Custodial History
Beginning in 1953, and continuing until 1967, Leonard Bernstein gave many of his most significant music manuscripts to the Library of Congress, including: The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2), Candide, Chichester Psalms, Fancy Free, Jeremiah (Symphony No. 1), On the Waterfront, Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", Trouble in Tahiti, West Side Story, and Wonderful Town. Between 1965 and 1983, Bernstein gave 104 scrapbooks to the Library (five additional scrapbooks were given by Brandeis University in 1973).
Helen Coates, Bernstein's longtime friend and secretary, left ninety-four letters, music manuscripts and other Bernstein related items to the Library of Congress in her will. The Library received the items in 1991. An additional 600 letters, which had been in the possession of Helen Coates, were also given to the Library by the Springate Corporation in 1991.
In 1993, the Springate Corporation, representatives of the Bernstein estate, increased the size of the Bernstein Collection many times over by giving to the Library hundreds of thousands of additional items. This included, not only additional music manuscripts, but correspondence, writings of all types, photographs, commercial and non-commercial recordings and audio-visual materials (now housed in the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division), business papers, programs, fan mail, date books, realia, and other less common items. In addition to Bernstein's personal business papers, the extensive archives for his corporate identity, Amberson Inc., were also part of the gift.
In 1997, Burton Bernstein, brother of Leonard Bernstein, gave the Library of Congress ninety-five additional items to add to the Bernstein Collection. Originally from Jennie Bernstein's apartment, and consisting primarily of letters to their parents; including fifty-two from Leonard Bernstein, one from Felicia Bernstein, one from Aaron Copland and four from Helen Coates.