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The acquisition of medieval liturgical chant manuscripts that trace the history of music notation as it evolved over half a millennium, became a major collection priority in the Music Division beginning in the 1920s. One century later, we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office.
\nChronologically, these rare primary sources span a period of great paleographical change from the tenth through seventeenth centuries: from poorly executed fragments to exquisitely crafted codices, these materials range in format and size from single leaves to entire books \u2013 both pocket-sized and immense choirbooks measuring over three feet tall.
\nTheir musical contents document the creation and development of the modern-day staff from one to five staff lines, the introduction of clefs, the use of staffless (chironomic) and heightened (diastemic) neumes and eventually black square notation, and so much more. Most visually alluring are the skillfully crafted bindings of leather, brass and wood used to encase the gatherings of thick vellum leaves that periodically reveal breathtaking illuminated initials. These unique treasures present a valuable cross-section of liturgical chants copied in diverse regions throughout Europe \u2013 from a 10th-century Swiss monastery in St. Gall to a 12th-century Cistercian abbey in Lower Austria to a 16th century Spanish Cathedral.
\n", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "10th-16th Century Liturgical Chants", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 5000}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/", "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["10th-16th century liturgical chants", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:33.889Z", "title": "10th-16th Century Liturgical Chants", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/schmidt/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 6687, "description": ["Arthur Paul Schmidt (1846-1921) was a German-born music publisher who pioneered the development and dissemination of American music. The A.P. Schmidt Company Archives documents his firm's publishing activities in Boston, Leipzig and New York, beginning with his tenure, through his successors, and until the firm was absorbed by Summy-Birchard in 1960. The Archive consists of the original manuscripts from which the music was printed, printed music, personal and corporate correspondence, photographs (primarily composers/arrangers), business records, plate books, publication books, stock and cash books. The online presentation includes only music manuscripts, if you have questions about other items in the collection, browse the finding aid, visit the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress, or contact us through Ask a Librarian."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 2, "item": {"aka": ["schmidt"], "digitized": 3277, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "Arthur Paul Schmidt (1846-1921) was a German-born music publisher who pioneered the development and dissemination of American music. The A.P. Schmidt Company Archives documents his firm's publishing activities in Boston, Leipzig and New York, beginning with his tenure, through his successors, and until the firm was absorbed by Summy-Birchard in 1960. The Archive consists of the original manuscripts from which the music was printed, printed music, personal and corporate correspondence, photographs (primarily composers/arrangers), business records, plate books, publication books, stock and cash books. The online presentation includes only music manuscripts, if you have questions about other items in the collection, browse the finding aid, visit the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress, or contact us through Ask a Librarian.
\nThe collection is particularly rich in music manuscripts by women, including works by Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (identified as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach in the collection), Gena Branscombe, Mable Daniels, Helen Francis Hood, Cora W. Jenkins, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Marion Osgood (composer, violinist, and director of Marion Osgood’s Ladies, the first professional women’s orchestra in the United States), Edna Rosalind Park, Anna Priscilla Risher, Clara Kathleen Rogers, Mary Turner Salter, Mabel Madison Watson, and Mildred Weston, among others.
", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "A.P. Schmidt Company archives, 1869-1958", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 4029}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "partof": ["a.p. schmidt company archives, 1869-1958", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "A.P. Schmidt Company archives, 1869-1958", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/copland/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003561015", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2003561015"], "campaigns": [], "count": 982, "description": ["The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's music sketches, correspondence, writings, and photographs."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/aaron-copland/500_500.jpg"], "index": 3, "item": {"aka": ["copland", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003561015"], "digitized": 941, "formats": ["manuscripts", "photos", "notated-music"], "html_content": "The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's\u00a0music sketches,\u00a0correspondence,\u00a0writings, and\u00a0photographs.
\nCelebrating the centennial of the birth of the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the multi-format Aaron Copland Collection, from which the online collection derives, spans the years 1910 to 1990 and includes approximately 400,000 items documenting the multifaceted life of an extraordinary person who was composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor, commentator, and administrator. It comprises both manuscript and printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries, writings, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, awards, books, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
\n\nAaron Copland devoted his life as a twentieth-century composer to fostering, developing, creating, and establishing distinctive \"American\" music. He became known as the \"Dean of American Music,\" a sobriquet with which he was uncomfortable. His name is synonymous with\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0\u2014the winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Music\u2014and\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man.
\nCopland extensively documented the many facets of his life in music, and theAaron Copland Collection\u00a0at the Library of Congress reflects the entire breadth of his endeavors. Beginning in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Copland periodically deposited his original music manuscripts at the Library of Congress and subsequently converted them to gifts. In the fall of 1989, he donated all his papers to the Library. The collection numbers approximately four hundred thousand items, dating from 1910 to 1990 with a few nineteenth-century photographs, and includes his music manuscripts, printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries and writings, photographic materials, awards, honorary degrees, programs, and other biographical materials. It is the primary resource for research on Aaron Copland and a major resource for the study of musical life in twentieth-century America generally, particularly from the 1920s to the 1960s.
\nThe online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0comprises approximately one thousand items selected from Copland's\u00a0music sketches,\u00a0correspondence,\u00a0writings, and photographs. The items are represented in about five thousand digitized images, the earliest an 1899 photograph and the latest a 1986 letter. While the original collection contains almost all Copland's music manuscripts and printed scores, the online collection presents the original music sketches that Copland used in composing thirty-one works spanning the years 1924 to 1967 and covering every medium in which he composed: orchestral, ballet, opera, film, chamber, solo piano, and vocal music.
\nThe correspondence in the online collection comprises images of approximately eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Copland that have been selected from the Aaron Copland Collection and other collections in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0at the Library of Congress. Besides letters to his parents and other family members in the 1920s and 30s, the correspondence includes Copland's letters to his Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, and others such as Nicolas Slonimsky, Roger Sessions, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Walter Piston, Leonard Bernstein, and Benjamin Britten.
\nAs an advocate and supporter of American music and American composers, Copland frequently wrote articles, presented lectures, and delivered speeches. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0presents eighty-six of Copland's previously unpublished drafts. These show the creative process through which he wrote about his own music, other composers and their music, and other people who played important roles in his musical life.
\nOf the twelve thousand photographic materials in the Library's Aaron Copland Collection, 111 items have been chosen for online presentation. Many were created by Copland's friend Victor Kraft, a professional photographer. They include portraits of Aaron Copland at various ages and places, with family members, with other composers, and with other people associated with his career as a composer and conductor, as well as images from his worldwide travels.
\n\n\"The man is in the letters,\" said Vivian Perlis of Aaron Copland, whose autobiography she helped to write. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0contains digitized images of over eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland covering the years from 1921 to 1986. Searchable texts of all published letters, postcards, and telegrams in the collection are also available.
\nThe letters reproduced in the collection represent, though they do not exhaust, the holdings of Copland's correspondence in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0of the Library of Congress. In general they constitute significant runs of letters to people important in Copland's life. (Problems of copyright and volume preclude making letters to Copland available online.) Every attempt has been made to include all the letters in the Music Division that Copland wrote to each correspondent represented, the one exception being the letters to Harold Spivacke, which constitute only a part of Copland's voluminous and largely business-related correspondence with the Music Division's former chief.
\nThese letters come from many collections in the Music Division. Besides material from the Aaron Copland Collection, they contain material from the Leonard Bernstein Collection, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Collection, the Jacobo Ficher Collection, the Irving Fine Collection, the Louis Kaufman Collection, the Serge Koussevitzky Collection, the\u00a0Modern Music\u00a0Archives, the Walter Piston Collection, the Nicolas Slonimsky Collection, the William Strickland Collection, and the papers of the Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music.
\nThe letters Copland wrote that are in the Copland Collection proper came back to him in various ways. He inherited his letters to his parents after their deaths. In the 1970s, when he began to think of writing his autobiography, he asked several of his friends and colleagues to send him photocopies of his letters. Some replied with photocopies, some by returning the letters themselves. Some responded with many letters, some with just a few.
\nCopland seldom made carbons copies of his outgoing correspondence. The few periods in his life for which the Copland Collection is rich in carbon copies are the brief intervals when he had a secretary: in 1943 while working on the film\u00a0The North Star; during his South American tour in 1947; in the fall of 1958 when he was staying in London and presumably was provided with a secretary by his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes. Because they were obviously dictated to a secretary, these letters have the flavor of Copland's post-1940 correspondence but are not particularly trenchant, lacking the distinctive qualities that came forth when Copland himself sat down to write.
\n\nThe following individuals are the major correspondents represented in the letters portion of this online collection. They are listed with the source collection for Copland's letters to them or, in the case of material in the Copland Collection itself, with an indication of whether the letters are originals or photocopies.
\nArthur Berger\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopy). The online collection contains a single letter\u00a0to this writer of the first book-length study of Copland; it is perhaps the most evocative of Copland's letters describing his Mexican visits.
\nLeonard Bernstein\u00a0(Bernstein Collection). Copland's prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in the late 1930s and early 1940s,\u00a0Bernstein\u00a0became one of the leading champions and interpreters of Copland's music.
\nNadia Boulanger\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Copland's principal teacher and mentor. His Nonet is dedicated to her.
\nPaul Bowles\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Composer and novelist. The two letters in the Copland Collection seem to have been part of a voluminous and regular correspondence.
\nBenjamin Britten\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). English composer. The first set of\u00a0Old American Songs\u00a0was written for Britten and his collaborator Peter Pears. Britten's side of the correspondence is published in Donald Mitchell et al., eds.,\u00a0Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976\u00a0(2 vols., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
\nCarlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). Mexican composer; one of Copland's principal composer friends. As a conductor, Ch\u00e1vez performed Copland's Short Symphony\u00a0when American conductors had declared it unperformable. Ch\u00e1vez's side of the correspondence and slightly abridged versions of Copland's letters are published in Spanish translation in Gloria Carmona, ed.,\u00a0Epistolario selecto de Carlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(M\u00e9xico: Fondo de Cultura Econ\u00f3mica, 1989).
\nIsrael Citkowitz\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Citkowitz was a slightly younger composer (1909-1974), gifted in song and chamber music, for whom Copland had high hopes. The online collection contains all Copland's letters to Citkowitz in the Copland Collection.
\nElizabeth Sprague Coolidge\u00a0(Coolidge Collection). American patron of chamber music. She commissioned from Copland (and thus had dedicated to her) Appalachian Spring\u00a0and the\u00a0Piano Quartet.
\nJacobo Ficher\u00a0(Ficher Collection). Argentinian composer. Copland's letters to him document his interest in South American music.
\nIrving and Verna Fine\u00a0(Irving Fine Collection). Irving Fine was a composer and younger colleague of Copland whose choral arrangements of several of Copland's Old American Songs\u00a0have given them a life as choral works. Copland shared houses with Irving and Verna Fine for several summers at Tanglewood. After Irving Fine's death in 1962 Copland continued to be supportive of Verna Fine, and his letters to her retain warmth and sparkle to the end of his letter-writing years. Copland dedicated \"Sleep Is Supposed to Be,\" one of the two central songs of his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to Irving Fine. The Irving Fine Collection also contains letters from Copland to Verna Fine's mother, Florence Rudnick, in whose Boston apartment he sequestered himself to write\u00a0In the Beginning.
\nSerge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky\u00a0(Koussevitzky Collection). Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony from 1924 to 1949, was the first performer to champion Copland's music in America and remained a supporter of Copland (and of many other American composers) until his death. Copland, in turn, was a major help to Koussevitzky from 1940 on in the running of the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Copland's letters to Koussevitzky's first wife, Natalie, are, for the most part, social; his letters to Koussevitzky's second wife, Olga (Olga Naumoff, Koussevitzky's secretary, until 1947), concern the running of Tanglewood. Copland's\u00a0Third Symphony\u00a0is dedicated \"To the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky.\"
\nMinna Lederman\u00a0(Modern Music\u00a0Archives). Lederman was editor of the journal of the League of Composers,\u00a0Modern Music, which was published from 1924 to 1946. Copland was a major contributor to the magazine and a trusted advisor to Lederman.
\nMarcelle de Manziarly\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). French composer, Boulanger student. Copland dedicated \"Heart, We Will Forget Him,\" the fifth of hisTwelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to de Manziarly.
\n\nOlga Naumoff:\u00a0see Serge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky.
\nWalter Piston\u00a0(Piston Collection). American composer. The body of Piston's correspondence is in the Boston Public Library; the one letter in this online collection represents the small but important collection of letters to Piston from the years 1931-55 that is in the Music Division of the Library of Congress.
\nFlorence Rudnick:\u00a0see Irving and Verna Fine.
\nRoger Sessions\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies) American composer; co-producer with Copland of the Copland-Sessions Concerts during the years 1928-31.
\nNicolas Slonimsky\u00a0(Slonimsky Collection; some early letters in the Koussevitzky Collection). Musical polymath. During most of the period in which Copland corresponded with him he was musical secretary to Koussevitzky; the jokey letters to the incorrigibly humorous Slonimsky serve to balance Copland's oh-so-serious letters to Koussevitzky himself.
\nHarold Spivacke\u00a0(Coolidge Collection; Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music). Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, 1937-1972. Spivacke's tact and unflappable serenity kept the commissioning of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0on course.
\nWilliam Strickland\u00a0(Strickland Collection). American conductor. Some of the letters in this online collection are concerned with Strickland's editorship of the H. W. Gray organ series, for which Copland wrote his\u00a0Episode.
\n\"The man is in the letters.\" It might then seem as though a collection of more than eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland would give a complete portrait of the man and the composer. However, users of this online collection should remember that these letters represent only the holdings of the Music Division of the Library of Congress. At least equally important are Copland's letters to Virgil Thomson (at Yale University); Claire Reis and William Schuman (at the New York Public Library); Howard Clurman, David Diamond, and Walter Piston (at the Boston Public Library); and several others. To each of his correspondents Copland shows a slightly different aspect of his personality, so the letters in this online collection provide a detailed self-portrait if not a complete one.
\n\nThis online collection contains approximately 2500 pages of Aaron Copland's sketches\u00a0for his music, representing thirty-one of his works\u2014thirty-three if one includes the\u00a0Sextet\u00a0and the\u00a0Orchestra Variations, covered by the sketches for the Short Symphony\u00a0and\u00a0Piano Variations\u00a0respectively. Representing many of Copland's best-known and most significant works, the sketches are often revelatory. Except for some miscellaneous accompanying material, the online collection includes all the sketches for the works in the online collection.
\nThere are works for which the Library of Congress's archival Copland Collection contains no sketches. These include some of the early works and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait. Those who are interested in finding out whether the Library has sketches for a particular work not represented in the online collection, or curious about whether one of the works included has any material not presented online, should consult the Copland Collection Finding Aid.
\nWithin the sections of the online collection, the sketches are presented as much as possible in the order in which they were received from Aaron Copland or his estate. They have been much used by scholars, and they represent Copland's not always systematic use of music-paper. Some sets of sketches have been numbered by stamp at their top left- or right-hand corner; this numeration was done by the Library of Congress when the sketches were filmed in the mid-1970s and do not represent Copland's numbering. When two separate sets of sketches exist for a single work, they are presented here as two separate items. (Note: The page numbers of some of these sketches may not appear in numerical order online. However, they are presented here in exactly the order that Copland produced them.)
\nThe sketches reveal to scholars the history of Copland's work on the compositions, but they can also mean something to the general reader. The sketches for the Piano Variations, the\u00a0Short Symphony, and the\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man\u00a0show Copland searching for titles to do justice to three of his most characteristic works; the sketches for\u00a0Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson\u00a0show him deciding what poems to include in the cycle; the sketches for\u00a0Billy the Kid show that the opening music was first intended to be the start of\u00a0Music for Radio\u2014 which now begins with much more complex music.
\n\nThe photographic materials in the Library of Congress's\u00a0Aaron Copland Collectionnumber more than twelve thousand items spanning the years 1889 to 1985 and include both black and white and color prints, contact sheets, 35-mm negatives, color slides, and photograph albums. A substantial number of photographs were taken by Copland's lifelong friend, the professional photographer Victor Kraft. Widely known photographers whose work can be found in the collection include Carl Van Vechten, Irving Penn, Gordon Parks, and Margaret Bourke-White. The subject material comprises an inclusive chronology of Copland's life and includes Copland's family; Copland himself throughout his life; friends; acquaintances; fellow composers and other people with whom he worked; places where he studied, composed, or visited; and special events.
\nFrom this vast collection, 111 photographs have been initially selected for the online collection. The digitized images fall into five broad categories: Family ; Copland Alone; Copland's Music; Copland with Other Composers and People; and Places and Events. Photographs that cannot be dated precisely or approximately have been given the designation of \"middle\" or \"late.\"
\nOf the seven family photographs, one is a formal sitting of Copland's paternal grandparents and three of their children, while another shows Copland's parents, Sarah and Harris Copland, in front of their department store in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. The other five capture Copland with other family members.
\nThe twenty-four photographs of Copland alone show him both formally and informally and at a range of ages from six to his seventies. Several feature Copland at his home, Rock Hill, in Courtlandt near Peekskill, New York.
\n\nTwenty-one photographs capture performances or rehearsals of thirteen musical works. The orchestral works represented are the\u00a0Piano Concerto, in a photograph showing Copland at the piano and Andr\u00e9 Previn conducting; the\u00a0Clarinet Concertowith Benny Goodman as the soloist and Copland conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait\u00a0in two rehearsal photographs, one in color with Marian Anderson as the speaker and the other with Adlai Stevenson, both with Copland conducting. The two ballets represented are scenes from the premiere performance of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0at the Library of Congress and\u00a0Billy the Kid, which was premiered by Lincoln Kirstein and the Ballet Caravan.
\nThree of the eight films for which Copland wrote music scores are illustrated in this online collection. Production stills represent\u00a0The North Star\u00a0and\u00a0The Red Pony. There are also two informal photographs of the making of\u00a0The Red Pony depicting Copland with the pony and the young boy and one studio-recording shot of Copland conducting the music for\u00a0Something Wild\u00a0that shows the star, Carroll Baker, in a television monitor.
\nOne chamber work is represented in a rehearsal of the\u00a0Nonet\u00a0at the Library of Congress with Copland conducting. Two photographs depict William Warfield with Copland during rehearsals of\u00a0Old American Songs. There is also a stage shot of the opera\u00a0The Tender Land.
\n\nNumerous photographs capture Copland with fellow composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Norman Dello Joio, Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, Irving Fine, Arthur Berger, Douglas Moore, Benjamin Britten, Darius Milhaud, Philip Ramey, Walter Piston, Domingo Santa Cruz, Virgil Thomson, Roger Sessions, and Igor Stravinsky. He is also shown with such notable cultural figures and musicians as Artur Rubinstein, Claire Booth Luce, Clarence Adler, Nadia Boulanger, Victor Kraft, Vivian Perlis, Claire Reis, Jack Garfein, Thorton Wilder, Serge Koussevitzky, Agnes de Mille, and Oliver Smith.
\nThe group of photographs entitled Places and Events shows Coplan Fontainebleau and Aldeburgh; in Paris, Germany, England, Peru, Israel, and Mexico; at Nadia Boulanger's studio with other students; at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Tanglewood; and at the University of Kansas, Brown University and Columbia University.
\nAaron Copland was best known first as a composer and later, in the 1960s and '70s, as a conductor. His name is less frequently associated with literary endeavors. The\u00a0Writings\u00a0portion of the\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0suggests that in this respect his reputation should perhaps be revised: it includes a vast array of articles, lectures, speeches, book drafts, and radio and television commentaries that span the years 1925 to 1988. The long stream of Copland's literary efforts began with an article written for publication in 1925, shortly after his return to the United States from three years in Paris, and continued into the late 1970s and early 1980s. He displayed the same technique in his writings that he did in his music: that is, a frequent self-borrowing in which he used the same material in different media.
\nThe writings selected for this online collection comprise eighty-six items. The selections represent unpublished drafts of material for articles, lectures, and speeches. Some selections display Copland's literary processes in thoughtful revisions, word changes, rearranging, and other editorial techniques. He usually began with handwritten notes or drafts and proceeded through several typewritten drafts before creating a final unmarked typewritten version. (Example: \"A Visit to Snape,\"\u00a0Version 2\u00a0and\u00a0Version 3\u00a0) Not every literary work in the Aaron Copland Collection illustrates this transformation, however. The lectures and speeches display another aspect of Copland's literary endeavors: the fact that he underscored almost every word in red or blue pencil. Because he probably made these markings to help him deliver his speeches, they recapture something of the sound as well as the thought of his vocal presentations. They also add a colorful element to the handwritten and typed drafts.
\nLike many conductors, Copland used a similar device in his conducting scores, where red and blue pencil markings draw the eye to changes in time signature, dynamics, and the entrances of instruments. [Example:\u00a0\"Talk on Leonard Bernstein\"]
\nWhatever their intended uses, the online examples of Copland's unpublished writings can be grouped into four categories: autobiographical, about Copland's music, about other composers, and about other people.
\nThe two autobiographical titles contrast the esoteric concerns of\u00a0\"Music and the Human Spirit\", in which Copland addresses \"the creation of an art music\" as one of \"humanity's truly unique achievements,\" with the practicality of\u00a0\"The Composer as Conductor\"\u00a0in which he recalls that \"Some twenty years ago, during the course of a memorable evening at the Stravinskys' home in Los Angeles, the venerable maestro turned to me and said in no uncertain terms: 'My dear, you should conduct your own music. All composers should conduct their own music!'\"
\nThe writings about Copland's music highlight eleven of Copland's compositions in five different media. Writings on two ballets describe his collaboration with Martha Graham (Appalachian Spring) and his work with Lincoln Kirstein on the story forBilly the Kid, (\"About\u00a0Billy the Kid\" and\u00a0\"Notes on a Cowboy Ballet\"). Copland discusses the creation of his three major solo piano works,\u00a0Piano Fantasy\", \"Piano Sonata,\" and \"Piano Variations,\" in two different lectures under the title Compositional Phases [on My Three Piano Works].\" An article about the 1925 orchestral work\u00a0Music for the Theatre\u00a0summarizes the reaction of audiences, musicians, and reviewers in the United States and Europe, including the performance by the New York Symphony Orchestra in which its conductor, Dr. Walter Damrosch, had \"revenge in the end.\" Copland wrote\u00a0A Visit to Snape\u00a0for a tribute to Benjamin Britten on his fiftieth birthday; in it, he extols the \"kind of composer rapport\" between them and the \"exchange of musical impressions\" between his own \"The Second Hurricane\" and Britten's Piano Concerto No. 1.
\nAs the composer of several film scores, Copland was frequently asked to lecture or write about composing for the movies. In his discussions on the subject, Copland speaks not only about his experiences and the scores he wrote, but about other film composers and working in Hollywood. In\u00a0\"Film Music\", a lecture given at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library in 1940, Copland briefly describes Hollywood and the mysterious nature of film music. He talks about the music he wrote for the film\u00a0Of Mice and Men; four film composers, Eric Korngold, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, and Herbert Stoddard; and some of their film scores. By the time he gave the lecture\u00a0\"Film Talk\"\u00a0at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971, Copland's credentials as a film composer included six feature films and two documentaries. On that occasion, excerpts from three features (Something Wild,\u00a0The Red Pony, and\u00a0The Heiress) and one documentary (The City) were screened as he commented on how music may help a film and how one sets music to a film.
\nThe largest category of writings in this online collection centers on Copland's views about other composers. In these works, Copland speaks not only about his American contemporaries but about Mozart\u00a0(\"At the Thought of Mozart\"), Berlioz\u00a0(\"Berlioz - from the Composer's Standpoint\"), and\u00a0Pierre Boulez;Composers in Russia\u00a0and the\u00a0Composers of South America; Michael Tippett (\"Cousin Michael\"),\u00a0Darius Milhaud, Dmitri Shostakovitch (\"Dmitri Shostakovitch and the New Simplicity\"),\u00a0Gabriel Faur\u00e9,\u00a0Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler\u00a0(\"Mahler (XX Cent[ury]\"),\u00a0Igor Stravinsky, Serge Prokofieff [Sergey Prokofiev]\u00a0(\"On the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Serge Prokofieff\")\u00a0, Benjamin Britten\u00a0(\"Special Fondness for B.B. [Benjamin Britten]\")\u00a0, and\u00a0Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly. Copland was concerned above all with educating others about composers and their music, and in these writings he sometimes presents his personal viewpoints and reflections. At the National Arts Club in 1968, for example, he spoke about Leonard Bernstein's gifts and how it was \"impossible to imagine the American musical scene in the last quarter century without him.\" [Example:\u00a0\"LB\"]
\nAs Copland lived on through the century, he was asked to write celebratory epistles or obituaries about many of his contemporaries, whether they were composers or others who had influenced his life. These writings about other people offer Copland's portraits of his Parisian teacher, Nadia Boulanger\u00a0(\"Intro[duction] of N[adia] Boulanger as Teacher\"); his early theory teacher, Rubin Goldmark(\"Rubin Goldmark: A Tribute\"); his publisher, Ralph Hawkes\u00a0(\"Ralph Hawkes: In Memoriam\")\u00a0; his friend and colleague at the League of Composers,Claire Reis; and his long-time supporter, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky\u00a0(\"Serge Koussevitzky - The 100th Anniversary [unpublished writings]\"). \"It is almost forty years since first I rang the bell at Nadia Boulanger's Paris apartment . . . \" begins the 1960 tribute to his teacher,\u00a0(\"The Teacher: Nadia Boulanger\"), the person who was most influential in molding and forming the composer Aaron Copland.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Individual Composers"], "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 941}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "photo, print, drawing", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "aaron copland collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["individual composers", "performing arts", "history", "composer", "copland, aaron", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ahii/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ahii"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["sebah & joaillier", "abdullah fr\u00e8res", "abd\u00fclhamid ii"], "count": 1825, "date": "1880", "dates": ["[1880 TO 1893]", "1880"], "description": ["This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/500_500.jpg"], "index": 4, "item": {"aka": ["ahii", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945"], "digitized": 1823, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.
\r\nAbdul-Hamid (1842-1918), an avid collector and promoter of photography, appears to have conceived the work as a portrait of his empire for a western audience. He presented a copy of the survey to the Library of Congress in 1893 or 1894. He also gave another almost identical collection to the British Museum (now in the British Library).
\r\nWell-known Ottoman commercial photographers such as Abdullah Fr\u00e8res, S\u00e9bah & Joaillier, and Ph\u00e9bus took the bulk of the photographs. Turkish military photographer Ali Riza Pasa and the Photographic Unit of the Imperial School of Engineering also contributed numerous images.
