature prominently throughout the work. As …
The following is a guest post from Senior Theater Specialist Walter Zvonchenko. Miles White (1914-2000) was one of the most admired costume designers for the American stage in the 20th century. He came to New York in the 1930s hoping for a career in high fashion. While that was not to be, his subsequent work …
The following is a guest post from Gershwin Archivist Janet McKinney. Dear Jerry, Much as I hate to bother you, you must forgive me if, on rare occasion, I do. I know you are busy rehearsing your next, and what I hope will be a successful show, but if you could take a few minutes …
The following is a guest post from Gershwin Archivist Janet McKinney. Janet presented a Curator Talk entitled “My Irish Song of Songs: Irish-American Identity in Popular Song and Musical Theater” on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 that was recorded for webcast and will be made available on the Library of Congress website in the coming months. …
The following is a guest post from Senior Music Specialist Robin Rausch. In 1995, documentary filmmaker Marjorie Short was looking for work in Washington, DC, and doing research at the Library of Congress for a new project on historical music performance. Music Specialist Raymond White suggested she contact Cyrilla Barr, professor of musicology at Catholic …
The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Janet McKinney. Last week, October 19th marked the anniversary of the surrender by General Cornwallis to George Washington in the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. The siege lasted from September 28th until the peace negotiations were signed on October 19th. Although the …
The Library of Congress Concert Series (whose 90th season was announced earlier this month) offers world-class chamber music performances in the Jefferson Building’s Coolidge Auditorium. Most Library visitors might assume that the space is named for President Calvin Coolidge; however, it was a different Coolidge who is responsible for its construction. In 1925 Elizabeth Sprague …
The following is a guest post by Music Archivist Janet McKinney and Music Reference Specialist Lisa Shiota. May is National Bike Month, a time to showcase the many benefits of cycling. Today in DC it is also Bike to Work Day, where thousands of people in the metropolitan area hop on their bikes for the …