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Loretta C. Manggrum papers, 1941-1992
approximately 150 items. 4 containers. 1.5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Loretta C. Manggrum was a Black American pianist, composer, and music educator best known for her sacred cantatas and choral works. She was the first Black student to enroll at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and graduated in 1953 at age 57 before starting a career teaching music in Cincinnati. The collection consists largely of scores for choral and piano solo works, as well as a small amount of other materials that document her life and career.
Edmund A. Bowles collection of musical iconography, 1300-1985
approximately 2,700 items. 22 containers. 11 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Edmund Bowles (born 1925) is a musicologist specializing in the history of the timpani and other musical instruments. This collection consists of photostats and photographic prints of musical iconography dating from 1300 through 1985, the bulk of which was created during the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. It is especially rich in representations of percussion instruments, particularly the timpani, and includes a considerable amount of sacred imagery.
Ethel Merman collection, 1908-1998
262 items. 6 containers. 4 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Ethel Merman (1908-1984) was an American actress and singer. She was a legendary figure in the history of the American musical theater and during her career on Broadway, in Hollywood, and on television, and was known for her belting voice and strong stage presence. The collection chiefly consists of scripts, lyric sheets, photographs, and notes from the various productions in which Merman starred, but also includes correspondence, music, clippings, and programs.
Lou Gordon collection, 1953-2006
1 box plus 1 oversized folder. manuscripts: 31 folders. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Manuscript materials, including programs, newspaper clippings, handbills, programs, small posters, and black-and-white photographs, documenting Swapping Song Fair, a folk music production company and concert series founded in New York City in 1955 by Lou Gordon and Paddy Clancy, which produced a Musical Tribute to Woody Guthrie in 1956, and Folk Song '59. The collection documents musical and other events in the folk music revival in New York City during the 1950s.
James Madison Carpenter collection, 1928-1987
29.5 linear feet. 58 boxes, 21,044 items in collection. 19,417 manuscript items (12 linear feet manuscripts), 397 sound recordings [178 wax cylinders and 221 12-inch acetate discs], 180 cylinder containers, 1233 graphic materials (40 ink-and-pencil drawings, with 10 of these in color; 352 black-and-white film negatives, 17 color slides [positive transparencies], 1 black-and- white contact sheet, 592 black-and-white photographic prints, 4 color photographic prints, 112 black-and-white glass negatives, and 115 glass positives). -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
The James Madison Carpenter Collection consists of manuscript materials, sound recordings, and graphic materials that document folk songs, ballads, sea songs, folk music, dance, and British folk drama. The materials span the years 1928-1955, with some related material generated by other scholars dated 1972 and 1987. The bulk of the material was collected between 1928-1935 by Carpenter during fieldwork in England, Scotland, and Wales; other material was collected in the United States between 1937 and 1941 by Carpenter and his Duke University students.
Sam Eskin collection, 1939-1969
56.5 linear feet. 16,568 items (15,795 manuscripts, 716 sound recordings, and 57 graphic materials). -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Collection consists of manuscripts, field recordings, photographs, and ephemera documenting folk music and folk music revivals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 1938 to 1966; plus manuscripts and field recordings of mostly unidentified artists performing folk music in Jamaica, Cuba, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Hong Kong, Philippines, India, and Thailand from 1953 to 1969 collected by Sam Eskin. Manuscript materials include correspondence, transcriptions of songs and lyrics, folk festival programs and flyers, a Japanese song book, Eskin's lecture notes, and his collection of bawdy songs and limericks.
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Amateur Hour collection, 1934-1950s
approximately 8,500 items. 20 boxes. 9 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
The Original Amateur Hour was a popular radio talent show hosted by Edward Bowes (stagename, Major Bowes) from 1935-1952. The collection primarily consists of more than 7,000 applications from contestants who appeared on the program between 1934 and 1948. A small amount of administrative papers dating from the late 1940s and 1950s, as well as materials relating to the Mexican version of the program, La hora internacional del aficionado, are also included. Filed with the contestant applications are letters of introduction, reference letters, and other documents sent by prospective contestants. Applications from conventional performers such as musicians, dancers, singers, and impersonators are most numerous, but there are also applications from novelty acts, such as a human piccolo, a group of hand standing singers, and a group who played harmonicas with fire extinguishers. Of particular interest are applications from performers who are now well-known, including Teresa Brewer, Stubby Kaye, Robert Merrill, Beverly Sills, and Frank Sinatra. Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s provide a visual record of the show, while correspondence to and from program staff members recount some of the program's business transactions. Scripts, promotional material, and advertising and sponsor documents also are part of the collection.
Minna Lederman Daniel collection, 1896-1993
around 21,000 items. 24 containers. 12.5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Minna Lederman Daniel was an American writer and editor who specialized in music and dance. A major influence on 20th century music, she was a founding member of the League of Composers, a group of musicians and proponents of modern music. She helped launch the League’s magazine, The League of Composers’ Review (later called Modern Music), which was the first American journal to manifest an interest in contemporary composers. The collection contains her correspondence, financial and legal papers, writings, clippings, and photographs.
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Dorothea Dix Lawrence collection, 1856-1980
350 items. 4 containers. 2 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Dorothea Dix Lawrence was a successful opera singer in the 1930s and 1940s who later became a recitalist and folklorist. The materials in the collection include correspondence, photographs, clippings and other items that document her career as a singer and interpreter of American folk music. In addition, the collection includes her articles on American folklore that were published in various journals, and two copies of her famous Folklore Music Map of the United States. The collection also includes piano-vocal opera scores and a large number of American folk songs.
Sidney Robertson Cowell collection, 1901-1992
5067 items. 28 containers. 13 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Sidney Robertson Cowell (1903-1995) was a folksong and ethnic music collector and recordist, ethnographer, ethnomusicologist, teacher, writer, and wife of composer Henry Cowell. The collection consists of her personal papers which document all aspects of her life and work. The collection includes correspondence relating to personal and professional matters; fieldwork reports, fieldnotes, song lists and other materials from her field recording projects and trips; articles, essays, reviews, and papers written by Sidney Robertson Cowell; articles and narratives by and about Henry Cowell; autobiographical narratives and essays, clippings, family histories and other materials relating to her professional career and personal life; photographs; teaching materials; and song sheets and song books. In addition, the collection contains photocopies of a selection of Henry Cowell holographs, several annotated by Sidney Robertson Cowell, and a selection of folk songs with piano settings by Henry Cowell in his own hand.
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