On Thursday, January 19th, 2023 at 7pm in the James Madison Building’s Montpelier Room, Dr. Karen Bryan, Dean of the Arts at Pima Community College, is presenting a lecture: “Self-Determination on the Operatic Stage: Mary Cardwell Dawson and African American performance in Washington, DC and New York City.” Music educator, choir director, opera director, and administrator Mary Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962) founded the National Negro Opera Company, the country's first African-American opera company, in 1941. The Library of Congress is home to the National Negro Opera Company Collection, which documents the Company's productions, operations, fundraising efforts, as well as as Dawson's career and impact.
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.
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.
The Music Division has published three new digital collections, including the Martorell Collection, music manuscripts from the A.P. Schmidt Collection, and Sheet Music of the Musical Theater.
In recognition of Women's History Month, the Music Division shares its recently published online research guides about women composers and women in music.
The melody for the famous lullaby "Rock-a-Bye Baby" was composed, by Effie I. Canning near the end of the 19th century. Anecdotes about the history of the song vary, however, when researching numerous newspaper articles that present conflicting information.
Independent scholar Bonnie H. Miller discusses how she conducted research in the Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room for her book, "August Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America."
