Administrative Information
Provenance
The Cole Porter Collection was acquired by the Library of Congress as gifts from Mr. Porter and his estate between 1962-1965. In addition, Albert Sirmay (musical director for Chappell and Porter’s editor) donated materials to the collection between 1963-1964.
Processing History
The Cole Porter collection was arranged and described in 1999 by Mark Horowitz. In 2009, Janet McKinney coded and edited the finding aid for EAD format.
Other Repositories
The researcher should be aware that there is a significant Cole Porter collection at the Yale University Library--a bequest which includes a large number of holograph and copyist’s manuscripts of musical works, as well as a number of scrapbooks and photographs.
Related Material
The Cole Porter Collection contains only those items that were given to the Library specifically for inclusion in the Cole Porter Collection; however, it does not contain all works by Cole Porter held in the Music Division’s collections. It may be of particular interest to the researcher to know that elsewhere in our collections are the following:
- Librettos to seventeen shows, mostly typescripts, in some cases in earlier and later drafts, including scripts for three shows that were not produced: An Almost Perfect Lady, Ever Yours and Star Dust;
- TLS from Cole Porter in the Clifford Collection;
- At least 36 shows are represented in the class M1508 (excerpts from musicals, including films);
- Full scores and/or parts for Anything Goes, Du Barry Was a Lady, Kiss Me Kate, Out of This World, Panama Hattie and Silk Stockings;
- Piano-vocal scores for six shows, including Happy New Year and Unsung Cole that were created after Porter's death;
- Full scores to three songs from Around the World in Eighty Days in the Robert Russell Bennett Collection ML96.B4673;
- An extensive amount of Porter related materials in the Warner-Chappell Collection, particularly copyist’s manuscripts and ozalids for dozens of songs from a number of shows, including a large number of unpublished works.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [item, date, container number], Cole Porter Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.