\r\nThe images show students and educational facilities, including law, medical and military schools; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. The collection also documents historic Byzantine and Ottoman monuments, mosques, mosaics, fountains, palaces, and mausoleums, and includes panoramic landscapes and urban scenes. Other photographs depict Abdul Hamid's Yildiz Palace, yacht, and horses.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/", "research-centers": ["prints-and-photographs"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Photographs, Prints and Posters", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East"], "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1824}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/", "language": ["turkish, ottoman (1500-1928)"], "location": ["middle east", "bursa", "greece", "ottoman empire", "bosporus", "turkey", "istanbul"], "number": ["2003652945", "2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "number_lccn": ["2003652945"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul hamid ii collection", "prints and photographs division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["turkey", "cityscapes", "world cultures & history", "group portraits", "middle east", "photographs, prints and posters", "ottoman empire", "portrait photographs", "photograph albums", "albumen prints", "arts and culture", "hamid ii, abdul", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/hamidbooks/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 325, "description": ["In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\""], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 5, "item": {"aka": ["hamidbooks"], "digitized": 321, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\"
\r\nThe Sultan's gift arrived in the U.S. Capitol, where the Library of Congress was housed, until the Jefferson Building was completed and they could be unpacked and shelved.
\r\nIn the 1907 Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam stated: \"About 400 volumes, bound in red Morocco with gilt edges, have been given by the present Sultan, Ghasee Abdul-Hamid II. They comprise works of native authorship, also translations from European languages of works on Medicine, History, Law, Mathematics, Arts, Drama, Fiction, etc.\"
\r\nThe remarkable story of how the Sultan met and befriended Abram Stevens Hewitt (1822-1903), Member from New York's 10th district, reported in the New York Tribune (July 13, 1884), began while Hewitt and his young son were touring around St. Sophia and palace grounds in Constantinople during a very hot day. When the young boy fainted, he was taken to the guard house where two other boys his age observed all the excitement and reported back to their father, the Sultan, what they had seen.\u00a0Their father dispatched his emissaries to Hewitt's hotel to inquire about his son's well-being and to request that he and his son visit the palace the next day.
\r\nDuring the visit, the Sultan noticed Hewitt's indelible pencil and special cigarettes which resulted in a gift shipment to Abdul-Hamid II when Hewitt returned home. Shortly thereafter, Hewitt received a notice that he owed $1,480 in customs duties on a shipment of Ottoman books. He wrote back to the Sultan that he didn't deserve such an honor and that the Sultan should give the books to the Library of Congress. The Sultan agreed and had the special collection prepared for the Library and invited Hewitt to keep the first set for himself. Hewitt paid the duty and this set is now in the New York University Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
\r\nBy 1984, it was determined that the Abdul-Hamid II gift books had become very brittle with paper that was too fragile to serve to researchers and a decision was made to microfilm the collection. 309 books and serials have been scanned from this microfilm for this digital collection. There are 26 existent Abdul-Hamid II books which also have been digitized.
", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 321}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul-hamid ii collection of books and serials gifted to the library of congress", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "middle east", "arts and culture", "middle eastern studies", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincoln/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000005"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["lincoln, abraham"], "count": 20207, "description": ["The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 6, "item": {"aka": ["lincoln", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189"], "digitized": 20157, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). \u00a0Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.
\nTreasures in the collection include Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses, his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, the two earliest known copies of the Gettysburg Address (the Nicolay and Hay copies), his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest, and a condolence letter written to Mary Todd Lincoln by Queen Victoria following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln’s Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.
\nNotable correspondents include Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, Edward Bates, Montgomery Blair, Salmon P. Chase, Schuyler Colfax, David Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, John Hay, Andrew Johnson, Reverdy Johnson, Mary Todd Lincoln, George Brinton McClellan, George Gordon Meade, Edwin D. Morgan, John G. Nicolay, William S. Rosecrans, William Henry Seward, Horatio Seymour, Caleb B. Smith, Edwin McMasters Stanton, Charles Sumner, Lyman Trumbull, E. B. Washburne, and Gideon Welles.
\nThe Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, created by the Manuscript Division in 1960 after the bulk of the collection was microfilmed, provides a full list of the correspondents and notes the series number, dates, and mounting-sheet numbers for items in Series 1-3 of the Abraham Lincoln Papers. This information, in addition to the keyword search capability in the online presentation, is helpful in finding individual letters or documents in the online version. Additional letters received by the Library after 1960 are not listed in this index.
\nA current finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Abraham Lincoln Papers is also available online.
\nAbraham Lincoln’s papers were acquired by gifts, transfers, deposits, purchases, and reproductions during the years 1901-2013. The Lincoln Papers came to the Library of Congress from Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), who arranged for their organization and care shortly after his father was assassinated on April 14, 1865. At that time, Robert Todd Lincoln had the Lincoln Papers removed to Illinois, where they were first organized under the direction of Judge David Davis of Bloomington, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln's longtime associate. Later, Lincoln’s presidential secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, assisted in the project. In 1874, most of the Lincoln Papers returned to Washington, D.C., and Nicolay and Hay used them in the research and writing of their ten-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History (New York, 1890). Robert Todd Lincoln deposited the Lincoln Papers with the Library of Congress in 1919, and deeded them to the Library on January 23, 1923. The deed stipulated that the Lincoln Papers remain sealed until twenty-one years after Robert Todd Lincoln’s death. On July 26, 1947, the Lincoln Papers were officially opened to the public.
\nThe most complete account of the early history of the Abraham Lincoln Papers appears in volume 1 of David C. Mearns, The Lincoln Papers (Garden City, N.Y., 1948), 3-136. An article by the same author which appeared in the December 1947 issue of the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly External contains the substance of the story. An additional history of the provenance of the collection was prepared for the Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, pp. v-vi, and subsequently reproduced in the finding aid (PDF and HTML). A version appears on this website as the essay Provenance of the Abraham Lincoln Papers.
\nSome Lincoln documents which had been retained by Nicolay were restored to the Lincoln Papers and were arranged as Series 2 to assure their identification. Other miscellaneous acquisitions are found in Series 3 and 4.
\nScanned images from the Abraham Lincoln Papers first became available online in 2001 as the American Memory website Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcriptions prepared for roughly half of the documents by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College were added in 2002. The present iteration of the online Abraham Lincoln Papers is an updated version of the American Memory site, with additional features, original materials not included in the previous presentation, and the replacement of images scanned from the microfilm edition with full-color images scanned from the original documents.
\nThe Abraham Lincoln Papers are arranged in five series. All of the documents contained in Series 1-3 are reproduced online, as are the original materials contained in Series 4. \u00a0Although collection items in the online presentation are described at the item level, they may be accessed in groups at the Series level.\u00a0 Individual document headings and available transcriptions can be searched by keyword.
\nSeries 1, General Correspondence and Related Documents, 1833-1916
\n\tConsists of manuscripts inherited by Robert Todd Lincoln, which have been designated “The Robert Todd Lincoln Collection of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.” Series 1 includes the so-called “Carpet Bag Documents,” which were stored in a carpet bag that suffered water damage. A list of the “Carpet Bag Documents” created in 1874 by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay is available in this series.
Series 2, Additional Correspondence, 1858-1865
\n\tComprised of correspondence retained by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay, which remained with the Nicolay Papers (received by the Library in 1947) until August 1959, when the letters were removed and reincorporated with the Lincoln Papers.
Series 3, Miscellaneous, 1837-1897
\n\tIncludes single or small numbers of manuscripts which have been acquired by the Library of Congress from a variety of sources.
Series 4, Addenda, 1774-1948
\n\tThe addenda to the Abraham Lincoln Papers consists mostly of reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1774-1887. Reproductions of documents held by the National Archives are not represented on this online collection, nor are published materials. Original items contained in Series 4 are included in this online collection and include letters written by Abraham Lincoln, an autobiographical sketch written in 1859 at the request of Jesse W. Fell, mourning cards, political ephemera, a pen purportedly used by Abraham Lincoln, and papers omitted as not being integral to the collection when it was microfilmed and indexed in 1960. Please consult the collection finding aid (PDF and HTML) for more detailed information about the contents of Series 4.
Oversize, 1776-1865
\n\tIncludes original correspondence and facsimile reproductions, certificates, pardons, a petition, a poem, pen, and printed matter. Images of all oversize materials in Series 1-3 and original materials in Series 4 are included in the online presentation and appear with the series from which they were withdrawn when rehoused as part of an oversize series. Oversize facsimiles and reproductions were not included in the online presentation.
Transcriptions Included on this Website
\nTranscriptions are included for about 10,000 items (about half of the online collection). The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois performed the editorial work, which included selecting the documents to be transcribed. Their choices were based on either a document's historical importance or as representative of the president’s unsolicited incoming mail. Annotated transcriptions were provided for all of the documents in Lincoln's own hand and for secretarial copies of Lincoln documents located in Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers. Many of the other transcriptions were also annotated to aid users in identifying the people involved and in better understanding the content and historical contexts. Annotations for Lincoln's autograph documents usually include a headnote providing historical and documentary context, as well as annotations on the content of the document. Annotations for incoming correspondence typically identify persons and organizations writing to Lincoln or referred to in the documents, explain terms and events, and provide brief historical context. Together, these fully searchable transcriptions and annotations dramatically extend access to the Abraham Lincoln Papers and enhance their teaching and research value. For more information on transcriptions in the Abraham Lincoln Papers see the essay Editors’ Preface to the Transcriptions.
\n\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "The Presidency and the Executive Branch", "Abraham Lincoln"], "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 20157}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "illinois"], "number": ["mm78030189", "2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78030189"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "abraham lincoln papers at the library of congress"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "national expansion and reform", "civil war and reconstruction", "american history and civilization", "the presidency and the executive branch", "government, law & politics", "abraham lincoln", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 22, "date": "2009", "dates": ["2009"], "description": ["The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies, banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 7, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570"], "digitized": 20, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "\n
\n The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically\n the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies,\n banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights\n initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and\n parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the\n founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003.\n
\n\nCollection Period: July 2009 to December 2010.
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture monthly, with fewer targeted for capture weekly.
\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "United States"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Human Rights", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["afghanistan", "united states"], "number": ["2019210570", "online resource", "2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210570"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "afghanistan web archive", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "world cultures & history", "government, law & politics", "human rights", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-iran/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 437, "date": "2015", "dates": ["2015"], "description": ["This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 8, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-iran", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408"], "digitized": 230, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\nMay 2015 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly, with some targeted for capture twice-yearly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, with Urdu, Pashto, Tajik and the Persian dialects of Farsi and Dari.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n\n\t\n\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 230}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/", "language": ["urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "pushto"], "location": ["afghanistan", "tajikistan", "iran", "pakistan"], "number": ["2019210408", "online resource", "2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210408"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["afghanistan, iran, pakistan and tajikistan government web archive", "digital collections", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-elections-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 183, "date": "2014", "dates": ["2014"], "description": ["The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 9, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-elections-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661"], "digitized": 124, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\n
March 2014 to October 2014\n
May 2017 to present (this is an ongoing archive)
Frequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, with fewer sites targeted for capture monthly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, Persian, Urdu, Tajik, Pushto/Pashto, and Russian.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Political Science", "Elections", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 124}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/", "language": ["russian", "urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "tajik", "pushto"], "location": ["tajikistan", "international organizations", "iran", "pakistan", "afghanistan"], "number": ["online resource", "2020210661", "2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2020210661"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "afghanistan, iran, pakistan, and tajikistan elections web archive", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "elections", "history", "government, law & politics", "middle eastern studies", "political science"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ccg-aaballet/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2024003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["johnson, virginia", "adelekun, jasmine", "cooper, sylvia", "washington, delaney", "bullard, micah", "robinson, kira", "welters, lynn b.", "rosebar, erin", "williams, stephanie rae", "brockington, derek", "thurmon, kamilah", "wright, david", "american folklife center", "andrew w. mellon foundation", "fortune, sandra (fortune-green)", "welters, raigan", "rego, luis fernando", "davis, kouadio", "dickerson, ariana", "haynes, kahina", "hutchinson, alexandra", "jones, alexandra rene", "davis-williams, beatrice", "gibson, felicia"], "count": 15, "date": "2024", "dates": ["2024"], "description": ["This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/500_500.jpg"], "index": 10, "item": {"aka": ["ccg-aaballet", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311"], "digitized": 207, "formats": ["audio", "film-and-videos", "photos", "manuscripts"], "html_content": "This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Ballet", "Dance"], "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "topics": ["African American History", "Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 207}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["washington d.c."], "number": ["2024655311", "2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "number_lccn": ["2024655311"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "film, video", "photo, print, drawing", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "african american ballet in washington, d.c.: a legacy in motion"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "ballet", "local history & folklife", "dance", "interviews", "oral histories", "sound recordings", "performing arts", "video recordings", "digital photographs", "arts and culture", "color", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/murray/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603", "https://www.loc.gov/item/99483603"], "campaigns": [], "count": 893, "date": "1875", "dates": ["[1875 TO 1900]"], "description": ["\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 11, "item": {"aka": ["murray", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603"], "digitized": 353, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others.
\r\n\r\nThe 800 + titles in the collection include sermons on racial pride and political activism; annual reports of charitable, educational, and political organizations; and college catalogs and graduation orations from the Hampton Institute, Morgan College, and Wilberforce University. Also included are biographies, slave narratives, speeches by members of Congress, legal documents, poetry, playbills, dramas, and librettos. Other materials focus on segregation, voting rights, violence against African Americans, the colonization of Africa by freed slaves, anti-slavery organizations and investigative reports. Several of the items are illustrated with portraits of the authors.
\r\n\r\n\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00", "01", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization", "African-American History", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Slavery and Abolition"], "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "topics": ["African American History"], "total": 353}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/", "location": ["north america"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "african american perspectives: materials selected from the rare book collection", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "african american", "national expansion and reform", "civil rights", "civil war and reconstruction", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "rise of industrial america", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "slavery and abolition", "african-american history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/anedub/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.38447", "http://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.38447/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.anedub"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["calloway, thomas j.", "daniel murray collection (library of congress)", "du bois, w. e. b. (william edward burghardt)"], "count": 557, "date": "1899", "dates": ["1900", "1899"], "description": ["The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1"], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/500_500.jpg"], "index": 12, "item": {"aka": ["anedub", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657"], "digitized": 484, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1
\nDu Bois and Thomas J. Calloway, who was named special agent for the Exposition, spearheaded the planning, collection and installation of the exhibit materials, which included 500 photographs, as well as 32 charts, numerous maps, and a display of 200 books written by African Americans. Calloway's report to the U.S. Commissioner-General for the exposition mentions such sources of photographs as:
\nThe Library of Congress holds approximately 220 mounted photographs reportedly displayed in the exhibition (LOTs11293-11308), as well as material specially compiled by Du Bois: four photograph albums showing \"Types\" and \"Negro Life\" (LOT 11930); three albums entitled \"The Black Code of Georgia, U.S.A.,\" offering transcriptions of Georgia state laws relating to blacks, 1732-1899 (LOT 11932); and 72 drawings charting the condition of African Americans at the turn of the century (LOT 11931).
\nThe materials cataloged online include all of the photos in LOT 11930, and any materials in the other groups for which copy negatives have been made.
\nThe African Government Web Archive provides links to information from key African government ministries, institutions and organizations for the 51 countries in Africa south of the Sahara. This will ensure that the Library of Congress and the United States Congress have ongoing access to information from Africa and to official 'born digital' government publications from African nations. The digital initiative adds to the Library\u2019s existing vast collection of resources from Africa and is part of its continuing efforts to seek documentation in all formats to support current research and future scholarly activities.
\r\n\r\nGovernment ministries websites, such as those concerned with commerce, economic development, social welfare, and foreign affairs, were particularly targeted for archiving. Often these sites are document-rich in all formats, including PDFs, videos and social media, with vital primary source materials such as annual reports, development plans, economic reports, budgets, statistics and foreign affairs. Coverage and priorities among the countries vary greatly.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period:\tNovember 2014 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis or once.
\r\n\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English, with French, Portuguese, Swahili, Somali, Arabic, and other languages.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Angola", "Benin", "Botswana", "Burkina Faso", "Burundi", "Cameroon", "Cape Verde", "Central African Republic", "Chad", "Comoros", "Cote d'Ivoire", "Darfur", "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Djibouti", "Equatorial Guinea", "Eritrea", "Ethiopia", "Gabon", "Gambia", "Ghana", "Guinea", "Guinea Bissau", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Kenya", "Lesotho", "Liberia", "Madagascar", "Malawi", "Mali", "Mauritius", "Mozambique", "Namibia", "Niger", "Nigeria", "Republic of Congo", "Rwanda", "Sao Tome and Principe", "Senegal", "Seychelles", "Sierra Leone", "Somalia", "South Africa", "South Sudan", "Swaziland/Eswatini", "Tanzania", "Togo", "Uganda", "Zambia", "Zimbabwe"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "African Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/", "language": ["arabic", "french", "swahili", "english", "amharic", "portuguese"], "location": ["zambia", "lesotho", "swaziland/eswatini", "zimbabwe", "burkina faso", "international organizations", "republic of congo", "iran", "seychelles", "malawi", "mali", "benin", "south sudan", "angola", "djibouti", "rwanda", "south africa", "mozambique", "uganda", "sierra leone", "burundi", "guinea", "gabon", "niger", "ghana", "c\u00f4te d'ivoire", "mauritius", "botswana", "sub-saharan africa", "sao tome and principe", "chad", "central african republic", "senegal", "nigeria", "comoros", "darfur", "gambia", "guinea bissau", "togo", "namibia", "kenya", "equatorial guinea", "eritrea", "somalia", "democratic republic of the congo", "tanzania", "cape verde", "ethiopia", "madagascar", "liberia", "cameroon"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000", "2019210589"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210589"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "african government web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aabm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 308, "date": "1883", "dates": ["[1883 TO 1923]"], "description": ["The core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-band-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 14, "item": {"aka": ["aabm"], "digitized": 357, "formats": ["notated-music", "audio"], "html_content": "\nThe core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays.
\n\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/african-american-band-music/images/aa-stocks-home.jpg\")
\nThe Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. Some of the music of this period, including that composed by African-Americans, features words, phrases, and \"dialect\" portrayals that can be considered offensive and demeaning. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, but is displaying this little-known facet of American history in order to draw attention to the struggles and triumphs of the great African-American musicians of a century ago.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/stocks/stocks-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Music"], "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "topics": ["African American History", "Performing Arts"], "total": 363}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "african-american band music & recordings, 1883-1923"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "recordings", "performing arts", "african-americans", "band music", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-postcards/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 1300, "description": ["The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 15, "item": {"aka": ["africana-postcards"], "digitized": 1295, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960.
\nThe Africana Historic Postcard Collection has significant value for researchers and students working on sub-Saharan Africa’s colonial life and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to documenting representations of African life from a specific period of time, postcard images also chronicle the transformation of cultural, political and social landscapes in the African continent.
\nMost of the postcard imagery from the African colonies was taken by military and colonial officials, missionary workers and professional photographers. Images unique to the collection include the works of Ukrainian-born postcard photographer-producer Casimir Zagourski (1883-1944) and prolific French photographer and ethnographer Francois Edmond Fortier (1862-1928) who disseminated the most comprehensive photographic record of West Africa. African postcard photographers include notable names such as Alphonso Lisk-Carew from Sierra Leone, Demba N’Diaye from Senegal, W.S. Johnston from Gold Coast (now Ghana) or Sierra Leone, F.W.H. Arkurst from Gold Coast, Frederick Grant from Gold Coast, N. Walwin Holm from Gold Coast and Alex Agbablo Accolatse from Togo.
\n", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1295}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "africana historic postcard collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/pearl/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections//"], "campaigns": [], "count": 139, "date": "1941", "dates": ["[1941 TO 1942]"], "description": ["After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/500_500.jpg"], "index": 16, "item": {"aka": ["pearl", ""], "digitized": 58, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II.
\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/images/pseeger.jpg\")
\n\tThe 1941 recordings were made as a part of the the Library of Congress' Radio Research Project. A portion of this project aimed to create documentary recordings of Americans from around the country who described their lives, sang their songs, and told the stories of their own regions. The project's staff believed that most commercial radio broadcasts of the day were dominated by programs created in the great urban centers and that these programs failed to reflect regional culture, local talent, and, in particular, the voices of the people speaking in their own words. Alan Lomax was serving as folklore consultant for the project when he sent the December 8, 1941 telegram, asking fieldworkers to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions. This request resulted in approximately four and one half hours of recordings that were used to create a fifteen-minute radio program for the Mutual Broadcasting System.
\nA second set of recordings, in which the interviewees were asked to address their thoughts and opinions on the attack and the declaration of war directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was made under the auspices of the Office of Emergency Management in January and February 1942. These recordings total approximately seven and one half hours and were also used to create a radio program, entitled \"Dear Mr. President,\" which was broadcast in May 1942. Pete Seeger and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) recorded original songs for the \"Dear Mr. President\" interviews. Included in this presentation are Pete Seeger's \"Dear Mr. President\" and \"The Martins and Coys.\"
\nIn most cases, the recordings were digitized by Library of Congress staff directly from the discs on which they were originally recorded. The only editing redacted interviewee names from several recordings and removed Leadbelly's two songs for which permissions have not yet been received. Otherwise, the recordings are presented as they were originally recorded.
\nThis online presentation includes one essay: \"Making and Maintaining the Original Recordings.\" Also included are biographies of the fieldworkers who conducted and arranged the interviews, complete transcripts of the interviews, related manuscripts, and original disc sleeves.
\nThis online presentation also includes a set of interviews conducted in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. During the course of these interviews, Library interviewers advised some interviewees that the interviews would not be broadcast. Presumably, the agreement to safeguard the identity of these persons was intentional, as some of the interviewees worked for the Federal government and/or otherwise required anonymity in order to participate. For this reason, the Library has edited the Washington, D.C., audiotapes and transcripts to remove interviewee names.
\nThis presentation was made possible with the generous support of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the New Deal Network.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Great Depression & World War II, 1929-1945", "World War II"], "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 58}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "after the day of infamy: \"man-on-the-street\" interviews following the attack on pearl harbor", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "interviews", "pearl harbor", "world war ii", "labor disputes", "racial prejudice", "lomax, alan", "great depression & world war ii", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:04.735Z", "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-quilt/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2019048"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["jones, cleve", "names project foundation", "rhoad, julie"], "count": 5164, "date": "1980", "dates": ["1980"], "description": ["This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/500_500.jpg"], "index": 17, "item": {"aka": ["aids-quilt", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world.
\nThese records were maintained by NAMES Project staff from 1987 until their donation to the American Folklife Center in 2019. AFC continues to receive regular accruals to the panel maker files from the National AIDS Memorial. This digital collection presents the manuscript and still image panel maker records for Quilt panels that are more than 25 years old. Records concerning panels that are less than 25 years old and other media formats are available onsite in the Folklife Reading Room.
\nA typical panel file contains a letter written by a panel’s maker. These moving and heartfelt letters often include memories and descriptions of the AIDS victim memorialized on the panel, or explain the maker’s motivations. The files also often contain obituaries, news clippings, and funeral service prayer cards. Files sometimes contain photos of the memorialized or photos of the Quilt panel being crafted. Occasionally the file contains records created by the AIDS victim before their death \u2013 mostly writings or other artworks. Files also contain NAMES Project administrative records about the panels. These administrative documents vary in depth and utility. Not every Memorial Quilt panel has a corresponding panel maker file \u2013 many panels were submitted without accompanying records.
\n\nDigitization of this collection was made possible by the Ford Foundation.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "American History", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2019655313", "2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2019655313"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "aids memorial quilt records", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "records (documents)", "ephemera", "sound recordings", "correspondence", "digital photographs", "video recordings", "arts and culture", "color", "registers (lists)", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-ezochi/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 93, "description": ["This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 18, "item": {"aka": ["ainu-ezochi"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books", "maps"], "html_content": "This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka.
\r\nFrom the viewpoint of ethnic Japanese, or Wajin as the Ainu called them, these northern lands were collectively known as Ezo or Ezochi (\"Ezo land\"), a name suggestive of less civilized or culturally inferior peoples. Beginning in the 17th century, the Wajin began pushing further into historically Ainu lands, establishing a foothold on the southern part of Hokkaido. In contrast to Ezochi, where the Ainu predominated, territory in this northerly region that was controlled by ethnic Japanese became known as Wajinchi (\"Wajin land\"). During the 18th and 19th centuries, growing numbers of Wajin set out to explore, survey, and map Ezochi for political, military, and economic reasons.
\r\nIn the 1870s, the Japanese central government, as part of its mission to modernize and strengthen the country as a bulwark against the Western imperial powers, set out on a colonizing mission of its own\u2014to settle Ezochi with Japanese citizens, reap the benefits of its natural resources, and bring it firmly under Japanese sovereignty. The Ainu, who were primarily hunters and fishers, were displaced from their lands and forced into a settled Japanese agricultural lifestyle. Ainu language and customs were rejected as \"uncivilized\" and children were forced to attend newly created public schools to hasten their assimilation as imperial Japanese subjects. Today, the number of ethnic Ainu remains difficult to identify precisely, but estimates range from 20,000 up to 200,000.
\r\nThe materials in the Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection primarily cover the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest item in the collection is Ezo shi (\"Ezo gazeteer\") dating to around 1720, by the noted scholar and high-ranking bureaucrat Arai Hakuseki. This work is the oldest known publication about the Ainu and Ezochi that was based on first-hand accounts, rather than folklore or legends. Because the Ainu did not possess a written language, the materials in this collection include some of the earliest textual accounts of Ainu culture. They also include many color illustrations that document the Ainu people’s unique clothing, housing, cuisine, religion, family structures, and customs, albeit from the perspective of the Wajin rather than the Ainu themselves.
", "research-centers": ["asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book", "map"], "partof": ["digital collections", "asian division", "ainu and ezochi rare collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-manuscripts/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2004004"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["american folklife center", "archive of american folk song", "association for cultural equity", "lomax, alan"], "count": 6613, "date": "1933", "dates": ["1933"], "description": ["The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/500_500.jpg"], "index": 19, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-manuscripts", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761"], "digitized": 770, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images.
\r\nThis presentation contains more than 500,000 pages of Alan Lomax’s personal papers and office files from his time at the Library of Congress (1932-1942) and from his post-Library career through the 1990s. Featured are Lomax’s writing projects such as Land Where the Blues Began (1993), the unpublished Big Ballad Book, as well as documentation of his extensive work in radio for the CBS and BBC networks. Also included are thousands of pages of field notes and correspondence associated with his field projects beginning in the 1930s.
