Abstract George Antheil was a composer, pianist, author and inventor. The collection consists of materials related to the professional and personal activities of George Antheil and his wife, Elizabeth (Böske) Antheil. It contains holograph music manuscripts, printed scores, published and unpublished writings, business and personal correspondence, subject files, photographs, programs and promotional materials, scrapbooks, artwork, biographical materials, and memorabilia which document the life of this...

Abstract Papers and audiovisual materials comprising the professional archive of storyteller Connie Regan-Blake created and produced during her career from the 1960s to 2014. Includes video and audio interviews of Connie Regan-Blake; recordings of her performances and those of other storytellers at folk festivals, storytelling festivals, and media events and television programs. Regan-Blake performed at the National Storytelling Festival beginning in the 1970s and for many years as part of the...

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Composer, conductor, record producer, and performer Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) wrote hundreds of popular songs, 52 of which were U.S. Top 40 hits, as well as film scores and musicals. His arrangements are known for their unusual instrumentation, shifting meters, and unique chord progressions. The collection contains many of his compositions as well as photographs, correspondence, promotional materials, production files, and awards.

Abstract 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...

Abstract José María Castro was an Argentine composer, conductor, and cellist. He was a member of the Sociedad del Cuarteto and a co-founder of Grupo Renovación, an avant-garde musical youth movement in Argentina that became the International Society for Contemporary Music’s Argentine Section in 1932. The collection includes musical compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions by Castro; music by others; correspondence; writings; programs; clippings; scrapbooks; personal papers; photographs; and...

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Peggy Clark (1915-1996) was an American lighting, scenic, and costume designer. The collection includes light plots, scenic renderings, correspondence, published and unpublished writings, blueprints, programs, photographs, posters, scripts, scrapbooks, clippings, notes, memorabilia and other materials related to her life and career.

Abstract This collection of video recordings, sound recordings, manuscripts, photographs, graphic materials, and artifacts documents Protestant religious revival meetings of various denominations in the southern Appalachian region, primarily in Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia. The collection includes interviews with church leaders and members of congregations, and documentation of religious services, healing services, revivals, hymn singing, sermons, snake handling, and...

Abstract The John Dildine and Ginny Dildine papers document their involvement in folk music, crafts, and other folk revival activities from the 1950s-1995. The Dildines played pivotal roles in the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, Fox Hollow Festival, and National Folk Festival Association. Their work with puppetry was important in the revival of that art form and the collection includes Ginny Dildine's sketches and patterns for puppets, photographs of puppet performances at festivals, and the...

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This collection was initiated through an on-air request for autograph albums on the "NBC Weekend" radio program by Duncan Emrich, then head of the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, between 1955 and 1956. It consists of twenty autograph albums and related ephemera from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and New York, with dates from 1843 to 1923.

Abstract The Gustavus Sohon collection of cartographic and artistic works contains 11 manuscript maps, 22 manuscript illustrations, field notes, and 18 lithographs depicting the Pacific Northwest in the late 1850s and early 1860s. Gustavus Sohon was a German immigrant and enlisted man in the U.S. Army assigned to positions that took him through the Western territories of present-day California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The maps, drawings, and lithographs in this collection show...

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The Woody Guthrie manuscript collection includes unpublished correspondence, most are letters from Guthrie to Alan Lomax, assistant in charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, dated 1940-1942; plus drawings; essays; song lyrics; and a songbook, "Songs of Woody Guthrie."

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Papers and audiovisual materials relating to the career and personal life of folk arts administrator, folklorist, filmmaker, musician, and teacher Bess Lomax Hawes.

Abstract Shirley Horn (1934-2005) was an American jazz pianist and singer. A lifelong resident of Washington, D.C., she was classically trained before discovering jazz, eventually forming her own trio in 1954. After graduating from Howard University, she recorded an album that caught the attention of Miles Davis, for whom she opened at the Village Vanguard in 1961. After recording two albums produced by Quincy Jones, she performed locally while raising her daughter. She began performing...

