The Music Division’s newest research guide, James Reese Europe: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress, provides a gateway to accessing historic sheet music, unique literary manuscripts, newspaper archives, recordings, photographs and scholarly research by and related to leading cultural figure James Reese Europe (1881-1919).
Connect with research guides published by Music Division reference staff in 2024, including a guide to finding music by Jewish composers and composer-specific guides on Victor Herbert, Felix Mendelssohn, and Darius Milhaud.
On November 9, 2021, Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz presented a webinar on the creation of the 1957 musical "West Side Story," drawing on materials from the Leonard Bernstein Collection, the Arthur Laurents Papers, and the Oliver Smith Papers to illustrate his talk. Learn more about the history of the musical and how to find digitized "West Side Story" material on the Library's website before viewing the Spielberg's new film adaptation.
In recognition of Women's History Month, the Music Division shares its recently published online research guides about women composers and women in music.
As Black History Month comes to a close, the Music Division is pleased to announce three recently published research guides that highlight Black history in our collections: "Harry Thacker Burleigh: A Guide to Resources," "Early African-American Music: A Bibliography," and "Black Composers in Music Division Collections."