\r\nThe 2004 acquisition of the Alan Lomax Collection was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the American Folklife Center, the Association for Cultural Equity External, and the generosity of an anonymous donor. This collection joins the material Alan Lomax collected during the 1930s and early 1940s for the Library's Archive of American Folk-Song, bringing together the entire seventy years of Alan Lomax's work under one roof at the Library of Congress.
\r\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\r\nTranscription datasets for this collection are available online at Transcription dataset from the Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 770}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/", "language": ["english", "french"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2004447761", "2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2004447761"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "other_title": ["Former title: Alan Lomax archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["interviews", "folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "personal correspondence", "sound recordings", "manuscripts for publication", "performing arts", "correspondence", "songs", "ethnographic films", "video recordings", "motion pictures", "manuscripts", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-michigan/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc1939007"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["pohjala, aina", "gaza, v. sipoo", "thrasher, ed", "romel, adolph", "floriani, veko", "warslzyk, tony", "lomax, alan", "nemeth, kalman", "dobri\u010dan, lazar", "kubesh, john g.", "frazier, clara", "leclaire, leilia", "styes, archie", "carri\u00e8re, fred", "lewandowski, stephanie", "mcdonough, patrick", "kubien, rose", "hirvel\u00e4, w\u00e4in", "green, john w.", "king, edward", "marinetti, victor", "sainovi\u0107, ilija", "hulan", "forster, yalmer eino", "ketvirtis, charles", "lewandowski, stephan", "mcbride, bill", "tomi\u0107, pajo", "trivanovi\u0107, stefan", "gallagher, andrew e.", "palmer, mason", "kania, felix", "marttila", "scheffer, peter", "preda, emil milan", "baratono, art", "raj\u010devi\u0107, stepan", "cloud, clarence", "halinen, selma elona", "pol, thomas", "szabo, andy", "carri\u00e8re, dolphis", "happy jack woodward", "viita, frank", "frazier, viola", "velin, maria", "mccauley, edward", "rautanen, vernon", "bellaire, mose", "aho, pekka", "lewandowski, edwina", "o'donnell, mike j.", "wallen, mr", "bonner, daniel", "cadeau, john", "larson, nils", "trueblood, asel", "krawezak, b.", "cadeau, mathilda", "norman, john", "brideup, louis", "marczis, joseph", "romel, ted", "aho, lillian", "romel, leo", "romel, sylvester", "berky, nandor", "frazier, lonnie", "romel", "floriani, margaret", "gallagher, emerald", "vasvary, steve", "szilagyi, dizso", "meyers, herman", "kruczynski, clara", "archive of american folk song", "h\u00e4rk\u00f6nen, amanda", "pittman, sampson", "lewandowski, ted", "pope, allan c.", "simil\u00e4, gusti", "lathrop, carl", "miron, joe", "allen, perry", "vizina, adelore", "larson, john", "strzelecki, tony", "mccormick, ed", "marinetti, john", "frazier, calvin", "mccarthy, barney", "maki, frank", "vujanovi\u0107, stjepan", "bellaire, exilia", "floriani, vladimir", "olah, julius", "cadeau, ed", "gallagher, dominic", "rudzinski, alex", "fredrickson, john", "hyv\u00f6nen, john", "mahoski, henry", "cloud, joe", "wells, lester", "korvenpaa, charles", "basrak, stjepan", "bonner, patrick", "graham, bert", "niewiadomska, frances", "frazier, belle", "juhani, aapo", "jackson, andrew", "kallio, kalle", "fredrickson, kaisa", "grbi\u0107, ludevit", "maki, emil", "guzal, frank", "bangac, petar", "sielvankiewiez", "dragi\u0107, todor", "larson, steen", "ricksgers, joseph", "mat\u00e9", "pischner, helen", "erickson, max", "delmas, adolphus"], "count": 1270, "date": "1938", "dates": ["1938"], "description": ["In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/500_500.jpg"], "index": 20, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-michigan", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan.
\nThe Alan Lomax collection of Michigan and Wisconsin recordings (AFC 1939/007) documents Irish, Italian, Finnish, Serbian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Croatian, French Canadian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swedish songs and stories, as well as occupational folklife among loggers and lake sailors in Michigan and Wisconsin. Lomax’s itinerary took him from Detroit through the Saginaw River valley to the northern counties of the Lower Peninsula, including Beaver Island. Crossing the Straits of Mackinac, he collected across the Upper Peninsula to the far northern Calumet area and then along the Lake Superior coast to easternmost Wisconsin.
\nThe recordings in this collection and related collections in the American Folklife Center provide early documentation of the Upper Midwest’s rich culture. This collection is the result of a conscious decision by the Library of Congress to undertake regional documentation of American folk song in recognition that the voices of ordinary people have a place at the national library. The sound recordings in this online collection are presented in their raw form, as full disc sides without speed correction or other digital processing. The eight folders of manuscripts (primarily correspondence, song lists, and notes) and the films are not included at this time.
\n", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["wisconsin", "illinois", "michigan"], "number": ["2008700315", "2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "number_lccn": ["2008700315"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection of michigan and wisconsin recordings"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "finnish americans", "franco americans", "irish americans", "performing arts", "songs", "field recordings", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/schatz/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 12255, "description": ["Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/albert-schatz/500_500.jpg"], "index": 21, "item": {"aka": ["schatz"], "digitized": 12253, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti.
\r\nSchatz's poor health impeded the completion of his book; in 1908, he personally offered to sell his unparalleled libretto collection to Music Division Chief and friend Oscar Sonneck, who negotiated the purchase that same year. Later, after Schatz's death, the purchase of the manuscript portion of his collection, consisting of research papers and notes, was also arranged by Sonneck.
\r\nThe scope of this digital presentation comprises all 12,253 Schatz libretti; the images were generated from the Library's microfilm copy of that collection.
\r\n", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 12253}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["albert schatz collection", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/magbell/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000006"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["hubbard, gardiner g. (gardiner greene)", "bell, mabel gardiner hubbard", "bell, alexander melville", "fairchild, marian", "bell, alexander graham"], "count": 4715, "date": "1862", "dates": ["[1862 TO 1939]"], "description": ["The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 22, "item": {"aka": ["magbell", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268"], "digitized": 15032, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division.
\nThe Bell Family Papers is divided into several archival series, including Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, Laboratory Notebooks, Article File, and Speech File. The online presentation includes the following:
\n\nSeveral factors defined the selection of Bell Papers for digitization. The collection as a whole includes the personal papers of not only Alexander Graham Bell but also those of his father, mother, wife, father-in-law, and other family members. Because the Bell Papers are so numerous and inclusive, navigation through them can be difficult. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the selection process was to identify those materials which mainly focused on Alexander Graham Bell and his work, varied interests, and achievements. Another important goal was to choose those materials that best offered a well-rounded portrayal of Bell--not only as an inventor and scientist but also as a teacher, husband, and father. Items were also selected if they appeared historically useful or significant, such as correspondence pertaining to the development of the Bell Telephone Company or Mabel Hubbard Bell's written accounts of her experiences growing up deaf.
\nThe Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers were donated to the Library of Congress by his heirs in 1975. Prior to this donation, the papers were on deposit at the National Geographic Society, where they were organized and maintained. In order to make the collection easier to use, the Society prepared typed transcripts of a large portion of the handwritten letters. These valuable transcriptions were retained and have been reproduced here along with the original letters. Occasionally the original is missing and only the transcription is still available. One should keep in mind that these transcripts are now decades old and may occasionally be difficult to read due to faded, bleeding, or blurred text.
\nThe Bell Papers contain a considerable amount of correspondence, much of which reflects the writing practices of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As letter writing becomes less popular, some awareness of common, older practices may be helpful. Since the typical handwritten letter is essentially a single sheet of paper folded in half (and usually written on all four sides), the digital scan and display of each unfolded sheet usually show an image of pages four and one (or back and front), and another of pages three and two (or the inside two pages). Example Today's readers also should be aware of such papers-saving tactics as writing-over, or text over text. In such cases, the writer would literally write over a completed page, making the added words somewhat readable by turning the page sideways and writing horizontally against what were now vertical written lines. Example Surprisingly, if the writer was careful and lengthened his or her hand while also trying to write only in the spaces between lines, such letters can be read with little difficulty.
\n\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/images/03500220-1tc.jpg\")
\n\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/images/03500220-2tc.jpg\")
\n \n Letter from Alexander Graham Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell, November 19, 1876. Box 35, \"Subject File: Bell, Mabel Hubbard--Family Correspondence--Bell, Alexander Graham, August-November 1876.\" Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
\n \nExample of a folded letter with pages one and four on one side and pages three and two on the other.
\n \nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his\n\tpersonal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and\n\tcorrespondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families. The collection, consisting of approximately\n\t12,000 items dating from 1708 to 1917, documents Hamilton's impoverished Caribbean boyhood (scantily); events in the\n\tlives of his family and that of his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton; his experience as a Revolutionary War officer\n\tand aide-de-camp to General George Washington; his terms as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress\n\t(1782-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787); and his careers as a New York state legislator, United States\n\ttreasury secretary (1789-1795), political writer, and lawyer in private practice. Most of the papers date from 1777\n\tuntil Hamilton's death in 1804. Additional details may be found in the collection's finding aid (
Among the many correspondents in the papers are John Adams, Angelica Schuyler Church, Henry Clay, Elizabeth Schuyler\n\tHamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Rufus King, the Marquis de Lafayette, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, James McHenry,\n\tJames Monroe, Robert Morris, Timothy Pickering, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Philip Schuyler, Baron von Steuben,\n\tRobert Troup, George Washington, James Wilkinson, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
\nThe federal government bought the bulk of the Hamilton papers in 1848. They were transferred from the State\n\tDepartment to the Library of Congress in 1904. Additional papers came to the Library of Congress later through gifts\n\tand purchases from the Hamilton family and other sources. \u00a0Papers accumulated through 1981 were scanned from the\n\tmicrofilm edition made that year, and items acquired since were digitized from the originals.
\nBetween 1961 and 1987, Columbia University Press published a twenty-seven-volume edition of the Papers of\n\t\tAlexander Hamilton, edited by Harold C. Syrett. Between 1964 and 1981, Columbia University Law School\n\tpublished a five-volume-edition of Hamilton's legal papers, with Julius Goebel as editor. These two editions have\n\tbeen used as definitive sources in the verification of names and in the dating and identification of manuscripts in\n\tthe Hamilton Papers at the Library of Congress.
\nAlthough this collection is the largest gathering of Alexander Hamilton papers at the Library of Congress, there are\n\tsignificant additional groups of Hamilton letters and other papers in other Library of Congress collections, notably\n\tin the George Washington Papers. To\n\tidentify these collections, consult the bibliography under
The collection is arranged in eight series as follows.
\nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton Stephens (1812-1883), lawyer, journalist, governor of Georgia, member of both houses of the United States Congress, and vice president of the Confederate States of America, span the years 1784-1886, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1850-1883. \u00a0The collection consists primarily of correspondence, supplemented by an autobiography and journal and miscellaneous memoranda, legal documents, and clippings. \u00a0The papers are organized in three series: General Correspondence, Letters from Servants, and Autobiography and Journal.
\nThe correspondence, mainly letters received, touches on virtually all aspects of Stephens’s private and public life, focusing on the divisive issues leading to the Civil War, the operation of the Confederate government, and postwar problems and issues in the South. \u00a0Specific topics discussed include plantation management, slavery, Texas annexation, territorial expansion, political parties, states’ rights, the compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, secession, formation of the Confederate government, the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction in the South, and the disputed election of 1876. \u00a0Broader subjects include transportation, the tariff, education, and social, economic, and literary matters.
\n\nProminent correspondents include Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), Joseph E. Brown, Fitzwilliam Byrdsall, Henry Cleveland, Howell Cobb, Martin Crawford, A. H. Garland, John. B. Gordon, Paul Hamilton Hayne, William H. Hidell, Henry R. Jackson, Herschel V. Johnson, Richard Malcolm Johnson, L. Q. C. Lamar, James Ryder Randall, J. Henley Smith, Robert Augustus Toombs, James Iredell Waddell, and Ambrose R. Wright.
\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\nA transcription dataset for this collection is available online as part of Transcription dataset from \"'Such Eventful Times': Women and the American Civil War\", Manuscript Division. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics"], "total": 15032}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["confederate states of america", "united states", "georgia", "southern states", "texas"], "number": ["mm78041335", "2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78041335"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "alexander hamilton stephens papers"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "american history and civilization", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincolniana/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000004", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/lprbscsm.scsm1303"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["alfred whital stern collection of lincolniana (library of congress)", "library of congress", "stern, alfred whital"], "count": 1536, "date": "1824", "dates": ["[1809 TO 1865]", "1824"], "description": ["The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/500_500.jpg"], "index": 25, "item": {"aka": ["lincolniana", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901"], "digitized": 1529, "formats": ["books", "photos", "notated-music"], "html_content": "\nThe collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date.
\nAlfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his outstanding collection of Lincolniana to the Library of Congress in 1953. Stern began collecting in the 1920s. His collection documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics.
\nHighlights of the online collection include Lincoln's own scrapbook of the 1858 political campaign against Stephen A. Douglas; the Tiffany seed pearl necklace and bracelets that Lincoln gave to his wife, Mary Todd; a Lincoln life mask cast in bronze by Clark Mills, as well as the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the evening of his assassination. Probably the single most famous Lincoln manuscript in the collection is the January 26, 1863, letter to General Joseph Hooker, placing him in command of the Army of the Potomac.
\nAlfred Whital Stern's gift to the Library represents the most extensive collection of Lincolniana ever assembled by a private individual.
\nBelow is a listing of the types of items in the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.
\n| Types of Items in the Collection | \n\t\tNumber of Items | \n\t
|---|---|
| Advertisements | \n\t\t302 | \n\t
| Books | \n\t\t\u00a0 5 | \n\t
| Broadsides | \n\t\t515 | \n\t
| Correspondence | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Ephemera | \n\t\t206 | \n\t
| Government publications | \n\t\t33 | \n\t
| Humor, satire | \n\t\t76 | \n\t
| Legal cases and case notes | \n\t\t224 | \n\t
| Letters | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Manuscripts | \n\t\t298 | \n\t
| Maps | \n\t\t\u00a0\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Newspapers | \n\t\t296 | \n\t
| Pamphlets | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Periodicals | \n\t\t290 | \n\t
| Photographs | \n\t\t69 | \n\t
| Poetry | \n\t\t57 | \n\t
| Portraits | \n\t\t336 | \n\t
| Postcards | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Realia | \n\t\t24 | \n\t
| Sheet music | \n\t\t249 | \n\t
| Speeches | \n\t\t27 | \n\t
This collection highlights the history of the hymn “Amazing Grace” from the earliest printing of the song to selected performances of it on published and field recordings. These items have been collected from several divisions in the Library of Congress, including the Music Division, the American Folklife Center, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, and the Rare Books Division. Also available here is the Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection of data on published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by more than 3000 different musicians or ensembles. Since its creation in 1779 in England, \"Amazing Grace\" has grown in popularity to become one of the best-known hymns in America.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection at the Library of Congress comprises more than 3000 published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by different individual musicians or musical ensembles. The collection, compiled by Allan Chasanoff and Raymon Elozua, is undoubtedly the largest such collection of a single musical work in the recorded sound collection of the Library of Congress.
\nThe recordings in the Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection were made between the 1930s and 2000. The audio formats represented in the collection include: compact disc, mp3 files (all acquired legally), vinyl long-playing 33-1/3 rpm discs, 78 rpm discs, cassette tapes, and various video media.
\nThe full breadth of the collection is revealed by the great range of performance styles: big band, blues, classical, country, 'easy listening,' electronic, folk, gospel, different styles of jazz, 'novelty,' operatic, pop, rap, rock, rhythm 'n' blues, soul, and various ethnic, or 'world music,' styles. The wide array of performers include children's groups, religious ensembles, concert bands, bagpipers, steel guitarists, and American Indians.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection is available for public listening and research in the Recorded Sound Reference Center, Madison Building, Room LM 113. For more information, call 202-707-7833.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/grace/grace-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Amazing Grace", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "Religion & Philosophy"], "total": 49}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "book", "notated music"], "partof": ["amazing grace", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["revolution", "amazing grace", "recordings", "chasanoff/elozua", "articles", "religion & philosophy", "performing arts", "songs", "hymns", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "religion & philosophy"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Amazing Grace", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/work/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/collmbr.mi000002"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division", "paper print collection (library of congress)"], "count": 158, "date": "2000", "dates": ["[1894 TO 1915]", "2000"], "description": ["Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/500_500.jpg"], "index": 27, "item": {"aka": ["work", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557"], "digitized": 153, "formats": ["film-and-videos"], "html_content": "Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
\nAmerica at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 consists of 150 motion pictures, 62 of which also appear in other online collections. The majority of the films are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. Both of these collections have printed catalogs available in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room at the Library. The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century. The selection is limited, however, by what is available from these collections; not every possible occupation or leisure activity from the turn of the century is represented.
\nThe films in the Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from 1894 to 1912 as positive pictures on paper. Many were deposited in this manner on paper rolls frame by frame. For preservation and access purposes, the Library of Congress has made 16mm prints of these Paper Print titles, and has more recently been making 35mm prints of selected titles. For this presentation, 35mm and 16mm prints have been used as the original source material for digitization. Many of the 35mm prints have been produced especially for this Web presentation.
\nThe George Kleine Collection consists of films obtained by film distributor and producer George Kleine. The collection includes films produced from 1898 to 1926, representing films by the Edison Company, French and Italian imports, and those produced by Kleine. The collection contains both 35mm and 16mm prints.
\nLinks to films in other online collections, such as Inside an American Factory: The Westinghouse Works, 1904; The Last Days of a President: McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition; and Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies are also in the presentation to add further diversity to the films listed.
\nThe online collection offers films available in MPEG, QuickTime, and MP4. In the case of the first two formats, films are segmented when longer than four minutes so that file sizes will not be prohibitively large to download.
\n", "research-centers": ["moving-image"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Science, Technology and Business", "Business & Industry", "Technology", "American History", "American History and Civilization", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Sports, Recreation & Leisure", "Industrialization, Urbanization and Labor", "Recreational Activities"], "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "topics": ["Social & Business History", "Sports & Recreation"], "total": 153}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["online resource", "2001561557", "2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2001561557"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "film, video"], "partof": ["america at work, america at leisure: motion pictures from 1894-1915", "digital collections", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "business & industry", "american history and civilization", "progressive era to new era", "technology", "recreational activities", "george klein collection", "science, technology and business", "rise of industrial america", "paper print film", "sports, recreation & leisure", "motion pictures", "industrialization, urbanization and labor", "sports & recreation", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["social & business history", "sports & recreation"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ncss/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. rare book and special collections division"], "count": 4292, "date": "1999", "dates": ["[1775 TO 1910]", "1999"], "description": ["Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/500_500.jpg"], "index": 28, "item": {"aka": ["ncss", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463"], "digitized": 4290, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "\n\n Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.\n
\n\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/images/199.jpg\")
\n\tFor most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music. These were new songs being sung in music halls or new lyrics to familiar songs. Some of America's most beloved tunes were printed as song sheets, including \"The Star Spangled Banner\" and \"Battle Hymn of the Republic.\" Song sheets are an early example of a mass medium and today they offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and economic life of the time, especially during the Civil War. Some were dramatic, some were humorous; all of them had America joining together in song.
\n\nSong sheets first found popularity in the British Isles as early as the 1500s, but their popularity in the United States skyrocketed in the early nineteenth century, fueled by the introduction of the mechanized printing press. Historically, sheets had been printed in editions of fewer than one hundred copies, on hand presses, using type that had been manually set. The new technology of the industrial age allowed runs of more than one thousand copies, using engraved illustrations and \"plates\" of text that were often bought and sold among publishers.
\n\nPrinters used the \"relief\" method of printing, in which the raised portion of the plate is inked and used to make the impression. If by chance an intaglio plate is used, one in which the carved-out portion provides an image, the effect is not what the printer or reader might expect.
\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/images/200.jpg\")
\n\tPublishers who chose to include an illustration on a song sheet would typically select from the illustrated vignettes owned by the printing house. These depicted political and military figures, pastoral and industrial landscapes, scenes of battles, and social settings. Sometimes printers used generic illustrations if nothing else was available. For example, the song, \"Welcome Mother,\" is decorated with an illustration of the White House. The illustrations were sometimes colored, either by hand or with pre-cut blocks.
\nMany songs sheets employ the use of illustrative borders, usually cut from wood, that could be used to frame almost any plate of text. These frames usually include the printer's imprint and street address. A song sheet published by H. DeMarsan provides an example. Printers could use one of their own borders to frame the text acquired from a different printer. This interchangeability further encouraged the migration of plates between publishing houses.
\nThe date of publication seldom appears on song sheets, but it can sometimes be estimated quite accurately using a knowledge of a publisher's history, including changes in address and company name. For example, the prolific publisher J. H. Johnson was known with and without his initials, and set up shop in various locales throughout Philadelphia.
\n\n![\"\"](\"https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/media/loc.rbc.amss.as202070/001a.tif/128\")
\n\tThe proliferation of the mechanized printing press coincided with a period of expanding industrialization, immigration, and commerce in America. The relative ease and low cost of producing song sheets met the demand of a nation eager for a means of expression. By the height of their popularity, song sheets could be found almost everywhere. They were distributed in town squares, taverns, homes, and around camp fires. They are evidence of a country desiring to be heard, as well as to listen.
\nPerhaps most of all, there was a desire to sing with others. Often the song sheets provided new lyrics to a familiar song, like \"Yankee Doodle,\" or \"Just Before the Battle, Mother.\" Other sheets offered the lyrics of popular new songs. Among these, the byline commonly named the performer who sang the song, and where it was performed. \". . . To great acclaim,\" they often boast. \"Performed to swells of applause.\" A modern reader can assume that a degree of hyperbole is present in such proclamations. In spite of this, these rave reviews often hold clues about the original arrangements. Though the sheets do not include musical notation, a byline mentioning a performance by a \"celebrated banjoist\" gives a hint of what patrons heard and saw in the music hall.
\n\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/images/hc00005d.jpg\")
\n\tMany songs were written purely for entertainment. There are songs of love and songs of death. There were parodies of songs already well known and loved. \"The Last Potato,\" a culinary monologue to a tuber, is a parody of \"The Last Rose of Summer.\" There are tall tales such as \"Jack Muggins, or, the Donkey Balancer,\" about a farmer and his talented donkey.
\nOther song sheets were dramatic and serious. There are cautionary maxims about the hazards of alcohol, and critical responses to the temperance movement. There are songs of heartbreak. And of particular importance, there are songs about the Civil War, composed, performed, and published as events unfolded. Songs profess loyalty or disdain for statesmen and military leaders. They celebrate the bravery of individual regiments. They track shifting dominion throughout the course of the war, and report on specific battles, such as Antietam, Bull Run, and Spotsylvania.
\nAs well as reporting the facts of the war, some songs documented civilian attitudes toward it. These attitudes range from highly patriotic to guardedly hesitant. Songs like \"We Are Coming, Father Abraham\" are rallying cries. Others are less straightforward. \"Don't Draft Me, My Wife Has Got a Sick Baby, I Have to Stay Home to Give It Catnip Tea\" may express reluctance, or, if played for laughs, may subtly underscore the importance of patriotism.
\nThe patriotic muse is rarely so subtle in the mid-nineteenth century. Many of the Civil War songs are heavy with melodrama. \"Mother Kissed Me in My Dream\" and \"Let Me Kiss Him for His Mother\" tugged at the heartstrings, and had the power to strengthen the spirit of citizens on both sides of the war.
\nThe variety of subjects and viewpoints conveyed by song sheets make them a unique and indispensable historical resource. The title of this digital collection comes from Walt Whitman's poem \"I Hear America Singing.\" It was published in Leaves of Grass, at a time when song sheets were enjoying immense popularity. The nation had indeed been singing, and the songs they sang continue to tell the American story.
", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amsshtml/amsshome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Arts and Culture", "Music", "Sheet Music"], "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "American History"], "total": 4290}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["england", "united states"], "number": ["computer disc", "2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000", "2002564463"], "number_carrier_type": ["computer disc"], "number_lccn": ["2002564463"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "other_title": ["Nineteenth-century song sheets"], "partof": ["america singing: nineteenth-century song sheets", "digital collections", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["singing", "sheet music", "song sheet", "american history and civilization", "patriotism", "performing arts", "lyrics", "civil war", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:20.667Z", "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-250/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 55, "description": ["On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 29, "item": {"aka": ["america-250", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 53, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration.
\r\n\r\nThis web archive provides a representative record of federal, state, and local semiquincentennial commissions, as well as websites from cultural and professional organizations. It also preserves digital content reflecting commemorations, historical interpretation, and community experiences across the United States.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: September 28, 2023 to September 4, 2027.
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis, with some added to crawl once or quarterly.
\r\n\t\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English and Spanish.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites were added incrementally to the project as they were identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Spain", "United States"], "research-centers": ["newspaper-and-current-periodical"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "America250"], "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["African American History", "American History", "Art & Architecture", "Geography & Places", "Government, Law & Politics", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 53}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/", "location": ["spain", "united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "serial and government publications division", "america250 semiquincentennial web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "government, law & politics", "geography & places", "america250", "art & architecture", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "american history", "art & architecture", "geography & places", "government, law & politics", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "https://www.loc.gov/item/98801326", "http://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "http://www.loc.gov/item/98801326/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/collmus.mu000010"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. music division"], "count": 325, "date": "1998", "dates": ["[1490 TO 1929]", "1998"], "description": ["A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/500_500.jpg"], "index": 30, "item": {"aka": ["dance", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326"], "digitized": 204, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another.
\nLibrary of Congress staff selected this set of materials relating to ballroom (also called social) dance from various divisions and collections in the Library. Selections came from the General Collections, the Music Division, and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Hence, this web presentation is the only existing version of this special subject collection. Why these dance materials are in various locations throughout the Library is in itself a history of dance in the United States.
\nIt has long been a goal of the Library's dance specialists and of scholars using the collections to one day provide an annotated bibliography to these dance materials that would pull together, intellectually, what has for so long been physically divided. Finally, through the use of new technology we have been able to do far more than simply identify and describe these materials. We have been able to bring the vast majority of these materials to the user in their entirety, and in most cases we have also been able to provide full text searching capability. These tools will assist scholars in the analysis and study of the manuals in ways that have never been possible before. This Web access of the dance instructions will also allow dancers around the world to download and learn these dances, which up until now, were only available to the dedicated scholar who searched several catalogs at the Library of Congress or at other libraries in New York, Paris, or London.