Abstract The Lester Horton Dance Theater was a modern dance company and school in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s. Founded by dancer and choreographer Lester Horton (1906-1953), the company served as an incubator for the careers of a generation of dancers, including Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, Bella Lewitzky, James Mitchell, Joyce Trisler, and James Truitte. The collection documents Horton's early life and career and the Dance Theater's activities under the management of Frank Eng after...

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Eloise Hubbard Linscott’s collection of research materials for her book, Folk Songs of Old New England (1939) and other folk music research through about 1955. The collection includes correspondence; music transcriptions; sound recordings of folk music, lectures, and radio broadcasts; photographs of Linscott's informants; documentation of events and trips within New England; plus some materials from her estate, dated circa 1815-2002.

Abstract Bruce Lundvall was an American record company executive best known for his tenure as president and CEO of Blue Note Records. Lundvall was responsible for the revitalization of the label between 1984 and 2010, and signed many of the brightest stars in jazz and popular music, including Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Willie Nelson, Cassandra Wilson, and countless others. The collection includes artist files, correspondence, photographs, promotional materials, and other...

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Collection consists of sound and video recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, printed materials, correspondence, field notes, and administrative files documenting folklife--including architecture, music, dance, storytelling, material culture, and occupational culture--in the Upper Saint John River Valley on the Maine and New Brunswick border.

Abstract Nicolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, and composer known for his technical prowess and virtuosity. This collection contains a significant amount of iconography depicting Paganini as well as other composers and related objects and places. Other materials include manuscript and printed music, correspondence, programs, publicity materials, personal papers, publications, and clippings that document Paganini’s professional activities and personal life. Additional catalogs,...

Abstract An ethnographic field collection of manuscript materials, graphic images, sound recordings, and moving images that document, for the most part, Romanian folk dance and music as well as costume, ritual, and customs. Music arrangements, choreographic diagrams, photographs, and programs document activities of the state dance companies, the Ciocîrlia and Perinitza Ensembles. Oral history interviews with the donor recorded in 1995 complement the materials. Manuscript material includes music...

Abstract The Seeger Family Collection documents the lives and careers of pioneering musicologist Charles Louis Seeger; his second wife, modernist composer Ruth Crawford Seeger; their eldest daughter, folksinger and songwriter Peggy Seeger; and her husband, playwright, singer, and songwriter Ewan MacColl through their music manuscripts, personal and professional papers, and correspondence. The collection also includes papers relating to the Crawford family and materials associated with Pete Seeger,...

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Documentation of the reactions of individuals and communities across the United States and elsewhere (Naples, Italy) to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and the crash of the hijacked plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; in audio, video, and photographs from 2001-2002.

Abstract Neil Simon (1927-2018) was a playwright and screenwriter who is best known for the more than 30 plays and musicals, more than 30 screenplays and teleplays, and two autobiographies he authored over the course of four decades. The collection holds complete and partial drafts of more than 210 individual titles written by Simon for the stage and screen as well as drafts of his two biographies: Rewrites (1996) and ...

Abstract Oliver Smith was an American production designer, producer, and teacher of theatrical design. Smith contributed his talents to many of the twentieth century's most beloved musicals, ballets, and plays, including Rodeo (1942), On the Town (1944), My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), The Sound of Music (1959), and ...

Abstract Collection of documentary materials resulting from an ethnographic field research project conducted by the American Folklife Center in eight counties of south central Georgia, and at Mt. Zion, Georgia, in July and August 1977 in cooperation with the Arts Experiment Station of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Topics of research were hymn singing, vernacular architecture, foodways, jokes, and stories from the region. Includes documentation of the exhibition "Folk Art and Folk Life," at...

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Miles White was an American scenic and costume designer best known for his work on Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Bye Bye Birdie (1960), and other Broadway musicals and stage productions. The collection consists mostly of finished designs and sketches, some of which include fabric samples and other related materials.