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Posted by: Libby Smigel
The following is a guest post from Hallie Chametzky, one of the Music Division’s Fellows from this past summer. Dance Archivist Libby Smigel introduces her. Meet Hallie Chametzky, a senior in dance at Virginia Commonwealth University. Selected this past summer as a Junior Fellow working on the Martha Graham Legacy Project, Hallie chose to work …
Posted in: Dance, Guest bloggers
Posted by: Libby Smigel
The following is a guest post from Kaitlin (Kate) Doyle, one of the Music Division’s summer Fellows. Dance Curator Libby Smigel introduces her. Meet Kate Doyle, a doctoral candidate specializing in experimental composition and sound for performance art at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Kate spent her summer as a CWRU Fellow …
Posted in: Composers, Dance, Guest bloggers, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Constance Valis Hill, jazz tap dancer, choreographer, and scholar of performance studies. Her book, Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers (2000) received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010) was supported by grants from the John Simon Guggenheim …
Posted in: Dance, Digital Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Music Division is proud to offer two new web presentations in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. The collection of notable dancer, choreographer and teacher Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) contains a diverse variety of materials documenting dance and the arts in the twentieth century. Available here are over 200 collection items, including manuscripts, books, diaries, choreographic notebooks, …
Posted in: Dance, Digital Collections, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Forty-one years ago today, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. The Apollo 11 broadcast from the moon on July 20, 1969, which transmitted Neil Armstrong’s immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” was named to the National Recording Registry in 2004. Remember one giant …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Libby Smigel
Discover the artistry and impact of modern dance choreographer Leni Wylliams (1961-1996) through the Raymond Steehler and David Fullard Collection on Leni Wylliams, now accessible through a new finding aid.
Posted in: African American History, Choreographers, Dance, LGBTQ+, New finding aid, Special Collections
Posted by: Claudia Morales
Concerts from the Library of Congress launches an exciting, yearlong America 250 celebration this January, presenting a broad panorama of the nation’s music in concerts and conversations, lectures, film screenings, educational programs and more.
Posted in: American history, chamber music, Choreographers, Commissions, Composers, Concerts and Events, Conductors, Dance, Early Music, Instrumentalists, Jazz, Musical Instruments, Musical Theater, Musicians
Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres
The Library of Congress recently published “Let the People Hear It: Concerts from the Library of Congress at 100” (Library of Congress, 2025). The book provides a visual journey through the history of the Library’s renowned concert series, which was established in 1925 by philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and Carl Engel, then-chief of the Library’s Music Division. Learn about this new book and where to catch the authors on book tour this coming winter and spring.
Posted in: American history, Commissions, Composers, Concerts and Events, Curators, Music Division history, Musicians, Staff
Posted by: Cait Miller
Learn about the Library's holdings related to members of the Damrosch family, including Leopold Damrosch (1832–1885), Frank Damrosch, (1859–1937), Clara Damrosch Mannes (1869–1948) and her husband David Mannes (1866–1959), and the conductor/composer Walter Damrosch (1862–1950). Senior Music Reference Specialist Dr. Paul Allen Sommerfeld shares highlights from a newly published research guide on the Damrosch family at the Library of Congress.
Posted in: Composers, Conductors, Research Guides