\nNo selection is ever complete or perfect. Inevitably inclusions and exclusions must be made for a whole list of practical reasons, unrelated to an item's presence or absence from our collections. Please forgive the exclusion of your favorite manual or treatise. We invite the user to locate additional manuals and treatises in their local libraries, on other Web sites, or even in their grandma's attic.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Theater and Dance", "Dance"], "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 204}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000", "98801326"], "number_lccn": ["98801326"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "other_title": ["Dance instruction manuals, ca. 1600-1920"], "partof": ["an american ballroom companion: dance instruction manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american ballroom", "performing arts", "dance manuals", "theater and dance", "arts and culture", "dance"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 140, "date": "1865", "dates": ["[1865 TO 1922]"], "description": ["The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-choral-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 31, "item": {"aka": ["acm"], "digitized": 193, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses.
\n![\"\"](\"/static/collections/american-choral-music/images/handeltedeum.jpg\")
\nAmerican Choral Music is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Choral Directors Association (ACDA). In 2007, the ACDA and the Library of Congress began a collaborative effort to create this Web site devoted to choral music that would present music in the public domain, available for users to download. The site serves to highlight the collections of sheet music in the Library of Congress and to advance and promote the performance of choral music.
\nTwenty-three composers' works are represented, five of whom are women. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer. Mabel Wheeler Daniels composed The Desolate City, op. 21, among other significant works during her many stays as a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Margaret Ruthven Lang composed the song Ojalá, which brought her international attention at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. Gena Branscombe was a conductor and composer whose hymn Arms that have Sheltered Us was adopted by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1960. Patty Stair was a composer, organist and conductor.
\nMany of the composers represented here were from the Second New England School and were influential in music education as well as composition. George Whitefield Chadwick, often credited as the \"dean of American Music,\" reorganized the New England Conservatory. Chadwick influenced Daniel Gregory Mason, a composer known for both orchestral works and song cycles is represented, as is Horatio William Parker. Parker became dean of the School of Music at Yale; many of his manuscripts reside in the Music Division. Another member of the New England School was John Knowles Paine, the first professor of music at Harvard, and a composer who established the first music department at an American university. Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell were also members of the Second New England School. Also represented is Dudley Buck, an organist, conductor, and founding director of the Brooklyn Apollo Club's male chorus, and Harvey Bartlett Gaul, a student of Dudley Buck. William W. Gilchrist founded the Mendelssohn Club. Peter C. Lutkin was a composer instrumental in support of a cappella singing, and a founder of the American Guild of Organists. African-American music is represented with the compositions of R. Nathaniel Dett, Will Marion Cook, and Harry Burleigh. Other notable composers are Henry F. Gilbert, Arthur B. Whiting and Septimus Winner.
\nThe works in this presentation were selected from a variety of sheet music collections and publishers in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. The majority of the compositions chosen by the American Choral Directors Association are from the A. P. Schmidt Company Archives, one of the most valuable resources for the study of American choral music. This archive of music occupies a special place in the history of American music publishing. In 1958, the publisher Summy-Birchard bought out the Arthur P. Schmidt Company, and both principals agreed to donate the Schmidt papers to the Library of Congress. Included in the large deposit of business papers and financial records were numerous containers of music manuscripts, including many holographs, and printed sheet music. The A. P. Schmidt Company Archives contains over 300 boxes of manuscripts and published choral music, including the music of Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick, Horatio Parker, and John Knowles Paine. Because Schmidt championed the music of women, the collection is also rich in the holdings of holographs and sheet music of Amy Beach, Mabel Wheeler Daniels, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Helen Hopekirk, Gena Branscomb, and Anna Pricella Rischer.
\nView a finding aid for the A. P. Schmidt collection
\nIf you have specific questions, please Ask a Librarian
\n", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/choralmusic/choralmusic-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "American Choral Music", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 193}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american choral music", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american", "a capella", "second new england school", "composers", "performing arts", "choral music", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Choral Music", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acws/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. researcher and reference services division", "library of congress"], "count": 199, "date": "2011", "dates": ["2011"], "description": ["The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 32, "item": {"aka": ["acws", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582"], "digitized": 191, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization.
\r\n
Over 200 sites comprise this archive. Some sites document Civil War reenactments and living history events. Some are specific to aspects of the war or collections of war-related materials. Other sites have a reflective, solemn tone, rather in contrast to the more celebratory events seen during the 1961-1965 Civil War Centennial.\u00a0Most sites are location or region specific, showing that much as it was 150 years ago, the Civil War was and remains to be a locally important part of American cultural history and identity.
\r\n
Many organizations, government bodies at all levels, and individuals created an online Sesquicentennial presence, often times instead of or in addition to print materials. This archive will act as a tool for researchers wanting to study the Civil War Sesquicentennial (2011-2015) in comparison to the Civil War Centennial\u00a0(1961-1965) and other commemorative events in form, content and in the context it took place among other events going on in American society at the time.
\r\nCollection Period: March 2011 to September 2015.
\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, monthly, twice-yearly, yearly, or once.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United Kingdom", "United States"], "research-centers": ["main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 191}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united kingdom", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000", "2019210582"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210582"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "other_title": ["Civil War sesquicentennial web archive", "Civil War 150 web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "american civil war sesquicentennial web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "web sites", "history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acj/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000020", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms00020x"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["vester, bertha spafford", "spafford, anna t.", "american colony (jerusalem)", "spafford, horatio gates"], "count": 536, "date": "1870", "dates": ["[1870 TO 2006]"], "description": ["The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288 images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd., which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/500_500.jpg"], "index": 33, "item": {"aka": ["acj", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137"], "digitized": 114, "formats": ["manuscripts", "photos"], "html_content": "The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of\n approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288\n images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of\n American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers\n in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage\n backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive\n and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to\n the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd.,\n which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members.
\n\nMost of the manuscripts date from 1870 to 1968. They were initially assembled by colony member Bertha Spafford\n Vester, daughter of American Colony founders Horatio Gates Spafford and Anna T. Spafford, while writing her memoir\n Our Jerusalem (1950), and later by her daughter-in-law Valentine Vester and others at the American Colony\n Hotel.\n
\n\nCollection items include draft manuscripts, letters, postcards, telegrams, diaries or journals, scrapbooks,\n newslippings, printed materials, photographs, hand-drawn maps and ephemera. Most items are in English, with some\n materials in Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Swedish.
\n\nThe collection content reflects the activities of many members and leaders of the American Colony across generations\n and through decades of political changes in the Middle East, with emphasis on the Ottoman and British Mandate\n periods and continuing after the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. Highlighted is the leadership by members of\n the Spafford, Vester, and Whiting families. The collection also documents the activities of many others and their\n interactions with those in the larger community and region, including information pertaining to the colony\u2019s Swedish\n members and other residents and employees, as well as neighbors, friends, diplomats, dignitaries, educators,\n governmental and religious leaders, and associates in Jerusalem and internationally.
\n\nAmong the businesses, social services, and collectives operated by the American Colony, the materials document the\n American Colony Photo Department, Vester & Company American Colony store, American Colony Nurses, American Colony\n School of Handicrafts, Anna Spafford Baby Home (now the Spafford Children\u2019s Center), Christian Herald Orphanage, and\n other enterprises operated in Jerusalem and the United States under colony auspices. The collection provides\n information about international visitors to the colony and changes in colony membership and operations over time. It\n charts the colony\u2019s role in the arts, business, commercial, educational, philanthropic, social, religious, and\n political life of Jerusalem and its importance in the Middle East tourism and hospitality industries. Major figures\n include Anna Spafford, Horatio Gates Spafford, Jacob Spafford, Bertha Spafford Vester, Frederick Vester, Grace\n Spafford Whiting, John D. Whiting, G. Eric Matson, Lewis Larsson, Valentine Vester, and other associates and leaders\n of colony businesses and activities.
\n\nItems available in digital format include all items from the collection which were originally displayed as part of\n the Library of Congress exhibition on the American Colony in\n Jerusalem presented at the Library in 2005. These items, which include mixed media manuscript, print, and\n photographic materials, constitute the entirety of Part I of\n the collection housed in the Manuscript Division.
\n\nAlso available online is the entirety of Part II of the collection, with the exception of one restricted series, and\n a select portion of Part III. The forty-eight
The American Colony in Jerusalem Collection is arranged in three parts and multiple series as described below. A\n finding aid (PDF and
The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection contains 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. The recordings include speech samples, linguistic interviews, oral histories, conversations, and excerpts from public speeches. They were drawn from various archives, and from the private collections of fifty collectors, including linguists, dialectologists, and folklorists. They were submitted to the Center for Applied Linguistics as part of a project entitled "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was funded by the Center for Applied Linguistics and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
\r\nThe collection includes recordings from forty-three states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and parts of Canada. They were made from 1941 to 1984, with the bulk being recorded between 1968 and 1982. In some cases, transcripts (and partial transcripts) made by the collectors are available as part of this web presentation. The survey's documentation covers social aspects of English language usage in different regions of the United States. It reveals distinctions in speech related to gender, race, social class, education, age, literacy, ethnic background, and occupational group (including the specialized jargon or vocabulary of various occupations). The oral history interviews are a rich resource on many topics, such as storytelling and family histories; descriptions of holiday celebrations, traditional farming, schools, education, health care, and the uses of traditional medicines; and discussions of race relations, politics, and natural disasters such as floods.
\r\nIn 1983, The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, initiated the "Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was undertaken to compile a directory of American speech samples, and ultimately to improve access to them. There were two parts to the project. The first part surveyed collectors of speech samples and resulted in a report entitled "American English Speech Recordings: A Guide to Collections" (PDF, 3MB) which describes over 200 collections. The second part of the project was designed to select from the 200 collections a representative sample of recordings with the goal of "creating a centralized source of American dialect samples and to provide for the preservation of this valuable resource that might otherwise be lost." Additional information about the project may be found in "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings" (PDF, 6.1MB).
\r\nThe recordings from the project's second phase were donated to the Library of Congress in May 1986, and comprise the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection (AFC 1986/022). The collection contains speech samples from over 50 collectors. There are 405 recordings which average about 15 minutes in length. In addition to providing a wide variety of material for the study of American speech, the recordings capture a diverse range of topics and people.
\r\nSome of the voices will be quite familiar, such as those of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Other voices, despite the speakers' fame, are seldom heard, such as those of Amelia Earhart, Jack Dempsey, and H. L. Mencken. Most of the recordings, however, are of the voices of people whose specific identities are unknown, but whose comments represent the richness of the American experience. There are Gullah speakers from coastal South Carolina, sharecroppers from Arkansas, Puerto Rican teenagers in New York City, Basque sheepherders from Colorado, Chesapeake Bay watermen, Vietnamese immigrants from Northern Virginia, and many others.
\r\nA selection of 350 of the collection's entire 405 audio recordings are available on this website; of these, 148 have accompanying transcripts. The remaining recordings, which could not be posted due to copyright issues and other restrictions, may be heard in the Folklife Reading Room.
\r\nUsers may notice that descriptive data for the website varies from recording to recording. That is a result of the collection containing material from a wide variety of collectors. The data presented, for the most part, is that which was supplied by the collector.
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\r\n
The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
\nThe collection is arranged, filed, and numbered as received. Volumes 251, 310, and 313 were not received by the Library. \u00a0Each volume contains an index of correspondents.\u00a0 Prominent names include Susan B. Anthony, Grover Cleveland, William Hugh Johnston, John L. Lewis, L. J. McGruder, P. J. McGuire, John Mitchell, John Morrison, Herman Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Daniel Joseph Tobin, Henry White, and Woodrow Wilson.
\nA finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the American Federation of Labor records is available online.
", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History"], "total": 72300}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "pennsylvania"], "number": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000", "mm78051185"], "number_lccn": ["mm78051185"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american federation of labor records"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "social & business history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afc/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 23, "description": ["The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 36, "item": {"aka": ["afc", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 21, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise.
\n\nThis web archive collection aims to capture digital content related to the Center\u2019s collectors and collections. For instance, reflected here are websites of many artistic, historical, and cultural institutions which have been creating or gathering ethnographic content as found in the American Folklife Center Archive.
\n\nCollection Period: May 2020 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added on a weekly or monthly basis.
\n\t\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "status": "production", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 21}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "american folklife center web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/wwielection/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "https://www.loc.gov/item/96703617", "http://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "http://www.loc.gov/item/96703617/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsrs/collmbr.rs000001"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["cox, james m. (james middleton)", "daniels, josephus", "de valera, \u00e9amon", "gompers, samuel", "pershing, john j. (john joseph)", "poindexter, miles", "cummings, homer s. (homer still\u00e9)", "purdy, richard a. (richard augustus)", "wise, stephen s. (stephen samuel)", "rockefeller, john d., (john davison)", "hitchcock, gilbert m. (gilbert monell)", "lewis, james", "vanderlip, frank a. (frank arthur)", "lodge, henry cabot", "long, breckinridge", "lane, franklin k.", "roosevelt, franklin d. (franklin delano)", "robinson, corinne roosevelt", "coolidge, calvin", "baker, newton diehl", "hays, will h. (will harrison)", "butler, nicholas murray", "colby, bainbridge", "owen, robert l. (robert latham)", "harding, warren g. (warren gamaliel)", "mcadoo, w. g. (william gibbs)", "white, george", "wood, leonard", "clark, champ", "palmer, a. mitchell (alexander mitchell)", "gerard, james w. (james watson)"], "count": 97, "date": "1918", "dates": ["1918"], "description": ["The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/500_500.jpg"], "index": 37, "item": {"aka": ["wwielection", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617"], "digitized": 59, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label.
\r\nThe recordings fall into two distinct series. The 1918 series was devoted mostly to World War I topics and was apparently distributed only to political organizations and other groups. The notable exception is the recording of General John Pershing (with Ambassador James Gerard speaking on the reverse side), which was sold commercially. All of the recordings from the 1918 series were pressed on ten-inch discs. The 1919-1920 series was devoted mostly to postwar issues and the 1920 presidential election. Recordings in this series were released at a rate of two per month, one Republican and one Democrat. The recordings were pressed on twelve inch discs and sold for two dollars each. With two exceptions, the reverse side of the records in both series consisted of patriotic music, usually a march. These selections are not duplicated here.
\r\nThe Nation's Forum project may also have planned to record foreign statesmen. The collection includes three speeches by Eamonn DeValera, who led the fight to establish the Republic of Ireland. At the time of the recordings, DeValera had escaped from an English prison and was living in exile in the United States. The label of one DeValera recording states that with the sale of each album, a royalty of twenty-five cents would be paid to Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary Irish Parliament.
\r\nThe speeches included in the Nation's Forum collection are not actuality recordings -- recorded at the time of their original delivery. Instead, speakers were invited to repeat their significant orations for the Nation's Forum project at a location convenient to the particular speaker. All of the Nation's Forum recordings were acoustically made. Until the development in the mid-1920's of electrical recordings -- recording aided by microphones and electrical amplifiers during the recording process, and electrical amplification and loudspeakers for playback -- all sound recording processes were acoustic. The diaphragm and needle cutting an acoustic record were powered only by the force of a voice. A speaker making a record had to shout into a recording horn to successfully record. Thus, almost no speeches recorded in the acoustic era are actuality recordings. All of the speeches recorded for the Nation's Forum were delivered solely for the recording machine, without a public audience. Since phonograph records in this period were limited to about three minutes, someone -- presumably the speaker -- abridged or selected highlights from longer speeches. Some speeches are represented by two or three very similar takes.
\r\nThe total number of recordings made by the Nation's Forum is unknown. The Library of Congress holds fifty-nine examples in a collection that has been assembled over a period of years from a variety of donors and record collectors. Of the fifteen 1918 recordings at the Library of Congress, the Pershing/Gerard record is an original shellac disc, eleven records are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and two recordings are audio tape dubs. Of the forty-four recordings from the 1919-1920 series at the Library of Congress, twenty-four are original shellac discs, seventeen are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and three are audio tape dubs.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/", "research-centers": ["moving-image", "recorded-sound"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Government, Law & Politics", "Elections & Voting", "Military History", "World War I", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 65}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["96703617", "2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000", "audio disc"], "number_carrier_type": ["audio disc"], "number_lccn": ["96703617"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american leaders speak: recordings from world war i", "recorded sound research center", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "military history", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "government, law & politics", "world war i", "elections & voting", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:49.017Z", "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/fwp/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715/", "https://link.gale.com/apps/collection/3TQA/GDSC?u=loc_main&sid=bookmark-GDSC", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000007", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000008", "http://whatamericaate.org"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["federal writers' project", "united states. works progress administration", "united states. work projects administration", "writers' program (u.s.)"], "count": 2838, "date": "1936", "dates": ["[1936 TO 1940]"], "description": ["This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/federal-writers-project/500_500.jpg"], "index": 38, "item": {"aka": ["fwp", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715"], "digitized": 23931, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books"], "html_content": "This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records.
\nThe Federal Writers' Project materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division are part of a larger collection titled The U.S. Work Projects Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey. The holdings from Federal Writers' Project span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subprojects. Altogether, the Federal Writers' holdings number approximately 300,000 items and consist of correspondence, memoranda, field reports, notes, graphs, charts, preliminary and corrected drafts of essays, oral testimony, folklore, miscellaneous administrative and miscellaneous other material.
\nWell over one-half of the materials in this record group pertain to the American Guide, the sobriquet for the critically acclaimed state guides. The remainder of the material reflects other areas of interest that developed as the project grew in maturity. They include a rich collection of rural and urban folklore; first-person narratives (called life histories) describing the feelings of men and women coping with life and the Depression; studies of social customs of various ethnic groups; authentic narratives of ex-slaves about life during the period of Slavery; and Negro source material gathered by project workers. In addition, drafts of publications and intended publications are included. These publications express concern with the direction America was taking and with the preservation and communication of local culture. Titles include Hands That Build America, From These Strains, Lexicon of Trade Jargon, and Pockets in America.
\nThe arrangement of the larger collection generally reflects the division of work within the Writers' Project such as material relating to The American Guide, the Folklore Project, Social-ethnic Studies, and Slave Narratives. Other series are compilations for archival purposes such as administrative papers or Negro studies material. Still others are groups of similar material such as printed matter and the like.
\nThe plight of the unemployed writer, and indeed anyone who could qualify as a writer such as a lawyer, a teacher, or a librarian, during the early years of the Depression, was of concern not only to the Roosevelt Administration, but also to writers' organizations and persons of liberal and academic persuasions. It was felt, generally, that the New Deal could come up with more appropriate work situations for this group other than blue collar jobs on construction projects. To the Administration's liking were plans generated from a series of meetings held in 1934 between Jacob Baker, Harry Hopkins' chief Civil Works Administration assistant in charge of special and professional programs, Henry Alsberg, Bakers' assistant, Katherine Kellock, a writer familiar with international and social organizations, and others. The outcome of these sessions was a project for all the \"arts,\" (labeled Federal One), divided administratively by each specialty and headed by professionals in the field. The Writers' Project, later characterized by some as the federal government's attempt to \"democratize American culture,\" was approved for federal monies in June, 1935. Baker chose his assistant, Alsberg, as director. As the Project continued into the late thirties, the director was powerless to stop increasing criticism by reactionary Congressmen who were intent on shutting down the enterprise. In October 1939, the Project's federal monies ceased, due to the Administration's need for a larger defense budget. After 1939, emasculated, the Project sputtered along on monies funded to the states, closing completely one year or so after America's entry into World War II.
\nResearchers should note that the American Memory collection presented here is a coherent portion of the Library's larger Federal Writers' series and the WPA collection. It includes the life histories and corollary documents assembled by the Folklore Project within the Federal Writers' effort.
\nWithin the Federal Writers' Project, material relating to folklore and social-ethnic studies was collected and shaped through the efforts of John A. Lomax, Benjamin A. Botkin, and Morton Royce. The activity documented in writing traditional statements, expressions, songs, essays, stories, and the like, with tilt toward accounts of frontier and pioneer life. The Folklore Project filed its material under the general headings \"traditional\" and \"life histories.\"
\nThe Writers' Project staff variously described the life histories as life sketches, living lore, industrial lore, and occupational lore. The narratives were meant to reflect the ordinary person's struggle with the vicissitudes of daily living.\n
This American Memory presentation is limited to the Folklore Project life histories. Similar accounts may be found in the Social-Ethnic portion of the WPA collection; these may be digitized in the future.
\nAt the time, Botkin said, the collected lore and narratives were to be used as the basis for anthologies which would form a composite and comprehensive portrait of various groups of people in America. The entire body of material provides the raw content for a broad documentary of both rural and urban life, interspersed with accounts and traditions of ethnic group traditions, customs regarding planting, cooking, marriage, death, celebrations, recreation, and a wide variety of narratives. The quality of collecting and writing lore varies from state to state, reflecting the skills of the interviewer-writers and the supervision they received.
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Culture and Folklife", "The Great Depression"], "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Literature & Poetry"], "total": 23931}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["utah", "united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["mm82055715", "2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "number_lccn": ["mm82055715"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book"], "other_title": ["U.S. Work Projects Administration records", "Work Projects Administration records", "WPA records"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american life histories: manuscripts from the federal writers' project, 1936-1940"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "personal correspondence", "local hisotry", "field notes", "narratives", "the great depression", "interview", "culture and folklife", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "occupations", "literature & poetry", "life histories", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "literature & poetry"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-creators/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 69, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 39, "item": {"aka": ["music-creators", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590"], "digitized": 29, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture twice-yearly, with fewer targeted for capture quarterly.
\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 29}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000", "online resource", "2019210590"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210590"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music creators web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "history", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-industry/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 48, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 40, "item": {"aka": ["music-industry", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591"], "digitized": 22, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time.
\n\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n", "locations": ["International Organizations", "United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 22}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["international organizations", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2019210591", "2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210591"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music industry web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}], "slug": "", "title": "Search Collections", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/"}, "context": "partof:digital collections", "description": "Access online collections: view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films. Discover on-site collection materials available through our Research Centers. 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One century later, we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/500_500.jpg"], "index": 1, "item": {"aka": ["liturgical"], "digitized": 5000, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The acquisition of medieval liturgical chant manuscripts that trace the history of music notation as it evolved over half a millennium, became a major collection priority in the Music Division beginning in the 1920s. One century later, we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office.
\nChronologically, these rare primary sources span a period of great paleographical change from the tenth through seventeenth centuries: from poorly executed fragments to exquisitely crafted codices, these materials range in format and size from single leaves to entire books \u2013 both pocket-sized and immense choirbooks measuring over three feet tall.
\nTheir musical contents document the creation and development of the modern-day staff from one to five staff lines, the introduction of clefs, the use of staffless (chironomic) and heightened (diastemic) neumes and eventually black square notation, and so much more. Most visually alluring are the skillfully crafted bindings of leather, brass and wood used to encase the gatherings of thick vellum leaves that periodically reveal breathtaking illuminated initials. These unique treasures present a valuable cross-section of liturgical chants copied in diverse regions throughout Europe \u2013 from a 10th-century Swiss monastery in St. Gall to a 12th-century Cistercian abbey in Lower Austria to a 16th century Spanish Cathedral.
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\nThe collection is particularly rich in music manuscripts by women, including works by Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (identified as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach in the collection), Gena Branscombe, Mable Daniels, Helen Francis Hood, Cora W. Jenkins, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Marion Osgood (composer, violinist, and director of Marion Osgood’s Ladies, the first professional women’s orchestra in the United States), Edna Rosalind Park, Anna Priscilla Risher, Clara Kathleen Rogers, Mary Turner Salter, Mabel Madison Watson, and Mildred Weston, among others.
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\nCelebrating the centennial of the birth of the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the multi-format Aaron Copland Collection, from which the online collection derives, spans the years 1910 to 1990 and includes approximately 400,000 items documenting the multifaceted life of an extraordinary person who was composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor, commentator, and administrator. It comprises both manuscript and printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries, writings, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, awards, books, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
\n\nAaron Copland devoted his life as a twentieth-century composer to fostering, developing, creating, and establishing distinctive \"American\" music. He became known as the \"Dean of American Music,\" a sobriquet with which he was uncomfortable. His name is synonymous with\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0\u2014the winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Music\u2014and\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man.
\nCopland extensively documented the many facets of his life in music, and theAaron Copland Collection\u00a0at the Library of Congress reflects the entire breadth of his endeavors. Beginning in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Copland periodically deposited his original music manuscripts at the Library of Congress and subsequently converted them to gifts. In the fall of 1989, he donated all his papers to the Library. The collection numbers approximately four hundred thousand items, dating from 1910 to 1990 with a few nineteenth-century photographs, and includes his music manuscripts, printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries and writings, photographic materials, awards, honorary degrees, programs, and other biographical materials. It is the primary resource for research on Aaron Copland and a major resource for the study of musical life in twentieth-century America generally, particularly from the 1920s to the 1960s.
\nThe online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0comprises approximately one thousand items selected from Copland's\u00a0music sketches,\u00a0correspondence,\u00a0writings, and photographs. The items are represented in about five thousand digitized images, the earliest an 1899 photograph and the latest a 1986 letter. While the original collection contains almost all Copland's music manuscripts and printed scores, the online collection presents the original music sketches that Copland used in composing thirty-one works spanning the years 1924 to 1967 and covering every medium in which he composed: orchestral, ballet, opera, film, chamber, solo piano, and vocal music.
\nThe correspondence in the online collection comprises images of approximately eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Copland that have been selected from the Aaron Copland Collection and other collections in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0at the Library of Congress. Besides letters to his parents and other family members in the 1920s and 30s, the correspondence includes Copland's letters to his Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, and others such as Nicolas Slonimsky, Roger Sessions, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Walter Piston, Leonard Bernstein, and Benjamin Britten.
\nAs an advocate and supporter of American music and American composers, Copland frequently wrote articles, presented lectures, and delivered speeches. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0presents eighty-six of Copland's previously unpublished drafts. These show the creative process through which he wrote about his own music, other composers and their music, and other people who played important roles in his musical life.
\nOf the twelve thousand photographic materials in the Library's Aaron Copland Collection, 111 items have been chosen for online presentation. Many were created by Copland's friend Victor Kraft, a professional photographer. They include portraits of Aaron Copland at various ages and places, with family members, with other composers, and with other people associated with his career as a composer and conductor, as well as images from his worldwide travels.
\n\n\"The man is in the letters,\" said Vivian Perlis of Aaron Copland, whose autobiography she helped to write. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0contains digitized images of over eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland covering the years from 1921 to 1986. Searchable texts of all published letters, postcards, and telegrams in the collection are also available.
\nThe letters reproduced in the collection represent, though they do not exhaust, the holdings of Copland's correspondence in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0of the Library of Congress. In general they constitute significant runs of letters to people important in Copland's life. (Problems of copyright and volume preclude making letters to Copland available online.) Every attempt has been made to include all the letters in the Music Division that Copland wrote to each correspondent represented, the one exception being the letters to Harold Spivacke, which constitute only a part of Copland's voluminous and largely business-related correspondence with the Music Division's former chief.
\nThese letters come from many collections in the Music Division. Besides material from the Aaron Copland Collection, they contain material from the Leonard Bernstein Collection, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Collection, the Jacobo Ficher Collection, the Irving Fine Collection, the Louis Kaufman Collection, the Serge Koussevitzky Collection, the\u00a0Modern Music\u00a0Archives, the Walter Piston Collection, the Nicolas Slonimsky Collection, the William Strickland Collection, and the papers of the Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music.
\nThe letters Copland wrote that are in the Copland Collection proper came back to him in various ways. He inherited his letters to his parents after their deaths. In the 1970s, when he began to think of writing his autobiography, he asked several of his friends and colleagues to send him photocopies of his letters. Some replied with photocopies, some by returning the letters themselves. Some responded with many letters, some with just a few.
\nCopland seldom made carbons copies of his outgoing correspondence. The few periods in his life for which the Copland Collection is rich in carbon copies are the brief intervals when he had a secretary: in 1943 while working on the film\u00a0The North Star; during his South American tour in 1947; in the fall of 1958 when he was staying in London and presumably was provided with a secretary by his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes. Because they were obviously dictated to a secretary, these letters have the flavor of Copland's post-1940 correspondence but are not particularly trenchant, lacking the distinctive qualities that came forth when Copland himself sat down to write.
\n\nThe following individuals are the major correspondents represented in the letters portion of this online collection. They are listed with the source collection for Copland's letters to them or, in the case of material in the Copland Collection itself, with an indication of whether the letters are originals or photocopies.
\nArthur Berger\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopy). The online collection contains a single letter\u00a0to this writer of the first book-length study of Copland; it is perhaps the most evocative of Copland's letters describing his Mexican visits.
\nLeonard Bernstein\u00a0(Bernstein Collection). Copland's prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in the late 1930s and early 1940s,\u00a0Bernstein\u00a0became one of the leading champions and interpreters of Copland's music.
\nNadia Boulanger\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Copland's principal teacher and mentor. His Nonet is dedicated to her.
\nPaul Bowles\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Composer and novelist. The two letters in the Copland Collection seem to have been part of a voluminous and regular correspondence.
\nBenjamin Britten\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). English composer. The first set of\u00a0Old American Songs\u00a0was written for Britten and his collaborator Peter Pears. Britten's side of the correspondence is published in Donald Mitchell et al., eds.,\u00a0Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976\u00a0(2 vols., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
\nCarlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). Mexican composer; one of Copland's principal composer friends. As a conductor, Ch\u00e1vez performed Copland's Short Symphony\u00a0when American conductors had declared it unperformable. Ch\u00e1vez's side of the correspondence and slightly abridged versions of Copland's letters are published in Spanish translation in Gloria Carmona, ed.,\u00a0Epistolario selecto de Carlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(M\u00e9xico: Fondo de Cultura Econ\u00f3mica, 1989).
\nIsrael Citkowitz\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Citkowitz was a slightly younger composer (1909-1974), gifted in song and chamber music, for whom Copland had high hopes. The online collection contains all Copland's letters to Citkowitz in the Copland Collection.
\nElizabeth Sprague Coolidge\u00a0(Coolidge Collection). American patron of chamber music. She commissioned from Copland (and thus had dedicated to her) Appalachian Spring\u00a0and the\u00a0Piano Quartet.
\nJacobo Ficher\u00a0(Ficher Collection). Argentinian composer. Copland's letters to him document his interest in South American music.
\nIrving and Verna Fine\u00a0(Irving Fine Collection). Irving Fine was a composer and younger colleague of Copland whose choral arrangements of several of Copland's Old American Songs\u00a0have given them a life as choral works. Copland shared houses with Irving and Verna Fine for several summers at Tanglewood. After Irving Fine's death in 1962 Copland continued to be supportive of Verna Fine, and his letters to her retain warmth and sparkle to the end of his letter-writing years. Copland dedicated \"Sleep Is Supposed to Be,\" one of the two central songs of his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to Irving Fine. The Irving Fine Collection also contains letters from Copland to Verna Fine's mother, Florence Rudnick, in whose Boston apartment he sequestered himself to write\u00a0In the Beginning.
\nSerge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky\u00a0(Koussevitzky Collection). Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony from 1924 to 1949, was the first performer to champion Copland's music in America and remained a supporter of Copland (and of many other American composers) until his death. Copland, in turn, was a major help to Koussevitzky from 1940 on in the running of the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Copland's letters to Koussevitzky's first wife, Natalie, are, for the most part, social; his letters to Koussevitzky's second wife, Olga (Olga Naumoff, Koussevitzky's secretary, until 1947), concern the running of Tanglewood. Copland's\u00a0Third Symphony\u00a0is dedicated \"To the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky.\"
\nMinna Lederman\u00a0(Modern Music\u00a0Archives). Lederman was editor of the journal of the League of Composers,\u00a0Modern Music, which was published from 1924 to 1946. Copland was a major contributor to the magazine and a trusted advisor to Lederman.
\nMarcelle de Manziarly\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). French composer, Boulanger student. Copland dedicated \"Heart, We Will Forget Him,\" the fifth of hisTwelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to de Manziarly.
\n\nOlga Naumoff:\u00a0see Serge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky.
\nWalter Piston\u00a0(Piston Collection). American composer. The body of Piston's correspondence is in the Boston Public Library; the one letter in this online collection represents the small but important collection of letters to Piston from the years 1931-55 that is in the Music Division of the Library of Congress.
\nFlorence Rudnick:\u00a0see Irving and Verna Fine.
\nRoger Sessions\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies) American composer; co-producer with Copland of the Copland-Sessions Concerts during the years 1928-31.
\nNicolas Slonimsky\u00a0(Slonimsky Collection; some early letters in the Koussevitzky Collection). Musical polymath. During most of the period in which Copland corresponded with him he was musical secretary to Koussevitzky; the jokey letters to the incorrigibly humorous Slonimsky serve to balance Copland's oh-so-serious letters to Koussevitzky himself.
\nHarold Spivacke\u00a0(Coolidge Collection; Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music). Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, 1937-1972. Spivacke's tact and unflappable serenity kept the commissioning of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0on course.
\nWilliam Strickland\u00a0(Strickland Collection). American conductor. Some of the letters in this online collection are concerned with Strickland's editorship of the H. W. Gray organ series, for which Copland wrote his\u00a0Episode.
\n\"The man is in the letters.\" It might then seem as though a collection of more than eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland would give a complete portrait of the man and the composer. However, users of this online collection should remember that these letters represent only the holdings of the Music Division of the Library of Congress. At least equally important are Copland's letters to Virgil Thomson (at Yale University); Claire Reis and William Schuman (at the New York Public Library); Howard Clurman, David Diamond, and Walter Piston (at the Boston Public Library); and several others. To each of his correspondents Copland shows a slightly different aspect of his personality, so the letters in this online collection provide a detailed self-portrait if not a complete one.
\n\nThis online collection contains approximately 2500 pages of Aaron Copland's sketches\u00a0for his music, representing thirty-one of his works\u2014thirty-three if one includes the\u00a0Sextet\u00a0and the\u00a0Orchestra Variations, covered by the sketches for the Short Symphony\u00a0and\u00a0Piano Variations\u00a0respectively. Representing many of Copland's best-known and most significant works, the sketches are often revelatory. Except for some miscellaneous accompanying material, the online collection includes all the sketches for the works in the online collection.
\nThere are works for which the Library of Congress's archival Copland Collection contains no sketches. These include some of the early works and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait. Those who are interested in finding out whether the Library has sketches for a particular work not represented in the online collection, or curious about whether one of the works included has any material not presented online, should consult the Copland Collection Finding Aid.
\nWithin the sections of the online collection, the sketches are presented as much as possible in the order in which they were received from Aaron Copland or his estate. They have been much used by scholars, and they represent Copland's not always systematic use of music-paper. Some sets of sketches have been numbered by stamp at their top left- or right-hand corner; this numeration was done by the Library of Congress when the sketches were filmed in the mid-1970s and do not represent Copland's numbering. When two separate sets of sketches exist for a single work, they are presented here as two separate items. (Note: The page numbers of some of these sketches may not appear in numerical order online. However, they are presented here in exactly the order that Copland produced them.)
\nThe sketches reveal to scholars the history of Copland's work on the compositions, but they can also mean something to the general reader. The sketches for the Piano Variations, the\u00a0Short Symphony, and the\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man\u00a0show Copland searching for titles to do justice to three of his most characteristic works; the sketches for\u00a0Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson\u00a0show him deciding what poems to include in the cycle; the sketches for\u00a0Billy the Kid show that the opening music was first intended to be the start of\u00a0Music for Radio\u2014 which now begins with much more complex music.
\n\nThe photographic materials in the Library of Congress's\u00a0Aaron Copland Collectionnumber more than twelve thousand items spanning the years 1889 to 1985 and include both black and white and color prints, contact sheets, 35-mm negatives, color slides, and photograph albums. A substantial number of photographs were taken by Copland's lifelong friend, the professional photographer Victor Kraft. Widely known photographers whose work can be found in the collection include Carl Van Vechten, Irving Penn, Gordon Parks, and Margaret Bourke-White. The subject material comprises an inclusive chronology of Copland's life and includes Copland's family; Copland himself throughout his life; friends; acquaintances; fellow composers and other people with whom he worked; places where he studied, composed, or visited; and special events.
\nFrom this vast collection, 111 photographs have been initially selected for the online collection. The digitized images fall into five broad categories: Family ; Copland Alone; Copland's Music; Copland with Other Composers and People; and Places and Events. Photographs that cannot be dated precisely or approximately have been given the designation of \"middle\" or \"late.\"
\nOf the seven family photographs, one is a formal sitting of Copland's paternal grandparents and three of their children, while another shows Copland's parents, Sarah and Harris Copland, in front of their department store in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. The other five capture Copland with other family members.
\nThe twenty-four photographs of Copland alone show him both formally and informally and at a range of ages from six to his seventies. Several feature Copland at his home, Rock Hill, in Courtlandt near Peekskill, New York.
\n\nTwenty-one photographs capture performances or rehearsals of thirteen musical works. The orchestral works represented are the\u00a0Piano Concerto, in a photograph showing Copland at the piano and Andr\u00e9 Previn conducting; the\u00a0Clarinet Concertowith Benny Goodman as the soloist and Copland conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait\u00a0in two rehearsal photographs, one in color with Marian Anderson as the speaker and the other with Adlai Stevenson, both with Copland conducting. The two ballets represented are scenes from the premiere performance of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0at the Library of Congress and\u00a0Billy the Kid, which was premiered by Lincoln Kirstein and the Ballet Caravan.
\nThree of the eight films for which Copland wrote music scores are illustrated in this online collection. Production stills represent\u00a0The North Star\u00a0and\u00a0The Red Pony. There are also two informal photographs of the making of\u00a0The Red Pony depicting Copland with the pony and the young boy and one studio-recording shot of Copland conducting the music for\u00a0Something Wild\u00a0that shows the star, Carroll Baker, in a television monitor.
\nOne chamber work is represented in a rehearsal of the\u00a0Nonet\u00a0at the Library of Congress with Copland conducting. Two photographs depict William Warfield with Copland during rehearsals of\u00a0Old American Songs. There is also a stage shot of the opera\u00a0The Tender Land.
\n\nNumerous photographs capture Copland with fellow composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Norman Dello Joio, Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, Irving Fine, Arthur Berger, Douglas Moore, Benjamin Britten, Darius Milhaud, Philip Ramey, Walter Piston, Domingo Santa Cruz, Virgil Thomson, Roger Sessions, and Igor Stravinsky. He is also shown with such notable cultural figures and musicians as Artur Rubinstein, Claire Booth Luce, Clarence Adler, Nadia Boulanger, Victor Kraft, Vivian Perlis, Claire Reis, Jack Garfein, Thorton Wilder, Serge Koussevitzky, Agnes de Mille, and Oliver Smith.
\nThe group of photographs entitled Places and Events shows Coplan Fontainebleau and Aldeburgh; in Paris, Germany, England, Peru, Israel, and Mexico; at Nadia Boulanger's studio with other students; at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Tanglewood; and at the University of Kansas, Brown University and Columbia University.
\nAaron Copland was best known first as a composer and later, in the 1960s and '70s, as a conductor. His name is less frequently associated with literary endeavors. The\u00a0Writings\u00a0portion of the\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0suggests that in this respect his reputation should perhaps be revised: it includes a vast array of articles, lectures, speeches, book drafts, and radio and television commentaries that span the years 1925 to 1988. The long stream of Copland's literary efforts began with an article written for publication in 1925, shortly after his return to the United States from three years in Paris, and continued into the late 1970s and early 1980s. He displayed the same technique in his writings that he did in his music: that is, a frequent self-borrowing in which he used the same material in different media.
\nThe writings selected for this online collection comprise eighty-six items. The selections represent unpublished drafts of material for articles, lectures, and speeches. Some selections display Copland's literary processes in thoughtful revisions, word changes, rearranging, and other editorial techniques. He usually began with handwritten notes or drafts and proceeded through several typewritten drafts before creating a final unmarked typewritten version. (Example: \"A Visit to Snape,\"\u00a0Version 2\u00a0and\u00a0Version 3\u00a0) Not every literary work in the Aaron Copland Collection illustrates this transformation, however. The lectures and speeches display another aspect of Copland's literary endeavors: the fact that he underscored almost every word in red or blue pencil. Because he probably made these markings to help him deliver his speeches, they recapture something of the sound as well as the thought of his vocal presentations. They also add a colorful element to the handwritten and typed drafts.
\nLike many conductors, Copland used a similar device in his conducting scores, where red and blue pencil markings draw the eye to changes in time signature, dynamics, and the entrances of instruments. [Example:\u00a0\"Talk on Leonard Bernstein\"]
\nWhatever their intended uses, the online examples of Copland's unpublished writings can be grouped into four categories: autobiographical, about Copland's music, about other composers, and about other people.
\nThe two autobiographical titles contrast the esoteric concerns of\u00a0\"Music and the Human Spirit\", in which Copland addresses \"the creation of an art music\" as one of \"humanity's truly unique achievements,\" with the practicality of\u00a0\"The Composer as Conductor\"\u00a0in which he recalls that \"Some twenty years ago, during the course of a memorable evening at the Stravinskys' home in Los Angeles, the venerable maestro turned to me and said in no uncertain terms: 'My dear, you should conduct your own music. All composers should conduct their own music!'\"
\nThe writings about Copland's music highlight eleven of Copland's compositions in five different media. Writings on two ballets describe his collaboration with Martha Graham (Appalachian Spring) and his work with Lincoln Kirstein on the story forBilly the Kid, (\"About\u00a0Billy the Kid\" and\u00a0\"Notes on a Cowboy Ballet\"). Copland discusses the creation of his three major solo piano works,\u00a0Piano Fantasy\", \"Piano Sonata,\" and \"Piano Variations,\" in two different lectures under the title Compositional Phases [on My Three Piano Works].\" An article about the 1925 orchestral work\u00a0Music for the Theatre\u00a0summarizes the reaction of audiences, musicians, and reviewers in the United States and Europe, including the performance by the New York Symphony Orchestra in which its conductor, Dr. Walter Damrosch, had \"revenge in the end.\" Copland wrote\u00a0A Visit to Snape\u00a0for a tribute to Benjamin Britten on his fiftieth birthday; in it, he extols the \"kind of composer rapport\" between them and the \"exchange of musical impressions\" between his own \"The Second Hurricane\" and Britten's Piano Concerto No. 1.
\nAs the composer of several film scores, Copland was frequently asked to lecture or write about composing for the movies. In his discussions on the subject, Copland speaks not only about his experiences and the scores he wrote, but about other film composers and working in Hollywood. In\u00a0\"Film Music\", a lecture given at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library in 1940, Copland briefly describes Hollywood and the mysterious nature of film music. He talks about the music he wrote for the film\u00a0Of Mice and Men; four film composers, Eric Korngold, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, and Herbert Stoddard; and some of their film scores. By the time he gave the lecture\u00a0\"Film Talk\"\u00a0at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971, Copland's credentials as a film composer included six feature films and two documentaries. On that occasion, excerpts from three features (Something Wild,\u00a0The Red Pony, and\u00a0The Heiress) and one documentary (The City) were screened as he commented on how music may help a film and how one sets music to a film.
\nThe largest category of writings in this online collection centers on Copland's views about other composers. In these works, Copland speaks not only about his American contemporaries but about Mozart\u00a0(\"At the Thought of Mozart\"), Berlioz\u00a0(\"Berlioz - from the Composer's Standpoint\"), and\u00a0Pierre Boulez;Composers in Russia\u00a0and the\u00a0Composers of South America; Michael Tippett (\"Cousin Michael\"),\u00a0Darius Milhaud, Dmitri Shostakovitch (\"Dmitri Shostakovitch and the New Simplicity\"),\u00a0Gabriel Faur\u00e9,\u00a0Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler\u00a0(\"Mahler (XX Cent[ury]\"),\u00a0Igor Stravinsky, Serge Prokofieff [Sergey Prokofiev]\u00a0(\"On the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Serge Prokofieff\")\u00a0, Benjamin Britten\u00a0(\"Special Fondness for B.B. [Benjamin Britten]\")\u00a0, and\u00a0Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly. Copland was concerned above all with educating others about composers and their music, and in these writings he sometimes presents his personal viewpoints and reflections. At the National Arts Club in 1968, for example, he spoke about Leonard Bernstein's gifts and how it was \"impossible to imagine the American musical scene in the last quarter century without him.\" [Example:\u00a0\"LB\"]
\nAs Copland lived on through the century, he was asked to write celebratory epistles or obituaries about many of his contemporaries, whether they were composers or others who had influenced his life. These writings about other people offer Copland's portraits of his Parisian teacher, Nadia Boulanger\u00a0(\"Intro[duction] of N[adia] Boulanger as Teacher\"); his early theory teacher, Rubin Goldmark(\"Rubin Goldmark: A Tribute\"); his publisher, Ralph Hawkes\u00a0(\"Ralph Hawkes: In Memoriam\")\u00a0; his friend and colleague at the League of Composers,Claire Reis; and his long-time supporter, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky\u00a0(\"Serge Koussevitzky - The 100th Anniversary [unpublished writings]\"). \"It is almost forty years since first I rang the bell at Nadia Boulanger's Paris apartment . . . \" begins the 1960 tribute to his teacher,\u00a0(\"The Teacher: Nadia Boulanger\"), the person who was most influential in molding and forming the composer Aaron Copland.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Individual Composers"], "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 941}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "photo, print, drawing", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "aaron copland collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["individual composers", "performing arts", "history", "composer", "copland, aaron", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ahii/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ahii"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["sebah & joaillier", "abdullah fr\u00e8res", "abd\u00fclhamid ii"], "count": 1825, "date": "1880", "dates": ["[1880 TO 1893]", "1880"], "description": ["This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/500_500.jpg"], "index": 4, "item": {"aka": ["ahii", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945"], "digitized": 1823, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.
\r\nAbdul-Hamid (1842-1918), an avid collector and promoter of photography, appears to have conceived the work as a portrait of his empire for a western audience. He presented a copy of the survey to the Library of Congress in 1893 or 1894. He also gave another almost identical collection to the British Museum (now in the British Library).
\r\nWell-known Ottoman commercial photographers such as Abdullah Fr\u00e8res, S\u00e9bah & Joaillier, and Ph\u00e9bus took the bulk of the photographs. Turkish military photographer Ali Riza Pasa and the Photographic Unit of the Imperial School of Engineering also contributed numerous images.
\r\nThe images show students and educational facilities, including law, medical and military schools; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. The collection also documents historic Byzantine and Ottoman monuments, mosques, mosaics, fountains, palaces, and mausoleums, and includes panoramic landscapes and urban scenes. Other photographs depict Abdul Hamid's Yildiz Palace, yacht, and horses.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/", "research-centers": ["prints-and-photographs"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Photographs, Prints and Posters", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East"], "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1824}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/", "language": ["turkish, ottoman (1500-1928)"], "location": ["middle east", "bursa", "greece", "ottoman empire", "bosporus", "turkey", "istanbul"], "number": ["2003652945", "2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "number_lccn": ["2003652945"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul hamid ii collection", "prints and photographs division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["turkey", "cityscapes", "world cultures & history", "group portraits", "middle east", "photographs, prints and posters", "ottoman empire", "portrait photographs", "photograph albums", "albumen prints", "arts and culture", "hamid ii, abdul", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/hamidbooks/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 325, "description": ["In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\""], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 5, "item": {"aka": ["hamidbooks"], "digitized": 321, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\"
\r\nThe Sultan's gift arrived in the U.S. Capitol, where the Library of Congress was housed, until the Jefferson Building was completed and they could be unpacked and shelved.
\r\nIn the 1907 Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam stated: \"About 400 volumes, bound in red Morocco with gilt edges, have been given by the present Sultan, Ghasee Abdul-Hamid II. They comprise works of native authorship, also translations from European languages of works on Medicine, History, Law, Mathematics, Arts, Drama, Fiction, etc.\"
\r\nThe remarkable story of how the Sultan met and befriended Abram Stevens Hewitt (1822-1903), Member from New York's 10th district, reported in the New York Tribune (July 13, 1884), began while Hewitt and his young son were touring around St. Sophia and palace grounds in Constantinople during a very hot day. When the young boy fainted, he was taken to the guard house where two other boys his age observed all the excitement and reported back to their father, the Sultan, what they had seen.\u00a0Their father dispatched his emissaries to Hewitt's hotel to inquire about his son's well-being and to request that he and his son visit the palace the next day.
\r\nDuring the visit, the Sultan noticed Hewitt's indelible pencil and special cigarettes which resulted in a gift shipment to Abdul-Hamid II when Hewitt returned home. Shortly thereafter, Hewitt received a notice that he owed $1,480 in customs duties on a shipment of Ottoman books. He wrote back to the Sultan that he didn't deserve such an honor and that the Sultan should give the books to the Library of Congress. The Sultan agreed and had the special collection prepared for the Library and invited Hewitt to keep the first set for himself. Hewitt paid the duty and this set is now in the New York University Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
\r\nBy 1984, it was determined that the Abdul-Hamid II gift books had become very brittle with paper that was too fragile to serve to researchers and a decision was made to microfilm the collection. 309 books and serials have been scanned from this microfilm for this digital collection. There are 26 existent Abdul-Hamid II books which also have been digitized.
", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 321}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul-hamid ii collection of books and serials gifted to the library of congress", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "middle east", "arts and culture", "middle eastern studies", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincoln/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000005"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["lincoln, abraham"], "count": 20207, "description": ["The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 6, "item": {"aka": ["lincoln", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189"], "digitized": 20157, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). \u00a0Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.
\nTreasures in the collection include Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses, his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, the two earliest known copies of the Gettysburg Address (the Nicolay and Hay copies), his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest, and a condolence letter written to Mary Todd Lincoln by Queen Victoria following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln’s Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.
\nNotable correspondents include Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, Edward Bates, Montgomery Blair, Salmon P. Chase, Schuyler Colfax, David Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, John Hay, Andrew Johnson, Reverdy Johnson, Mary Todd Lincoln, George Brinton McClellan, George Gordon Meade, Edwin D. Morgan, John G. Nicolay, William S. Rosecrans, William Henry Seward, Horatio Seymour, Caleb B. Smith, Edwin McMasters Stanton, Charles Sumner, Lyman Trumbull, E. B. Washburne, and Gideon Welles.
\nThe Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, created by the Manuscript Division in 1960 after the bulk of the collection was microfilmed, provides a full list of the correspondents and notes the series number, dates, and mounting-sheet numbers for items in Series 1-3 of the Abraham Lincoln Papers. This information, in addition to the keyword search capability in the online presentation, is helpful in finding individual letters or documents in the online version. Additional letters received by the Library after 1960 are not listed in this index.
\nA current finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Abraham Lincoln Papers is also available online.
\nAbraham Lincoln’s papers were acquired by gifts, transfers, deposits, purchases, and reproductions during the years 1901-2013. The Lincoln Papers came to the Library of Congress from Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), who arranged for their organization and care shortly after his father was assassinated on April 14, 1865. At that time, Robert Todd Lincoln had the Lincoln Papers removed to Illinois, where they were first organized under the direction of Judge David Davis of Bloomington, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln's longtime associate. Later, Lincoln’s presidential secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, assisted in the project. In 1874, most of the Lincoln Papers returned to Washington, D.C., and Nicolay and Hay used them in the research and writing of their ten-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History (New York, 1890). Robert Todd Lincoln deposited the Lincoln Papers with the Library of Congress in 1919, and deeded them to the Library on January 23, 1923. The deed stipulated that the Lincoln Papers remain sealed until twenty-one years after Robert Todd Lincoln’s death. On July 26, 1947, the Lincoln Papers were officially opened to the public.
\nThe most complete account of the early history of the Abraham Lincoln Papers appears in volume 1 of David C. Mearns, The Lincoln Papers (Garden City, N.Y., 1948), 3-136. An article by the same author which appeared in the December 1947 issue of the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly External contains the substance of the story. An additional history of the provenance of the collection was prepared for the Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, pp. v-vi, and subsequently reproduced in the finding aid (PDF and HTML). A version appears on this website as the essay Provenance of the Abraham Lincoln Papers.
\nSome Lincoln documents which had been retained by Nicolay were restored to the Lincoln Papers and were arranged as Series 2 to assure their identification. Other miscellaneous acquisitions are found in Series 3 and 4.
\nScanned images from the Abraham Lincoln Papers first became available online in 2001 as the American Memory website Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcriptions prepared for roughly half of the documents by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College were added in 2002. The present iteration of the online Abraham Lincoln Papers is an updated version of the American Memory site, with additional features, original materials not included in the previous presentation, and the replacement of images scanned from the microfilm edition with full-color images scanned from the original documents.
\nThe Abraham Lincoln Papers are arranged in five series. All of the documents contained in Series 1-3 are reproduced online, as are the original materials contained in Series 4. \u00a0Although collection items in the online presentation are described at the item level, they may be accessed in groups at the Series level.\u00a0 Individual document headings and available transcriptions can be searched by keyword.
\nSeries 1, General Correspondence and Related Documents, 1833-1916
\n\tConsists of manuscripts inherited by Robert Todd Lincoln, which have been designated “The Robert Todd Lincoln Collection of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.” Series 1 includes the so-called “Carpet Bag Documents,” which were stored in a carpet bag that suffered water damage. A list of the “Carpet Bag Documents” created in 1874 by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay is available in this series.
Series 2, Additional Correspondence, 1858-1865
\n\tComprised of correspondence retained by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay, which remained with the Nicolay Papers (received by the Library in 1947) until August 1959, when the letters were removed and reincorporated with the Lincoln Papers.
Series 3, Miscellaneous, 1837-1897
\n\tIncludes single or small numbers of manuscripts which have been acquired by the Library of Congress from a variety of sources.
Series 4, Addenda, 1774-1948
\n\tThe addenda to the Abraham Lincoln Papers consists mostly of reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1774-1887. Reproductions of documents held by the National Archives are not represented on this online collection, nor are published materials. Original items contained in Series 4 are included in this online collection and include letters written by Abraham Lincoln, an autobiographical sketch written in 1859 at the request of Jesse W. Fell, mourning cards, political ephemera, a pen purportedly used by Abraham Lincoln, and papers omitted as not being integral to the collection when it was microfilmed and indexed in 1960. Please consult the collection finding aid (PDF and HTML) for more detailed information about the contents of Series 4.
Oversize, 1776-1865
\n\tIncludes original correspondence and facsimile reproductions, certificates, pardons, a petition, a poem, pen, and printed matter. Images of all oversize materials in Series 1-3 and original materials in Series 4 are included in the online presentation and appear with the series from which they were withdrawn when rehoused as part of an oversize series. Oversize facsimiles and reproductions were not included in the online presentation.
Transcriptions Included on this Website
\nTranscriptions are included for about 10,000 items (about half of the online collection). The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois performed the editorial work, which included selecting the documents to be transcribed. Their choices were based on either a document's historical importance or as representative of the president’s unsolicited incoming mail. Annotated transcriptions were provided for all of the documents in Lincoln's own hand and for secretarial copies of Lincoln documents located in Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers. Many of the other transcriptions were also annotated to aid users in identifying the people involved and in better understanding the content and historical contexts. Annotations for Lincoln's autograph documents usually include a headnote providing historical and documentary context, as well as annotations on the content of the document. Annotations for incoming correspondence typically identify persons and organizations writing to Lincoln or referred to in the documents, explain terms and events, and provide brief historical context. Together, these fully searchable transcriptions and annotations dramatically extend access to the Abraham Lincoln Papers and enhance their teaching and research value. For more information on transcriptions in the Abraham Lincoln Papers see the essay Editors’ Preface to the Transcriptions.
\n\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "The Presidency and the Executive Branch", "Abraham Lincoln"], "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 20157}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "illinois"], "number": ["mm78030189", "2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78030189"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "abraham lincoln papers at the library of congress"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "national expansion and reform", "civil war and reconstruction", "american history and civilization", "the presidency and the executive branch", "government, law & politics", "abraham lincoln", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 22, "date": "2009", "dates": ["2009"], "description": ["The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies, banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 7, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570"], "digitized": 20, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "\n
\n The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically\n the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies,\n banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights\n initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and\n parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the\n founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003.\n
\n\nCollection Period: July 2009 to December 2010.
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture monthly, with fewer targeted for capture weekly.
\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "United States"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Human Rights", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["afghanistan", "united states"], "number": ["2019210570", "online resource", "2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210570"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "afghanistan web archive", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "world cultures & history", "government, law & politics", "human rights", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-iran/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 437, "date": "2015", "dates": ["2015"], "description": ["This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 8, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-iran", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408"], "digitized": 230, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\nMay 2015 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly, with some targeted for capture twice-yearly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, with Urdu, Pashto, Tajik and the Persian dialects of Farsi and Dari.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n\n\t\n\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 230}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/", "language": ["urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "pushto"], "location": ["afghanistan", "tajikistan", "iran", "pakistan"], "number": ["2019210408", "online resource", "2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210408"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["afghanistan, iran, pakistan and tajikistan government web archive", "digital collections", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-elections-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 183, "date": "2014", "dates": ["2014"], "description": ["The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 9, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-elections-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661"], "digitized": 124, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\n
March 2014 to October 2014\n
May 2017 to present (this is an ongoing archive)
Frequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, with fewer sites targeted for capture monthly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, Persian, Urdu, Tajik, Pushto/Pashto, and Russian.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Political Science", "Elections", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 124}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/", "language": ["russian", "urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "tajik", "pushto"], "location": ["tajikistan", "international organizations", "iran", "pakistan", "afghanistan"], "number": ["online resource", "2020210661", "2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2020210661"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "afghanistan, iran, pakistan, and tajikistan elections web archive", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "elections", "history", "government, law & politics", "middle eastern studies", "political science"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ccg-aaballet/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2024003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["johnson, virginia", "adelekun, jasmine", "cooper, sylvia", "washington, delaney", "bullard, micah", "robinson, kira", "welters, lynn b.", "rosebar, erin", "williams, stephanie rae", "brockington, derek", "thurmon, kamilah", "wright, david", "american folklife center", "andrew w. mellon foundation", "fortune, sandra (fortune-green)", "welters, raigan", "rego, luis fernando", "davis, kouadio", "dickerson, ariana", "haynes, kahina", "hutchinson, alexandra", "jones, alexandra rene", "davis-williams, beatrice", "gibson, felicia"], "count": 15, "date": "2024", "dates": ["2024"], "description": ["This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/500_500.jpg"], "index": 10, "item": {"aka": ["ccg-aaballet", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311"], "digitized": 207, "formats": ["audio", "film-and-videos", "photos", "manuscripts"], "html_content": "This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Ballet", "Dance"], "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "topics": ["African American History", "Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 207}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["washington d.c."], "number": ["2024655311", "2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "number_lccn": ["2024655311"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "film, video", "photo, print, drawing", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "african american ballet in washington, d.c.: a legacy in motion"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "ballet", "local history & folklife", "dance", "interviews", "oral histories", "sound recordings", "performing arts", "video recordings", "digital photographs", "arts and culture", "color", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/murray/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603", "https://www.loc.gov/item/99483603"], "campaigns": [], "count": 893, "date": "1875", "dates": ["[1875 TO 1900]"], "description": ["\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 11, "item": {"aka": ["murray", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603"], "digitized": 353, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others.
\r\n\r\nThe 800 + titles in the collection include sermons on racial pride and political activism; annual reports of charitable, educational, and political organizations; and college catalogs and graduation orations from the Hampton Institute, Morgan College, and Wilberforce University. Also included are biographies, slave narratives, speeches by members of Congress, legal documents, poetry, playbills, dramas, and librettos. Other materials focus on segregation, voting rights, violence against African Americans, the colonization of Africa by freed slaves, anti-slavery organizations and investigative reports. Several of the items are illustrated with portraits of the authors.
\r\n\r\n\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00", "01", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization", "African-American History", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Slavery and Abolition"], "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "topics": ["African American History"], "total": 353}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/", "location": ["north america"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "african american perspectives: materials selected from the rare book collection", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "african american", "national expansion and reform", "civil rights", "civil war and reconstruction", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "rise of industrial america", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "slavery and abolition", "african-american history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/anedub/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.38447", "http://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.38447/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.anedub"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["calloway, thomas j.", "daniel murray collection (library of congress)", "du bois, w. e. b. (william edward burghardt)"], "count": 557, "date": "1899", "dates": ["1900", "1899"], "description": ["The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1"], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/500_500.jpg"], "index": 12, "item": {"aka": ["anedub", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657"], "digitized": 484, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1
\nDu Bois and Thomas J. Calloway, who was named special agent for the Exposition, spearheaded the planning, collection and installation of the exhibit materials, which included 500 photographs, as well as 32 charts, numerous maps, and a display of 200 books written by African Americans. Calloway's report to the U.S. Commissioner-General for the exposition mentions such sources of photographs as:
\nThe Library of Congress holds approximately 220 mounted photographs reportedly displayed in the exhibition (LOTs11293-11308), as well as material specially compiled by Du Bois: four photograph albums showing \"Types\" and \"Negro Life\" (LOT 11930); three albums entitled \"The Black Code of Georgia, U.S.A.,\" offering transcriptions of Georgia state laws relating to blacks, 1732-1899 (LOT 11932); and 72 drawings charting the condition of African Americans at the turn of the century (LOT 11931).
\nThe materials cataloged online include all of the photos in LOT 11930, and any materials in the other groups for which copy negatives have been made.
\nThe African Government Web Archive provides links to information from key African government ministries, institutions and organizations for the 51 countries in Africa south of the Sahara. This will ensure that the Library of Congress and the United States Congress have ongoing access to information from Africa and to official 'born digital' government publications from African nations. The digital initiative adds to the Library\u2019s existing vast collection of resources from Africa and is part of its continuing efforts to seek documentation in all formats to support current research and future scholarly activities.
\r\n\r\nGovernment ministries websites, such as those concerned with commerce, economic development, social welfare, and foreign affairs, were particularly targeted for archiving. Often these sites are document-rich in all formats, including PDFs, videos and social media, with vital primary source materials such as annual reports, development plans, economic reports, budgets, statistics and foreign affairs. Coverage and priorities among the countries vary greatly.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period:\tNovember 2014 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis or once.
\r\n\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English, with French, Portuguese, Swahili, Somali, Arabic, and other languages.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Angola", "Benin", "Botswana", "Burkina Faso", "Burundi", "Cameroon", "Cape Verde", "Central African Republic", "Chad", "Comoros", "Cote d'Ivoire", "Darfur", "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Djibouti", "Equatorial Guinea", "Eritrea", "Ethiopia", "Gabon", "Gambia", "Ghana", "Guinea", "Guinea Bissau", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Kenya", "Lesotho", "Liberia", "Madagascar", "Malawi", "Mali", "Mauritius", "Mozambique", "Namibia", "Niger", "Nigeria", "Republic of Congo", "Rwanda", "Sao Tome and Principe", "Senegal", "Seychelles", "Sierra Leone", "Somalia", "South Africa", "South Sudan", "Swaziland/Eswatini", "Tanzania", "Togo", "Uganda", "Zambia", "Zimbabwe"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "African Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/", "language": ["arabic", "french", "swahili", "english", "amharic", "portuguese"], "location": ["zambia", "lesotho", "swaziland/eswatini", "zimbabwe", "burkina faso", "international organizations", "republic of congo", "iran", "seychelles", "malawi", "mali", "benin", "south sudan", "angola", "djibouti", "rwanda", "south africa", "mozambique", "uganda", "sierra leone", "burundi", "guinea", "gabon", "niger", "ghana", "c\u00f4te d'ivoire", "mauritius", "botswana", "sub-saharan africa", "sao tome and principe", "chad", "central african republic", "senegal", "nigeria", "comoros", "darfur", "gambia", "guinea bissau", "togo", "namibia", "kenya", "equatorial guinea", "eritrea", "somalia", "democratic republic of the congo", "tanzania", "cape verde", "ethiopia", "madagascar", "liberia", "cameroon"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000", "2019210589"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210589"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "african government web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aabm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 308, "date": "1883", "dates": ["[1883 TO 1923]"], "description": ["The core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-band-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 14, "item": {"aka": ["aabm"], "digitized": 357, "formats": ["notated-music", "audio"], "html_content": "\nThe core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays.
\n\n\nThe Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. Some of the music of this period, including that composed by African-Americans, features words, phrases, and \"dialect\" portrayals that can be considered offensive and demeaning. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, but is displaying this little-known facet of American history in order to draw attention to the struggles and triumphs of the great African-American musicians of a century ago.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/stocks/stocks-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Music"], "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "topics": ["African American History", "Performing Arts"], "total": 363}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "african-american band music & recordings, 1883-1923"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "recordings", "performing arts", "african-americans", "band music", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-postcards/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 1300, "description": ["The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 15, "item": {"aka": ["africana-postcards"], "digitized": 1295, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960.
\nThe Africana Historic Postcard Collection has significant value for researchers and students working on sub-Saharan Africa’s colonial life and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to documenting representations of African life from a specific period of time, postcard images also chronicle the transformation of cultural, political and social landscapes in the African continent.
\nMost of the postcard imagery from the African colonies was taken by military and colonial officials, missionary workers and professional photographers. Images unique to the collection include the works of Ukrainian-born postcard photographer-producer Casimir Zagourski (1883-1944) and prolific French photographer and ethnographer Francois Edmond Fortier (1862-1928) who disseminated the most comprehensive photographic record of West Africa. African postcard photographers include notable names such as Alphonso Lisk-Carew from Sierra Leone, Demba N’Diaye from Senegal, W.S. Johnston from Gold Coast (now Ghana) or Sierra Leone, F.W.H. Arkurst from Gold Coast, Frederick Grant from Gold Coast, N. Walwin Holm from Gold Coast and Alex Agbablo Accolatse from Togo.
\n", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1295}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "africana historic postcard collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/pearl/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections//"], "campaigns": [], "count": 139, "date": "1941", "dates": ["[1941 TO 1942]"], "description": ["After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/500_500.jpg"], "index": 16, "item": {"aka": ["pearl", ""], "digitized": 58, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II.
\n\n\tThe 1941 recordings were made as a part of the the Library of Congress' Radio Research Project. A portion of this project aimed to create documentary recordings of Americans from around the country who described their lives, sang their songs, and told the stories of their own regions. The project's staff believed that most commercial radio broadcasts of the day were dominated by programs created in the great urban centers and that these programs failed to reflect regional culture, local talent, and, in particular, the voices of the people speaking in their own words. Alan Lomax was serving as folklore consultant for the project when he sent the December 8, 1941 telegram, asking fieldworkers to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions. This request resulted in approximately four and one half hours of recordings that were used to create a fifteen-minute radio program for the Mutual Broadcasting System.
\nA second set of recordings, in which the interviewees were asked to address their thoughts and opinions on the attack and the declaration of war directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was made under the auspices of the Office of Emergency Management in January and February 1942. These recordings total approximately seven and one half hours and were also used to create a radio program, entitled \"Dear Mr. President,\" which was broadcast in May 1942. Pete Seeger and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) recorded original songs for the \"Dear Mr. President\" interviews. Included in this presentation are Pete Seeger's \"Dear Mr. President\" and \"The Martins and Coys.\"
\nIn most cases, the recordings were digitized by Library of Congress staff directly from the discs on which they were originally recorded. The only editing redacted interviewee names from several recordings and removed Leadbelly's two songs for which permissions have not yet been received. Otherwise, the recordings are presented as they were originally recorded.
\nThis online presentation includes one essay: \"Making and Maintaining the Original Recordings.\" Also included are biographies of the fieldworkers who conducted and arranged the interviews, complete transcripts of the interviews, related manuscripts, and original disc sleeves.
\nThis online presentation also includes a set of interviews conducted in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. During the course of these interviews, Library interviewers advised some interviewees that the interviews would not be broadcast. Presumably, the agreement to safeguard the identity of these persons was intentional, as some of the interviewees worked for the Federal government and/or otherwise required anonymity in order to participate. For this reason, the Library has edited the Washington, D.C., audiotapes and transcripts to remove interviewee names.
\nThis presentation was made possible with the generous support of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the New Deal Network.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Great Depression & World War II, 1929-1945", "World War II"], "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 58}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "after the day of infamy: \"man-on-the-street\" interviews following the attack on pearl harbor", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "interviews", "pearl harbor", "world war ii", "labor disputes", "racial prejudice", "lomax, alan", "great depression & world war ii", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:04.735Z", "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-quilt/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2019048"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["jones, cleve", "names project foundation", "rhoad, julie"], "count": 5164, "date": "1980", "dates": ["1980"], "description": ["This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/500_500.jpg"], "index": 17, "item": {"aka": ["aids-quilt", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world.
\nThese records were maintained by NAMES Project staff from 1987 until their donation to the American Folklife Center in 2019. AFC continues to receive regular accruals to the panel maker files from the National AIDS Memorial. This digital collection presents the manuscript and still image panel maker records for Quilt panels that are more than 25 years old. Records concerning panels that are less than 25 years old and other media formats are available onsite in the Folklife Reading Room.
\nA typical panel file contains a letter written by a panel’s maker. These moving and heartfelt letters often include memories and descriptions of the AIDS victim memorialized on the panel, or explain the maker’s motivations. The files also often contain obituaries, news clippings, and funeral service prayer cards. Files sometimes contain photos of the memorialized or photos of the Quilt panel being crafted. Occasionally the file contains records created by the AIDS victim before their death \u2013 mostly writings or other artworks. Files also contain NAMES Project administrative records about the panels. These administrative documents vary in depth and utility. Not every Memorial Quilt panel has a corresponding panel maker file \u2013 many panels were submitted without accompanying records.
\n\nDigitization of this collection was made possible by the Ford Foundation.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "American History", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2019655313", "2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2019655313"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "aids memorial quilt records", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "records (documents)", "ephemera", "sound recordings", "correspondence", "digital photographs", "video recordings", "arts and culture", "color", "registers (lists)", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-ezochi/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 93, "description": ["This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 18, "item": {"aka": ["ainu-ezochi"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books", "maps"], "html_content": "This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka.
\r\nFrom the viewpoint of ethnic Japanese, or Wajin as the Ainu called them, these northern lands were collectively known as Ezo or Ezochi (\"Ezo land\"), a name suggestive of less civilized or culturally inferior peoples. Beginning in the 17th century, the Wajin began pushing further into historically Ainu lands, establishing a foothold on the southern part of Hokkaido. In contrast to Ezochi, where the Ainu predominated, territory in this northerly region that was controlled by ethnic Japanese became known as Wajinchi (\"Wajin land\"). During the 18th and 19th centuries, growing numbers of Wajin set out to explore, survey, and map Ezochi for political, military, and economic reasons.
\r\nIn the 1870s, the Japanese central government, as part of its mission to modernize and strengthen the country as a bulwark against the Western imperial powers, set out on a colonizing mission of its own\u2014to settle Ezochi with Japanese citizens, reap the benefits of its natural resources, and bring it firmly under Japanese sovereignty. The Ainu, who were primarily hunters and fishers, were displaced from their lands and forced into a settled Japanese agricultural lifestyle. Ainu language and customs were rejected as \"uncivilized\" and children were forced to attend newly created public schools to hasten their assimilation as imperial Japanese subjects. Today, the number of ethnic Ainu remains difficult to identify precisely, but estimates range from 20,000 up to 200,000.
\r\nThe materials in the Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection primarily cover the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest item in the collection is Ezo shi (\"Ezo gazeteer\") dating to around 1720, by the noted scholar and high-ranking bureaucrat Arai Hakuseki. This work is the oldest known publication about the Ainu and Ezochi that was based on first-hand accounts, rather than folklore or legends. Because the Ainu did not possess a written language, the materials in this collection include some of the earliest textual accounts of Ainu culture. They also include many color illustrations that document the Ainu people’s unique clothing, housing, cuisine, religion, family structures, and customs, albeit from the perspective of the Wajin rather than the Ainu themselves.
", "research-centers": ["asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book", "map"], "partof": ["digital collections", "asian division", "ainu and ezochi rare collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-manuscripts/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2004004"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["american folklife center", "archive of american folk song", "association for cultural equity", "lomax, alan"], "count": 6613, "date": "1933", "dates": ["1933"], "description": ["The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/500_500.jpg"], "index": 19, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-manuscripts", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761"], "digitized": 770, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images.
\r\nThis presentation contains more than 500,000 pages of Alan Lomax’s personal papers and office files from his time at the Library of Congress (1932-1942) and from his post-Library career through the 1990s. Featured are Lomax’s writing projects such as Land Where the Blues Began (1993), the unpublished Big Ballad Book, as well as documentation of his extensive work in radio for the CBS and BBC networks. Also included are thousands of pages of field notes and correspondence associated with his field projects beginning in the 1930s.
\r\nThe 2004 acquisition of the Alan Lomax Collection was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the American Folklife Center, the Association for Cultural Equity External, and the generosity of an anonymous donor. This collection joins the material Alan Lomax collected during the 1930s and early 1940s for the Library's Archive of American Folk-Song, bringing together the entire seventy years of Alan Lomax's work under one roof at the Library of Congress.
\r\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\r\nTranscription datasets for this collection are available online at Transcription dataset from the Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 770}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/", "language": ["english", "french"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2004447761", "2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2004447761"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "other_title": ["Former title: Alan Lomax archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["interviews", "folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "personal correspondence", "sound recordings", "manuscripts for publication", "performing arts", "correspondence", "songs", "ethnographic films", "video recordings", "motion pictures", "manuscripts", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-michigan/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc1939007"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["pohjala, aina", "gaza, v. sipoo", "thrasher, ed", "romel, adolph", "floriani, veko", "warslzyk, tony", "lomax, alan", "nemeth, kalman", "dobri\u010dan, lazar", "kubesh, john g.", "frazier, clara", "leclaire, leilia", "styes, archie", "carri\u00e8re, fred", "lewandowski, stephanie", "mcdonough, patrick", "kubien, rose", "hirvel\u00e4, w\u00e4in", "green, john w.", "king, edward", "marinetti, victor", "sainovi\u0107, ilija", "hulan", "forster, yalmer eino", "ketvirtis, charles", "lewandowski, stephan", "mcbride, bill", "tomi\u0107, pajo", "trivanovi\u0107, stefan", "gallagher, andrew e.", "palmer, mason", "kania, felix", "marttila", "scheffer, peter", "preda, emil milan", "baratono, art", "raj\u010devi\u0107, stepan", "cloud, clarence", "halinen, selma elona", "pol, thomas", "szabo, andy", "carri\u00e8re, dolphis", "happy jack woodward", "viita, frank", "frazier, viola", "velin, maria", "mccauley, edward", "rautanen, vernon", "bellaire, mose", "aho, pekka", "lewandowski, edwina", "o'donnell, mike j.", "wallen, mr", "bonner, daniel", "cadeau, john", "larson, nils", "trueblood, asel", "krawezak, b.", "cadeau, mathilda", "norman, john", "brideup, louis", "marczis, joseph", "romel, ted", "aho, lillian", "romel, leo", "romel, sylvester", "berky, nandor", "frazier, lonnie", "romel", "floriani, margaret", "gallagher, emerald", "vasvary, steve", "szilagyi, dizso", "meyers, herman", "kruczynski, clara", "archive of american folk song", "h\u00e4rk\u00f6nen, amanda", "pittman, sampson", "lewandowski, ted", "pope, allan c.", "simil\u00e4, gusti", "lathrop, carl", "miron, joe", "allen, perry", "vizina, adelore", "larson, john", "strzelecki, tony", "mccormick, ed", "marinetti, john", "frazier, calvin", "mccarthy, barney", "maki, frank", "vujanovi\u0107, stjepan", "bellaire, exilia", "floriani, vladimir", "olah, julius", "cadeau, ed", "gallagher, dominic", "rudzinski, alex", "fredrickson, john", "hyv\u00f6nen, john", "mahoski, henry", "cloud, joe", "wells, lester", "korvenpaa, charles", "basrak, stjepan", "bonner, patrick", "graham, bert", "niewiadomska, frances", "frazier, belle", "juhani, aapo", "jackson, andrew", "kallio, kalle", "fredrickson, kaisa", "grbi\u0107, ludevit", "maki, emil", "guzal, frank", "bangac, petar", "sielvankiewiez", "dragi\u0107, todor", "larson, steen", "ricksgers, joseph", "mat\u00e9", "pischner, helen", "erickson, max", "delmas, adolphus"], "count": 1270, "date": "1938", "dates": ["1938"], "description": ["In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/500_500.jpg"], "index": 20, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-michigan", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan.
\nThe Alan Lomax collection of Michigan and Wisconsin recordings (AFC 1939/007) documents Irish, Italian, Finnish, Serbian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Croatian, French Canadian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swedish songs and stories, as well as occupational folklife among loggers and lake sailors in Michigan and Wisconsin. Lomax’s itinerary took him from Detroit through the Saginaw River valley to the northern counties of the Lower Peninsula, including Beaver Island. Crossing the Straits of Mackinac, he collected across the Upper Peninsula to the far northern Calumet area and then along the Lake Superior coast to easternmost Wisconsin.
\nThe recordings in this collection and related collections in the American Folklife Center provide early documentation of the Upper Midwest’s rich culture. This collection is the result of a conscious decision by the Library of Congress to undertake regional documentation of American folk song in recognition that the voices of ordinary people have a place at the national library. The sound recordings in this online collection are presented in their raw form, as full disc sides without speed correction or other digital processing. The eight folders of manuscripts (primarily correspondence, song lists, and notes) and the films are not included at this time.
\n", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["wisconsin", "illinois", "michigan"], "number": ["2008700315", "2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "number_lccn": ["2008700315"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection of michigan and wisconsin recordings"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "finnish americans", "franco americans", "irish americans", "performing arts", "songs", "field recordings", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/schatz/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 12255, "description": ["Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/albert-schatz/500_500.jpg"], "index": 21, "item": {"aka": ["schatz"], "digitized": 12253, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti.
\r\nSchatz's poor health impeded the completion of his book; in 1908, he personally offered to sell his unparalleled libretto collection to Music Division Chief and friend Oscar Sonneck, who negotiated the purchase that same year. Later, after Schatz's death, the purchase of the manuscript portion of his collection, consisting of research papers and notes, was also arranged by Sonneck.
\r\nThe scope of this digital presentation comprises all 12,253 Schatz libretti; the images were generated from the Library's microfilm copy of that collection.
\r\n", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 12253}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["albert schatz collection", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/magbell/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000006"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["hubbard, gardiner g. (gardiner greene)", "bell, mabel gardiner hubbard", "bell, alexander melville", "fairchild, marian", "bell, alexander graham"], "count": 4715, "date": "1862", "dates": ["[1862 TO 1939]"], "description": ["The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 22, "item": {"aka": ["magbell", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268"], "digitized": 15032, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division.
\nThe Bell Family Papers is divided into several archival series, including Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, Laboratory Notebooks, Article File, and Speech File. The online presentation includes the following:
\n\nSeveral factors defined the selection of Bell Papers for digitization. The collection as a whole includes the personal papers of not only Alexander Graham Bell but also those of his father, mother, wife, father-in-law, and other family members. Because the Bell Papers are so numerous and inclusive, navigation through them can be difficult. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the selection process was to identify those materials which mainly focused on Alexander Graham Bell and his work, varied interests, and achievements. Another important goal was to choose those materials that best offered a well-rounded portrayal of Bell--not only as an inventor and scientist but also as a teacher, husband, and father. Items were also selected if they appeared historically useful or significant, such as correspondence pertaining to the development of the Bell Telephone Company or Mabel Hubbard Bell's written accounts of her experiences growing up deaf.
\nThe Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers were donated to the Library of Congress by his heirs in 1975. Prior to this donation, the papers were on deposit at the National Geographic Society, where they were organized and maintained. In order to make the collection easier to use, the Society prepared typed transcripts of a large portion of the handwritten letters. These valuable transcriptions were retained and have been reproduced here along with the original letters. Occasionally the original is missing and only the transcription is still available. One should keep in mind that these transcripts are now decades old and may occasionally be difficult to read due to faded, bleeding, or blurred text.
\nThe Bell Papers contain a considerable amount of correspondence, much of which reflects the writing practices of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As letter writing becomes less popular, some awareness of common, older practices may be helpful. Since the typical handwritten letter is essentially a single sheet of paper folded in half (and usually written on all four sides), the digital scan and display of each unfolded sheet usually show an image of pages four and one (or back and front), and another of pages three and two (or the inside two pages). Example Today's readers also should be aware of such papers-saving tactics as writing-over, or text over text. In such cases, the writer would literally write over a completed page, making the added words somewhat readable by turning the page sideways and writing horizontally against what were now vertical written lines. Example Surprisingly, if the writer was careful and lengthened his or her hand while also trying to write only in the spaces between lines, such letters can be read with little difficulty.
\n\n\n\n\n \n Letter from Alexander Graham Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell, November 19, 1876. Box 35, \"Subject File: Bell, Mabel Hubbard--Family Correspondence--Bell, Alexander Graham, August-November 1876.\" Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
\n \nExample of a folded letter with pages one and four on one side and pages three and two on the other.
\n \nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his\n\tpersonal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and\n\tcorrespondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families. The collection, consisting of approximately\n\t12,000 items dating from 1708 to 1917, documents Hamilton's impoverished Caribbean boyhood (scantily); events in the\n\tlives of his family and that of his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton; his experience as a Revolutionary War officer\n\tand aide-de-camp to General George Washington; his terms as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress\n\t(1782-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787); and his careers as a New York state legislator, United States\n\ttreasury secretary (1789-1795), political writer, and lawyer in private practice. Most of the papers date from 1777\n\tuntil Hamilton's death in 1804. Additional details may be found in the collection's finding aid (
Among the many correspondents in the papers are John Adams, Angelica Schuyler Church, Henry Clay, Elizabeth Schuyler\n\tHamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Rufus King, the Marquis de Lafayette, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, James McHenry,\n\tJames Monroe, Robert Morris, Timothy Pickering, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Philip Schuyler, Baron von Steuben,\n\tRobert Troup, George Washington, James Wilkinson, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
\nThe federal government bought the bulk of the Hamilton papers in 1848. They were transferred from the State\n\tDepartment to the Library of Congress in 1904. Additional papers came to the Library of Congress later through gifts\n\tand purchases from the Hamilton family and other sources. \u00a0Papers accumulated through 1981 were scanned from the\n\tmicrofilm edition made that year, and items acquired since were digitized from the originals.
\nBetween 1961 and 1987, Columbia University Press published a twenty-seven-volume edition of the Papers of\n\t\tAlexander Hamilton, edited by Harold C. Syrett. Between 1964 and 1981, Columbia University Law School\n\tpublished a five-volume-edition of Hamilton's legal papers, with Julius Goebel as editor. These two editions have\n\tbeen used as definitive sources in the verification of names and in the dating and identification of manuscripts in\n\tthe Hamilton Papers at the Library of Congress.
\nAlthough this collection is the largest gathering of Alexander Hamilton papers at the Library of Congress, there are\n\tsignificant additional groups of Hamilton letters and other papers in other Library of Congress collections, notably\n\tin the George Washington Papers. To\n\tidentify these collections, consult the bibliography under
The collection is arranged in eight series as follows.
\nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton Stephens (1812-1883), lawyer, journalist, governor of Georgia, member of both houses of the United States Congress, and vice president of the Confederate States of America, span the years 1784-1886, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1850-1883. \u00a0The collection consists primarily of correspondence, supplemented by an autobiography and journal and miscellaneous memoranda, legal documents, and clippings. \u00a0The papers are organized in three series: General Correspondence, Letters from Servants, and Autobiography and Journal.
\nThe correspondence, mainly letters received, touches on virtually all aspects of Stephens’s private and public life, focusing on the divisive issues leading to the Civil War, the operation of the Confederate government, and postwar problems and issues in the South. \u00a0Specific topics discussed include plantation management, slavery, Texas annexation, territorial expansion, political parties, states’ rights, the compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, secession, formation of the Confederate government, the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction in the South, and the disputed election of 1876. \u00a0Broader subjects include transportation, the tariff, education, and social, economic, and literary matters.
\n\nProminent correspondents include Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), Joseph E. Brown, Fitzwilliam Byrdsall, Henry Cleveland, Howell Cobb, Martin Crawford, A. H. Garland, John. B. Gordon, Paul Hamilton Hayne, William H. Hidell, Henry R. Jackson, Herschel V. Johnson, Richard Malcolm Johnson, L. Q. C. Lamar, James Ryder Randall, J. Henley Smith, Robert Augustus Toombs, James Iredell Waddell, and Ambrose R. Wright.
\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\nA transcription dataset for this collection is available online as part of Transcription dataset from \"'Such Eventful Times': Women and the American Civil War\", Manuscript Division. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics"], "total": 15032}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["confederate states of america", "united states", "georgia", "southern states", "texas"], "number": ["mm78041335", "2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78041335"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "alexander hamilton stephens papers"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "american history and civilization", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincolniana/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000004", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/lprbscsm.scsm1303"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["alfred whital stern collection of lincolniana (library of congress)", "library of congress", "stern, alfred whital"], "count": 1536, "date": "1824", "dates": ["[1809 TO 1865]", "1824"], "description": ["The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/500_500.jpg"], "index": 25, "item": {"aka": ["lincolniana", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901"], "digitized": 1529, "formats": ["books", "photos", "notated-music"], "html_content": "\nThe collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date.
\nAlfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his outstanding collection of Lincolniana to the Library of Congress in 1953. Stern began collecting in the 1920s. His collection documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics.
\nHighlights of the online collection include Lincoln's own scrapbook of the 1858 political campaign against Stephen A. Douglas; the Tiffany seed pearl necklace and bracelets that Lincoln gave to his wife, Mary Todd; a Lincoln life mask cast in bronze by Clark Mills, as well as the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the evening of his assassination. Probably the single most famous Lincoln manuscript in the collection is the January 26, 1863, letter to General Joseph Hooker, placing him in command of the Army of the Potomac.
\nAlfred Whital Stern's gift to the Library represents the most extensive collection of Lincolniana ever assembled by a private individual.
\nBelow is a listing of the types of items in the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.
\n| Types of Items in the Collection | \n\t\tNumber of Items | \n\t
|---|---|
| Advertisements | \n\t\t302 | \n\t
| Books | \n\t\t\u00a0 5 | \n\t
| Broadsides | \n\t\t515 | \n\t
| Correspondence | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Ephemera | \n\t\t206 | \n\t
| Government publications | \n\t\t33 | \n\t
| Humor, satire | \n\t\t76 | \n\t
| Legal cases and case notes | \n\t\t224 | \n\t
| Letters | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Manuscripts | \n\t\t298 | \n\t
| Maps | \n\t\t\u00a0\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Newspapers | \n\t\t296 | \n\t
| Pamphlets | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Periodicals | \n\t\t290 | \n\t
| Photographs | \n\t\t69 | \n\t
| Poetry | \n\t\t57 | \n\t
| Portraits | \n\t\t336 | \n\t
| Postcards | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Realia | \n\t\t24 | \n\t
| Sheet music | \n\t\t249 | \n\t
| Speeches | \n\t\t27 | \n\t
This collection highlights the history of the hymn “Amazing Grace” from the earliest printing of the song to selected performances of it on published and field recordings. These items have been collected from several divisions in the Library of Congress, including the Music Division, the American Folklife Center, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, and the Rare Books Division. Also available here is the Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection of data on published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by more than 3000 different musicians or ensembles. Since its creation in 1779 in England, \"Amazing Grace\" has grown in popularity to become one of the best-known hymns in America.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection at the Library of Congress comprises more than 3000 published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by different individual musicians or musical ensembles. The collection, compiled by Allan Chasanoff and Raymon Elozua, is undoubtedly the largest such collection of a single musical work in the recorded sound collection of the Library of Congress.
\nThe recordings in the Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection were made between the 1930s and 2000. The audio formats represented in the collection include: compact disc, mp3 files (all acquired legally), vinyl long-playing 33-1/3 rpm discs, 78 rpm discs, cassette tapes, and various video media.
\nThe full breadth of the collection is revealed by the great range of performance styles: big band, blues, classical, country, 'easy listening,' electronic, folk, gospel, different styles of jazz, 'novelty,' operatic, pop, rap, rock, rhythm 'n' blues, soul, and various ethnic, or 'world music,' styles. The wide array of performers include children's groups, religious ensembles, concert bands, bagpipers, steel guitarists, and American Indians.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection is available for public listening and research in the Recorded Sound Reference Center, Madison Building, Room LM 113. For more information, call 202-707-7833.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/grace/grace-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Amazing Grace", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "Religion & Philosophy"], "total": 49}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "book", "notated music"], "partof": ["amazing grace", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["revolution", "amazing grace", "recordings", "chasanoff/elozua", "articles", "religion & philosophy", "performing arts", "songs", "hymns", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "religion & philosophy"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Amazing Grace", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/work/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/collmbr.mi000002"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division", "paper print collection (library of congress)"], "count": 158, "date": "2000", "dates": ["[1894 TO 1915]", "2000"], "description": ["Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/500_500.jpg"], "index": 27, "item": {"aka": ["work", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557"], "digitized": 153, "formats": ["film-and-videos"], "html_content": "Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
\nAmerica at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 consists of 150 motion pictures, 62 of which also appear in other online collections. The majority of the films are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. Both of these collections have printed catalogs available in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room at the Library. The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century. The selection is limited, however, by what is available from these collections; not every possible occupation or leisure activity from the turn of the century is represented.
\nThe films in the Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from 1894 to 1912 as positive pictures on paper. Many were deposited in this manner on paper rolls frame by frame. For preservation and access purposes, the Library of Congress has made 16mm prints of these Paper Print titles, and has more recently been making 35mm prints of selected titles. For this presentation, 35mm and 16mm prints have been used as the original source material for digitization. Many of the 35mm prints have been produced especially for this Web presentation.
\nThe George Kleine Collection consists of films obtained by film distributor and producer George Kleine. The collection includes films produced from 1898 to 1926, representing films by the Edison Company, French and Italian imports, and those produced by Kleine. The collection contains both 35mm and 16mm prints.
\nLinks to films in other online collections, such as Inside an American Factory: The Westinghouse Works, 1904; The Last Days of a President: McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition; and Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies are also in the presentation to add further diversity to the films listed.
\nThe online collection offers films available in MPEG, QuickTime, and MP4. In the case of the first two formats, films are segmented when longer than four minutes so that file sizes will not be prohibitively large to download.
\n", "research-centers": ["moving-image"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Science, Technology and Business", "Business & Industry", "Technology", "American History", "American History and Civilization", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Sports, Recreation & Leisure", "Industrialization, Urbanization and Labor", "Recreational Activities"], "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "topics": ["Social & Business History", "Sports & Recreation"], "total": 153}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["online resource", "2001561557", "2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2001561557"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "film, video"], "partof": ["america at work, america at leisure: motion pictures from 1894-1915", "digital collections", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "business & industry", "american history and civilization", "progressive era to new era", "technology", "recreational activities", "george klein collection", "science, technology and business", "rise of industrial america", "paper print film", "sports, recreation & leisure", "motion pictures", "industrialization, urbanization and labor", "sports & recreation", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["social & business history", "sports & recreation"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ncss/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. rare book and special collections division"], "count": 4292, "date": "1999", "dates": ["[1775 TO 1910]", "1999"], "description": ["Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/500_500.jpg"], "index": 28, "item": {"aka": ["ncss", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463"], "digitized": 4290, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "\n\n Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.\n
\n\n\n\tFor most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music. These were new songs being sung in music halls or new lyrics to familiar songs. Some of America's most beloved tunes were printed as song sheets, including \"The Star Spangled Banner\" and \"Battle Hymn of the Republic.\" Song sheets are an early example of a mass medium and today they offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and economic life of the time, especially during the Civil War. Some were dramatic, some were humorous; all of them had America joining together in song.
\n\nSong sheets first found popularity in the British Isles as early as the 1500s, but their popularity in the United States skyrocketed in the early nineteenth century, fueled by the introduction of the mechanized printing press. Historically, sheets had been printed in editions of fewer than one hundred copies, on hand presses, using type that had been manually set. The new technology of the industrial age allowed runs of more than one thousand copies, using engraved illustrations and \"plates\" of text that were often bought and sold among publishers.
\n\nPrinters used the \"relief\" method of printing, in which the raised portion of the plate is inked and used to make the impression. If by chance an intaglio plate is used, one in which the carved-out portion provides an image, the effect is not what the printer or reader might expect.
\n\n\tPublishers who chose to include an illustration on a song sheet would typically select from the illustrated vignettes owned by the printing house. These depicted political and military figures, pastoral and industrial landscapes, scenes of battles, and social settings. Sometimes printers used generic illustrations if nothing else was available. For example, the song, \"Welcome Mother,\" is decorated with an illustration of the White House. The illustrations were sometimes colored, either by hand or with pre-cut blocks.
\nMany songs sheets employ the use of illustrative borders, usually cut from wood, that could be used to frame almost any plate of text. These frames usually include the printer's imprint and street address. A song sheet published by H. DeMarsan provides an example. Printers could use one of their own borders to frame the text acquired from a different printer. This interchangeability further encouraged the migration of plates between publishing houses.
\nThe date of publication seldom appears on song sheets, but it can sometimes be estimated quite accurately using a knowledge of a publisher's history, including changes in address and company name. For example, the prolific publisher J. H. Johnson was known with and without his initials, and set up shop in various locales throughout Philadelphia.
\n\n\n\tThe proliferation of the mechanized printing press coincided with a period of expanding industrialization, immigration, and commerce in America. The relative ease and low cost of producing song sheets met the demand of a nation eager for a means of expression. By the height of their popularity, song sheets could be found almost everywhere. They were distributed in town squares, taverns, homes, and around camp fires. They are evidence of a country desiring to be heard, as well as to listen.
\nPerhaps most of all, there was a desire to sing with others. Often the song sheets provided new lyrics to a familiar song, like \"Yankee Doodle,\" or \"Just Before the Battle, Mother.\" Other sheets offered the lyrics of popular new songs. Among these, the byline commonly named the performer who sang the song, and where it was performed. \". . . To great acclaim,\" they often boast. \"Performed to swells of applause.\" A modern reader can assume that a degree of hyperbole is present in such proclamations. In spite of this, these rave reviews often hold clues about the original arrangements. Though the sheets do not include musical notation, a byline mentioning a performance by a \"celebrated banjoist\" gives a hint of what patrons heard and saw in the music hall.
\n\n\n\tMany songs were written purely for entertainment. There are songs of love and songs of death. There were parodies of songs already well known and loved. \"The Last Potato,\" a culinary monologue to a tuber, is a parody of \"The Last Rose of Summer.\" There are tall tales such as \"Jack Muggins, or, the Donkey Balancer,\" about a farmer and his talented donkey.
\nOther song sheets were dramatic and serious. There are cautionary maxims about the hazards of alcohol, and critical responses to the temperance movement. There are songs of heartbreak. And of particular importance, there are songs about the Civil War, composed, performed, and published as events unfolded. Songs profess loyalty or disdain for statesmen and military leaders. They celebrate the bravery of individual regiments. They track shifting dominion throughout the course of the war, and report on specific battles, such as Antietam, Bull Run, and Spotsylvania.
\nAs well as reporting the facts of the war, some songs documented civilian attitudes toward it. These attitudes range from highly patriotic to guardedly hesitant. Songs like \"We Are Coming, Father Abraham\" are rallying cries. Others are less straightforward. \"Don't Draft Me, My Wife Has Got a Sick Baby, I Have to Stay Home to Give It Catnip Tea\" may express reluctance, or, if played for laughs, may subtly underscore the importance of patriotism.
\nThe patriotic muse is rarely so subtle in the mid-nineteenth century. Many of the Civil War songs are heavy with melodrama. \"Mother Kissed Me in My Dream\" and \"Let Me Kiss Him for His Mother\" tugged at the heartstrings, and had the power to strengthen the spirit of citizens on both sides of the war.
\nThe variety of subjects and viewpoints conveyed by song sheets make them a unique and indispensable historical resource. The title of this digital collection comes from Walt Whitman's poem \"I Hear America Singing.\" It was published in Leaves of Grass, at a time when song sheets were enjoying immense popularity. The nation had indeed been singing, and the songs they sang continue to tell the American story.
", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amsshtml/amsshome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Arts and Culture", "Music", "Sheet Music"], "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "American History"], "total": 4290}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["england", "united states"], "number": ["computer disc", "2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000", "2002564463"], "number_carrier_type": ["computer disc"], "number_lccn": ["2002564463"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "other_title": ["Nineteenth-century song sheets"], "partof": ["america singing: nineteenth-century song sheets", "digital collections", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["singing", "sheet music", "song sheet", "american history and civilization", "patriotism", "performing arts", "lyrics", "civil war", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:20.667Z", "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-250/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 55, "description": ["On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 29, "item": {"aka": ["america-250", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 53, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration.
\r\n\r\nThis web archive provides a representative record of federal, state, and local semiquincentennial commissions, as well as websites from cultural and professional organizations. It also preserves digital content reflecting commemorations, historical interpretation, and community experiences across the United States.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: September 28, 2023 to September 4, 2027.
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis, with some added to crawl once or quarterly.
\r\n\t\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English and Spanish.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites were added incrementally to the project as they were identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Spain", "United States"], "research-centers": ["newspaper-and-current-periodical"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "America250"], "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["African American History", "American History", "Art & Architecture", "Geography & Places", "Government, Law & Politics", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 53}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/", "location": ["spain", "united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "serial and government publications division", "america250 semiquincentennial web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "government, law & politics", "geography & places", "america250", "art & architecture", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "american history", "art & architecture", "geography & places", "government, law & politics", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "https://www.loc.gov/item/98801326", "http://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "http://www.loc.gov/item/98801326/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/collmus.mu000010"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. music division"], "count": 325, "date": "1998", "dates": ["[1490 TO 1929]", "1998"], "description": ["A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/500_500.jpg"], "index": 30, "item": {"aka": ["dance", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326"], "digitized": 204, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another.
\nLibrary of Congress staff selected this set of materials relating to ballroom (also called social) dance from various divisions and collections in the Library. Selections came from the General Collections, the Music Division, and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Hence, this web presentation is the only existing version of this special subject collection. Why these dance materials are in various locations throughout the Library is in itself a history of dance in the United States.
\nIt has long been a goal of the Library's dance specialists and of scholars using the collections to one day provide an annotated bibliography to these dance materials that would pull together, intellectually, what has for so long been physically divided. Finally, through the use of new technology we have been able to do far more than simply identify and describe these materials. We have been able to bring the vast majority of these materials to the user in their entirety, and in most cases we have also been able to provide full text searching capability. These tools will assist scholars in the analysis and study of the manuals in ways that have never been possible before. This Web access of the dance instructions will also allow dancers around the world to download and learn these dances, which up until now, were only available to the dedicated scholar who searched several catalogs at the Library of Congress or at other libraries in New York, Paris, or London.
\nNo selection is ever complete or perfect. Inevitably inclusions and exclusions must be made for a whole list of practical reasons, unrelated to an item's presence or absence from our collections. Please forgive the exclusion of your favorite manual or treatise. We invite the user to locate additional manuals and treatises in their local libraries, on other Web sites, or even in their grandma's attic.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Theater and Dance", "Dance"], "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 204}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000", "98801326"], "number_lccn": ["98801326"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "other_title": ["Dance instruction manuals, ca. 1600-1920"], "partof": ["an american ballroom companion: dance instruction manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american ballroom", "performing arts", "dance manuals", "theater and dance", "arts and culture", "dance"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 140, "date": "1865", "dates": ["[1865 TO 1922]"], "description": ["The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-choral-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 31, "item": {"aka": ["acm"], "digitized": 193, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses.
\n\nAmerican Choral Music is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Choral Directors Association (ACDA). In 2007, the ACDA and the Library of Congress began a collaborative effort to create this Web site devoted to choral music that would present music in the public domain, available for users to download. The site serves to highlight the collections of sheet music in the Library of Congress and to advance and promote the performance of choral music.
\nTwenty-three composers' works are represented, five of whom are women. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer. Mabel Wheeler Daniels composed The Desolate City, op. 21, among other significant works during her many stays as a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Margaret Ruthven Lang composed the song Ojalá, which brought her international attention at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. Gena Branscombe was a conductor and composer whose hymn Arms that have Sheltered Us was adopted by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1960. Patty Stair was a composer, organist and conductor.
\nMany of the composers represented here were from the Second New England School and were influential in music education as well as composition. George Whitefield Chadwick, often credited as the \"dean of American Music,\" reorganized the New England Conservatory. Chadwick influenced Daniel Gregory Mason, a composer known for both orchestral works and song cycles is represented, as is Horatio William Parker. Parker became dean of the School of Music at Yale; many of his manuscripts reside in the Music Division. Another member of the New England School was John Knowles Paine, the first professor of music at Harvard, and a composer who established the first music department at an American university. Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell were also members of the Second New England School. Also represented is Dudley Buck, an organist, conductor, and founding director of the Brooklyn Apollo Club's male chorus, and Harvey Bartlett Gaul, a student of Dudley Buck. William W. Gilchrist founded the Mendelssohn Club. Peter C. Lutkin was a composer instrumental in support of a cappella singing, and a founder of the American Guild of Organists. African-American music is represented with the compositions of R. Nathaniel Dett, Will Marion Cook, and Harry Burleigh. Other notable composers are Henry F. Gilbert, Arthur B. Whiting and Septimus Winner.
\nThe works in this presentation were selected from a variety of sheet music collections and publishers in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. The majority of the compositions chosen by the American Choral Directors Association are from the A. P. Schmidt Company Archives, one of the most valuable resources for the study of American choral music. This archive of music occupies a special place in the history of American music publishing. In 1958, the publisher Summy-Birchard bought out the Arthur P. Schmidt Company, and both principals agreed to donate the Schmidt papers to the Library of Congress. Included in the large deposit of business papers and financial records were numerous containers of music manuscripts, including many holographs, and printed sheet music. The A. P. Schmidt Company Archives contains over 300 boxes of manuscripts and published choral music, including the music of Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick, Horatio Parker, and John Knowles Paine. Because Schmidt championed the music of women, the collection is also rich in the holdings of holographs and sheet music of Amy Beach, Mabel Wheeler Daniels, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Helen Hopekirk, Gena Branscomb, and Anna Pricella Rischer.
\nView a finding aid for the A. P. Schmidt collection
\nIf you have specific questions, please Ask a Librarian
\n", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/choralmusic/choralmusic-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "American Choral Music", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 193}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american choral music", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american", "a capella", "second new england school", "composers", "performing arts", "choral music", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Choral Music", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acws/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. researcher and reference services division", "library of congress"], "count": 199, "date": "2011", "dates": ["2011"], "description": ["The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 32, "item": {"aka": ["acws", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582"], "digitized": 191, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization.
\r\n
Over 200 sites comprise this archive. Some sites document Civil War reenactments and living history events. Some are specific to aspects of the war or collections of war-related materials. Other sites have a reflective, solemn tone, rather in contrast to the more celebratory events seen during the 1961-1965 Civil War Centennial.\u00a0Most sites are location or region specific, showing that much as it was 150 years ago, the Civil War was and remains to be a locally important part of American cultural history and identity.
\r\n
Many organizations, government bodies at all levels, and individuals created an online Sesquicentennial presence, often times instead of or in addition to print materials. This archive will act as a tool for researchers wanting to study the Civil War Sesquicentennial (2011-2015) in comparison to the Civil War Centennial\u00a0(1961-1965) and other commemorative events in form, content and in the context it took place among other events going on in American society at the time.
\r\nCollection Period: March 2011 to September 2015.
\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, monthly, twice-yearly, yearly, or once.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United Kingdom", "United States"], "research-centers": ["main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 191}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united kingdom", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000", "2019210582"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210582"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "other_title": ["Civil War sesquicentennial web archive", "Civil War 150 web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "american civil war sesquicentennial web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "web sites", "history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acj/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000020", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms00020x"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["vester, bertha spafford", "spafford, anna t.", "american colony (jerusalem)", "spafford, horatio gates"], "count": 536, "date": "1870", "dates": ["[1870 TO 2006]"], "description": ["The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288 images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd., which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/500_500.jpg"], "index": 33, "item": {"aka": ["acj", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137"], "digitized": 114, "formats": ["manuscripts", "photos"], "html_content": "The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of\n approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288\n images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of\n American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers\n in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage\n backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive\n and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to\n the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd.,\n which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members.
\n\nMost of the manuscripts date from 1870 to 1968. They were initially assembled by colony member Bertha Spafford\n Vester, daughter of American Colony founders Horatio Gates Spafford and Anna T. Spafford, while writing her memoir\n Our Jerusalem (1950), and later by her daughter-in-law Valentine Vester and others at the American Colony\n Hotel.\n
\n\nCollection items include draft manuscripts, letters, postcards, telegrams, diaries or journals, scrapbooks,\n newslippings, printed materials, photographs, hand-drawn maps and ephemera. Most items are in English, with some\n materials in Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Swedish.
\n\nThe collection content reflects the activities of many members and leaders of the American Colony across generations\n and through decades of political changes in the Middle East, with emphasis on the Ottoman and British Mandate\n periods and continuing after the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. Highlighted is the leadership by members of\n the Spafford, Vester, and Whiting families. The collection also documents the activities of many others and their\n interactions with those in the larger community and region, including information pertaining to the colony\u2019s Swedish\n members and other residents and employees, as well as neighbors, friends, diplomats, dignitaries, educators,\n governmental and religious leaders, and associates in Jerusalem and internationally.
\n\nAmong the businesses, social services, and collectives operated by the American Colony, the materials document the\n American Colony Photo Department, Vester & Company American Colony store, American Colony Nurses, American Colony\n School of Handicrafts, Anna Spafford Baby Home (now the Spafford Children\u2019s Center), Christian Herald Orphanage, and\n other enterprises operated in Jerusalem and the United States under colony auspices. The collection provides\n information about international visitors to the colony and changes in colony membership and operations over time. It\n charts the colony\u2019s role in the arts, business, commercial, educational, philanthropic, social, religious, and\n political life of Jerusalem and its importance in the Middle East tourism and hospitality industries. Major figures\n include Anna Spafford, Horatio Gates Spafford, Jacob Spafford, Bertha Spafford Vester, Frederick Vester, Grace\n Spafford Whiting, John D. Whiting, G. Eric Matson, Lewis Larsson, Valentine Vester, and other associates and leaders\n of colony businesses and activities.
\n\nItems available in digital format include all items from the collection which were originally displayed as part of\n the Library of Congress exhibition on the American Colony in\n Jerusalem presented at the Library in 2005. These items, which include mixed media manuscript, print, and\n photographic materials, constitute the entirety of Part I of\n the collection housed in the Manuscript Division.
\n\nAlso available online is the entirety of Part II of the collection, with the exception of one restricted series, and\n a select portion of Part III. The forty-eight
The American Colony in Jerusalem Collection is arranged in three parts and multiple series as described below. A\n finding aid (PDF and
The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection contains 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. The recordings include speech samples, linguistic interviews, oral histories, conversations, and excerpts from public speeches. They were drawn from various archives, and from the private collections of fifty collectors, including linguists, dialectologists, and folklorists. They were submitted to the Center for Applied Linguistics as part of a project entitled "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was funded by the Center for Applied Linguistics and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
\r\nThe collection includes recordings from forty-three states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and parts of Canada. They were made from 1941 to 1984, with the bulk being recorded between 1968 and 1982. In some cases, transcripts (and partial transcripts) made by the collectors are available as part of this web presentation. The survey's documentation covers social aspects of English language usage in different regions of the United States. It reveals distinctions in speech related to gender, race, social class, education, age, literacy, ethnic background, and occupational group (including the specialized jargon or vocabulary of various occupations). The oral history interviews are a rich resource on many topics, such as storytelling and family histories; descriptions of holiday celebrations, traditional farming, schools, education, health care, and the uses of traditional medicines; and discussions of race relations, politics, and natural disasters such as floods.
\r\nIn 1983, The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, initiated the "Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was undertaken to compile a directory of American speech samples, and ultimately to improve access to them. There were two parts to the project. The first part surveyed collectors of speech samples and resulted in a report entitled "American English Speech Recordings: A Guide to Collections" (PDF, 3MB) which describes over 200 collections. The second part of the project was designed to select from the 200 collections a representative sample of recordings with the goal of "creating a centralized source of American dialect samples and to provide for the preservation of this valuable resource that might otherwise be lost." Additional information about the project may be found in "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings" (PDF, 6.1MB).
\r\nThe recordings from the project's second phase were donated to the Library of Congress in May 1986, and comprise the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection (AFC 1986/022). The collection contains speech samples from over 50 collectors. There are 405 recordings which average about 15 minutes in length. In addition to providing a wide variety of material for the study of American speech, the recordings capture a diverse range of topics and people.
\r\nSome of the voices will be quite familiar, such as those of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Other voices, despite the speakers' fame, are seldom heard, such as those of Amelia Earhart, Jack Dempsey, and H. L. Mencken. Most of the recordings, however, are of the voices of people whose specific identities are unknown, but whose comments represent the richness of the American experience. There are Gullah speakers from coastal South Carolina, sharecroppers from Arkansas, Puerto Rican teenagers in New York City, Basque sheepherders from Colorado, Chesapeake Bay watermen, Vietnamese immigrants from Northern Virginia, and many others.
\r\nA selection of 350 of the collection's entire 405 audio recordings are available on this website; of these, 148 have accompanying transcripts. The remaining recordings, which could not be posted due to copyright issues and other restrictions, may be heard in the Folklife Reading Room.
\r\nUsers may notice that descriptive data for the website varies from recording to recording. That is a result of the collection containing material from a wide variety of collectors. The data presented, for the most part, is that which was supplied by the collector.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n
The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
\nThe collection is arranged, filed, and numbered as received. Volumes 251, 310, and 313 were not received by the Library. \u00a0Each volume contains an index of correspondents.\u00a0 Prominent names include Susan B. Anthony, Grover Cleveland, William Hugh Johnston, John L. Lewis, L. J. McGruder, P. J. McGuire, John Mitchell, John Morrison, Herman Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Daniel Joseph Tobin, Henry White, and Woodrow Wilson.
\nA finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the American Federation of Labor records is available online.
", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History"], "total": 72300}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "pennsylvania"], "number": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000", "mm78051185"], "number_lccn": ["mm78051185"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american federation of labor records"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "social & business history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afc/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 23, "description": ["The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 36, "item": {"aka": ["afc", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 21, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise.
\n\nThis web archive collection aims to capture digital content related to the Center\u2019s collectors and collections. For instance, reflected here are websites of many artistic, historical, and cultural institutions which have been creating or gathering ethnographic content as found in the American Folklife Center Archive.
\n\nCollection Period: May 2020 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added on a weekly or monthly basis.
\n\t\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "status": "production", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 21}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "american folklife center web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/wwielection/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "https://www.loc.gov/item/96703617", "http://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "http://www.loc.gov/item/96703617/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsrs/collmbr.rs000001"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["cox, james m. (james middleton)", "daniels, josephus", "de valera, \u00e9amon", "gompers, samuel", "pershing, john j. (john joseph)", "poindexter, miles", "cummings, homer s. (homer still\u00e9)", "purdy, richard a. (richard augustus)", "wise, stephen s. (stephen samuel)", "rockefeller, john d., (john davison)", "hitchcock, gilbert m. (gilbert monell)", "lewis, james", "vanderlip, frank a. (frank arthur)", "lodge, henry cabot", "long, breckinridge", "lane, franklin k.", "roosevelt, franklin d. (franklin delano)", "robinson, corinne roosevelt", "coolidge, calvin", "baker, newton diehl", "hays, will h. (will harrison)", "butler, nicholas murray", "colby, bainbridge", "owen, robert l. (robert latham)", "harding, warren g. (warren gamaliel)", "mcadoo, w. g. (william gibbs)", "white, george", "wood, leonard", "clark, champ", "palmer, a. mitchell (alexander mitchell)", "gerard, james w. (james watson)"], "count": 97, "date": "1918", "dates": ["1918"], "description": ["The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/500_500.jpg"], "index": 37, "item": {"aka": ["wwielection", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617"], "digitized": 59, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label.
\r\nThe recordings fall into two distinct series. The 1918 series was devoted mostly to World War I topics and was apparently distributed only to political organizations and other groups. The notable exception is the recording of General John Pershing (with Ambassador James Gerard speaking on the reverse side), which was sold commercially. All of the recordings from the 1918 series were pressed on ten-inch discs. The 1919-1920 series was devoted mostly to postwar issues and the 1920 presidential election. Recordings in this series were released at a rate of two per month, one Republican and one Democrat. The recordings were pressed on twelve inch discs and sold for two dollars each. With two exceptions, the reverse side of the records in both series consisted of patriotic music, usually a march. These selections are not duplicated here.
\r\nThe Nation's Forum project may also have planned to record foreign statesmen. The collection includes three speeches by Eamonn DeValera, who led the fight to establish the Republic of Ireland. At the time of the recordings, DeValera had escaped from an English prison and was living in exile in the United States. The label of one DeValera recording states that with the sale of each album, a royalty of twenty-five cents would be paid to Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary Irish Parliament.
\r\nThe speeches included in the Nation's Forum collection are not actuality recordings -- recorded at the time of their original delivery. Instead, speakers were invited to repeat their significant orations for the Nation's Forum project at a location convenient to the particular speaker. All of the Nation's Forum recordings were acoustically made. Until the development in the mid-1920's of electrical recordings -- recording aided by microphones and electrical amplifiers during the recording process, and electrical amplification and loudspeakers for playback -- all sound recording processes were acoustic. The diaphragm and needle cutting an acoustic record were powered only by the force of a voice. A speaker making a record had to shout into a recording horn to successfully record. Thus, almost no speeches recorded in the acoustic era are actuality recordings. All of the speeches recorded for the Nation's Forum were delivered solely for the recording machine, without a public audience. Since phonograph records in this period were limited to about three minutes, someone -- presumably the speaker -- abridged or selected highlights from longer speeches. Some speeches are represented by two or three very similar takes.
\r\nThe total number of recordings made by the Nation's Forum is unknown. The Library of Congress holds fifty-nine examples in a collection that has been assembled over a period of years from a variety of donors and record collectors. Of the fifteen 1918 recordings at the Library of Congress, the Pershing/Gerard record is an original shellac disc, eleven records are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and two recordings are audio tape dubs. Of the forty-four recordings from the 1919-1920 series at the Library of Congress, twenty-four are original shellac discs, seventeen are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and three are audio tape dubs.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/", "research-centers": ["moving-image", "recorded-sound"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Government, Law & Politics", "Elections & Voting", "Military History", "World War I", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 65}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["96703617", "2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000", "audio disc"], "number_carrier_type": ["audio disc"], "number_lccn": ["96703617"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american leaders speak: recordings from world war i", "recorded sound research center", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "military history", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "government, law & politics", "world war i", "elections & voting", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:49.017Z", "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/fwp/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715/", "https://link.gale.com/apps/collection/3TQA/GDSC?u=loc_main&sid=bookmark-GDSC", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000007", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000008", "http://whatamericaate.org"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["federal writers' project", "united states. works progress administration", "united states. work projects administration", "writers' program (u.s.)"], "count": 2838, "date": "1936", "dates": ["[1936 TO 1940]"], "description": ["This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/federal-writers-project/500_500.jpg"], "index": 38, "item": {"aka": ["fwp", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715"], "digitized": 23931, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books"], "html_content": "This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records.
\nThe Federal Writers' Project materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division are part of a larger collection titled The U.S. Work Projects Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey. The holdings from Federal Writers' Project span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subprojects. Altogether, the Federal Writers' holdings number approximately 300,000 items and consist of correspondence, memoranda, field reports, notes, graphs, charts, preliminary and corrected drafts of essays, oral testimony, folklore, miscellaneous administrative and miscellaneous other material.
\nWell over one-half of the materials in this record group pertain to the American Guide, the sobriquet for the critically acclaimed state guides. The remainder of the material reflects other areas of interest that developed as the project grew in maturity. They include a rich collection of rural and urban folklore; first-person narratives (called life histories) describing the feelings of men and women coping with life and the Depression; studies of social customs of various ethnic groups; authentic narratives of ex-slaves about life during the period of Slavery; and Negro source material gathered by project workers. In addition, drafts of publications and intended publications are included. These publications express concern with the direction America was taking and with the preservation and communication of local culture. Titles include Hands That Build America, From These Strains, Lexicon of Trade Jargon, and Pockets in America.
\nThe arrangement of the larger collection generally reflects the division of work within the Writers' Project such as material relating to The American Guide, the Folklore Project, Social-ethnic Studies, and Slave Narratives. Other series are compilations for archival purposes such as administrative papers or Negro studies material. Still others are groups of similar material such as printed matter and the like.
\nThe plight of the unemployed writer, and indeed anyone who could qualify as a writer such as a lawyer, a teacher, or a librarian, during the early years of the Depression, was of concern not only to the Roosevelt Administration, but also to writers' organizations and persons of liberal and academic persuasions. It was felt, generally, that the New Deal could come up with more appropriate work situations for this group other than blue collar jobs on construction projects. To the Administration's liking were plans generated from a series of meetings held in 1934 between Jacob Baker, Harry Hopkins' chief Civil Works Administration assistant in charge of special and professional programs, Henry Alsberg, Bakers' assistant, Katherine Kellock, a writer familiar with international and social organizations, and others. The outcome of these sessions was a project for all the \"arts,\" (labeled Federal One), divided administratively by each specialty and headed by professionals in the field. The Writers' Project, later characterized by some as the federal government's attempt to \"democratize American culture,\" was approved for federal monies in June, 1935. Baker chose his assistant, Alsberg, as director. As the Project continued into the late thirties, the director was powerless to stop increasing criticism by reactionary Congressmen who were intent on shutting down the enterprise. In October 1939, the Project's federal monies ceased, due to the Administration's need for a larger defense budget. After 1939, emasculated, the Project sputtered along on monies funded to the states, closing completely one year or so after America's entry into World War II.
\nResearchers should note that the American Memory collection presented here is a coherent portion of the Library's larger Federal Writers' series and the WPA collection. It includes the life histories and corollary documents assembled by the Folklore Project within the Federal Writers' effort.
\nWithin the Federal Writers' Project, material relating to folklore and social-ethnic studies was collected and shaped through the efforts of John A. Lomax, Benjamin A. Botkin, and Morton Royce. The activity documented in writing traditional statements, expressions, songs, essays, stories, and the like, with tilt toward accounts of frontier and pioneer life. The Folklore Project filed its material under the general headings \"traditional\" and \"life histories.\"
\nThe Writers' Project staff variously described the life histories as life sketches, living lore, industrial lore, and occupational lore. The narratives were meant to reflect the ordinary person's struggle with the vicissitudes of daily living.\n
This American Memory presentation is limited to the Folklore Project life histories. Similar accounts may be found in the Social-Ethnic portion of the WPA collection; these may be digitized in the future.
\nAt the time, Botkin said, the collected lore and narratives were to be used as the basis for anthologies which would form a composite and comprehensive portrait of various groups of people in America. The entire body of material provides the raw content for a broad documentary of both rural and urban life, interspersed with accounts and traditions of ethnic group traditions, customs regarding planting, cooking, marriage, death, celebrations, recreation, and a wide variety of narratives. The quality of collecting and writing lore varies from state to state, reflecting the skills of the interviewer-writers and the supervision they received.
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Culture and Folklife", "The Great Depression"], "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Literature & Poetry"], "total": 23931}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["utah", "united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["mm82055715", "2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "number_lccn": ["mm82055715"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book"], "other_title": ["U.S. Work Projects Administration records", "Work Projects Administration records", "WPA records"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american life histories: manuscripts from the federal writers' project, 1936-1940"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "personal correspondence", "local hisotry", "field notes", "narratives", "the great depression", "interview", "culture and folklife", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "occupations", "literature & poetry", "life histories", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "literature & poetry"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-creators/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 69, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 39, "item": {"aka": ["music-creators", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590"], "digitized": 29, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture twice-yearly, with fewer targeted for capture quarterly.
\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 29}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000", "online resource", "2019210590"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210590"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music creators web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "history", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-industry/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 48, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 40, "item": {"aka": ["music-industry", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591"], "digitized": 22, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time.
\n\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n", "locations": ["International Organizations", "United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 22}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["international organizations", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2019210591", "2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210591"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music industry web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}], "slug": "", "title": "Search Collections", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/"}], "link": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/", "pagination": "1 of 1", "slug": "", "title": "Search Collections", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/"}], "pagination": {"current": 1, "first": null, "from": 1, "last": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&sp=4", "next": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&sp=2", "of": 583, "page_list": [{"number": 1, "url": null}, {"number": 2, "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&sp=2"}, {"number": 3, "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&sp=3"}, {"number": "...", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&sp=4"}], "perpage": 40, "perpage_options": [20, 40, 80, 160], "previous": null, "results": "1 - 40", "to": 40, "total": 15}, "portal": true, "previous": null, "previous_sibling": null, "results": [{"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/liturgical/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 57, "description": ["The acquisition of medieval liturgical chant manuscripts that trace the history of music notation as it evolved over half a millennium, became a major collection priority in the Music Division beginning in the 1920s. One century later, we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/500_500.jpg"], "index": 1, "item": {"aka": ["liturgical"], "digitized": 5000, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The acquisition of medieval liturgical chant manuscripts that trace the history of music notation as it evolved over half a millennium, became a major collection priority in the Music Division beginning in the 1920s. One century later, we are fortunate to feature in this digital presentation over fifty of our chant manuscripts (e.g., antiphonaries, graduals, processionals, etc.) containing music intended for use during the rituals of the Roman Catholic Mass and Divine Office.
\nChronologically, these rare primary sources span a period of great paleographical change from the tenth through seventeenth centuries: from poorly executed fragments to exquisitely crafted codices, these materials range in format and size from single leaves to entire books \u2013 both pocket-sized and immense choirbooks measuring over three feet tall.
\nTheir musical contents document the creation and development of the modern-day staff from one to five staff lines, the introduction of clefs, the use of staffless (chironomic) and heightened (diastemic) neumes and eventually black square notation, and so much more. Most visually alluring are the skillfully crafted bindings of leather, brass and wood used to encase the gatherings of thick vellum leaves that periodically reveal breathtaking illuminated initials. These unique treasures present a valuable cross-section of liturgical chants copied in diverse regions throughout Europe \u2013 from a 10th-century Swiss monastery in St. Gall to a 12th-century Cistercian abbey in Lower Austria to a 16th century Spanish Cathedral.
\n", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "10th-16th Century Liturgical Chants", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 5000}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/", "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["10th-16th century liturgical chants", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:33.889Z", "title": "10th-16th Century Liturgical Chants", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/tenth-to-sixteenth-century-liturgical-chants/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/schmidt/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 6687, "description": ["Arthur Paul Schmidt (1846-1921) was a German-born music publisher who pioneered the development and dissemination of American music. The A.P. Schmidt Company Archives documents his firm's publishing activities in Boston, Leipzig and New York, beginning with his tenure, through his successors, and until the firm was absorbed by Summy-Birchard in 1960. The Archive consists of the original manuscripts from which the music was printed, printed music, personal and corporate correspondence, photographs (primarily composers/arrangers), business records, plate books, publication books, stock and cash books. The online presentation includes only music manuscripts, if you have questions about other items in the collection, browse the finding aid, visit the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress, or contact us through Ask a Librarian."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 2, "item": {"aka": ["schmidt"], "digitized": 3277, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "Arthur Paul Schmidt (1846-1921) was a German-born music publisher who pioneered the development and dissemination of American music. The A.P. Schmidt Company Archives documents his firm's publishing activities in Boston, Leipzig and New York, beginning with his tenure, through his successors, and until the firm was absorbed by Summy-Birchard in 1960. The Archive consists of the original manuscripts from which the music was printed, printed music, personal and corporate correspondence, photographs (primarily composers/arrangers), business records, plate books, publication books, stock and cash books. The online presentation includes only music manuscripts, if you have questions about other items in the collection, browse the finding aid, visit the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress, or contact us through Ask a Librarian.
\nThe collection is particularly rich in music manuscripts by women, including works by Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (identified as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach in the collection), Gena Branscombe, Mable Daniels, Helen Francis Hood, Cora W. Jenkins, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Marion Osgood (composer, violinist, and director of Marion Osgood’s Ladies, the first professional women’s orchestra in the United States), Edna Rosalind Park, Anna Priscilla Risher, Clara Kathleen Rogers, Mary Turner Salter, Mabel Madison Watson, and Mildred Weston, among others.
", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "A.P. Schmidt Company archives, 1869-1958", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 4029}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "partof": ["a.p. schmidt company archives, 1869-1958", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "A.P. Schmidt Company archives, 1869-1958", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/copland/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003561015", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2003561015"], "campaigns": [], "count": 982, "description": ["The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's music sketches, correspondence, writings, and photographs."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/aaron-copland/500_500.jpg"], "index": 3, "item": {"aka": ["copland", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003561015"], "digitized": 941, "formats": ["manuscripts", "photos", "notated-music"], "html_content": "The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's\u00a0music sketches,\u00a0correspondence,\u00a0writings, and\u00a0photographs.
\nCelebrating the centennial of the birth of the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the multi-format Aaron Copland Collection, from which the online collection derives, spans the years 1910 to 1990 and includes approximately 400,000 items documenting the multifaceted life of an extraordinary person who was composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor, commentator, and administrator. It comprises both manuscript and printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries, writings, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, awards, books, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
\n\nAaron Copland devoted his life as a twentieth-century composer to fostering, developing, creating, and establishing distinctive \"American\" music. He became known as the \"Dean of American Music,\" a sobriquet with which he was uncomfortable. His name is synonymous with\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0\u2014the winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Music\u2014and\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man.
\nCopland extensively documented the many facets of his life in music, and theAaron Copland Collection\u00a0at the Library of Congress reflects the entire breadth of his endeavors. Beginning in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Copland periodically deposited his original music manuscripts at the Library of Congress and subsequently converted them to gifts. In the fall of 1989, he donated all his papers to the Library. The collection numbers approximately four hundred thousand items, dating from 1910 to 1990 with a few nineteenth-century photographs, and includes his music manuscripts, printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries and writings, photographic materials, awards, honorary degrees, programs, and other biographical materials. It is the primary resource for research on Aaron Copland and a major resource for the study of musical life in twentieth-century America generally, particularly from the 1920s to the 1960s.
\nThe online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0comprises approximately one thousand items selected from Copland's\u00a0music sketches,\u00a0correspondence,\u00a0writings, and photographs. The items are represented in about five thousand digitized images, the earliest an 1899 photograph and the latest a 1986 letter. While the original collection contains almost all Copland's music manuscripts and printed scores, the online collection presents the original music sketches that Copland used in composing thirty-one works spanning the years 1924 to 1967 and covering every medium in which he composed: orchestral, ballet, opera, film, chamber, solo piano, and vocal music.
\nThe correspondence in the online collection comprises images of approximately eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Copland that have been selected from the Aaron Copland Collection and other collections in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0at the Library of Congress. Besides letters to his parents and other family members in the 1920s and 30s, the correspondence includes Copland's letters to his Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, and others such as Nicolas Slonimsky, Roger Sessions, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Walter Piston, Leonard Bernstein, and Benjamin Britten.
\nAs an advocate and supporter of American music and American composers, Copland frequently wrote articles, presented lectures, and delivered speeches. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0presents eighty-six of Copland's previously unpublished drafts. These show the creative process through which he wrote about his own music, other composers and their music, and other people who played important roles in his musical life.
\nOf the twelve thousand photographic materials in the Library's Aaron Copland Collection, 111 items have been chosen for online presentation. Many were created by Copland's friend Victor Kraft, a professional photographer. They include portraits of Aaron Copland at various ages and places, with family members, with other composers, and with other people associated with his career as a composer and conductor, as well as images from his worldwide travels.
\n\n\"The man is in the letters,\" said Vivian Perlis of Aaron Copland, whose autobiography she helped to write. The online\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0contains digitized images of over eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland covering the years from 1921 to 1986. Searchable texts of all published letters, postcards, and telegrams in the collection are also available.
\nThe letters reproduced in the collection represent, though they do not exhaust, the holdings of Copland's correspondence in the\u00a0Music Division\u00a0of the Library of Congress. In general they constitute significant runs of letters to people important in Copland's life. (Problems of copyright and volume preclude making letters to Copland available online.) Every attempt has been made to include all the letters in the Music Division that Copland wrote to each correspondent represented, the one exception being the letters to Harold Spivacke, which constitute only a part of Copland's voluminous and largely business-related correspondence with the Music Division's former chief.
\nThese letters come from many collections in the Music Division. Besides material from the Aaron Copland Collection, they contain material from the Leonard Bernstein Collection, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Collection, the Jacobo Ficher Collection, the Irving Fine Collection, the Louis Kaufman Collection, the Serge Koussevitzky Collection, the\u00a0Modern Music\u00a0Archives, the Walter Piston Collection, the Nicolas Slonimsky Collection, the William Strickland Collection, and the papers of the Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music.
\nThe letters Copland wrote that are in the Copland Collection proper came back to him in various ways. He inherited his letters to his parents after their deaths. In the 1970s, when he began to think of writing his autobiography, he asked several of his friends and colleagues to send him photocopies of his letters. Some replied with photocopies, some by returning the letters themselves. Some responded with many letters, some with just a few.
\nCopland seldom made carbons copies of his outgoing correspondence. The few periods in his life for which the Copland Collection is rich in carbon copies are the brief intervals when he had a secretary: in 1943 while working on the film\u00a0The North Star; during his South American tour in 1947; in the fall of 1958 when he was staying in London and presumably was provided with a secretary by his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes. Because they were obviously dictated to a secretary, these letters have the flavor of Copland's post-1940 correspondence but are not particularly trenchant, lacking the distinctive qualities that came forth when Copland himself sat down to write.
\n\nThe following individuals are the major correspondents represented in the letters portion of this online collection. They are listed with the source collection for Copland's letters to them or, in the case of material in the Copland Collection itself, with an indication of whether the letters are originals or photocopies.
\nArthur Berger\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopy). The online collection contains a single letter\u00a0to this writer of the first book-length study of Copland; it is perhaps the most evocative of Copland's letters describing his Mexican visits.
\nLeonard Bernstein\u00a0(Bernstein Collection). Copland's prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in the late 1930s and early 1940s,\u00a0Bernstein\u00a0became one of the leading champions and interpreters of Copland's music.
\nNadia Boulanger\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Copland's principal teacher and mentor. His Nonet is dedicated to her.
\nPaul Bowles\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Composer and novelist. The two letters in the Copland Collection seem to have been part of a voluminous and regular correspondence.
\nBenjamin Britten\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). English composer. The first set of\u00a0Old American Songs\u00a0was written for Britten and his collaborator Peter Pears. Britten's side of the correspondence is published in Donald Mitchell et al., eds.,\u00a0Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976\u00a0(2 vols., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
\nCarlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies). Mexican composer; one of Copland's principal composer friends. As a conductor, Ch\u00e1vez performed Copland's Short Symphony\u00a0when American conductors had declared it unperformable. Ch\u00e1vez's side of the correspondence and slightly abridged versions of Copland's letters are published in Spanish translation in Gloria Carmona, ed.,\u00a0Epistolario selecto de Carlos Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0(M\u00e9xico: Fondo de Cultura Econ\u00f3mica, 1989).
\nIsrael Citkowitz\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). Citkowitz was a slightly younger composer (1909-1974), gifted in song and chamber music, for whom Copland had high hopes. The online collection contains all Copland's letters to Citkowitz in the Copland Collection.
\nElizabeth Sprague Coolidge\u00a0(Coolidge Collection). American patron of chamber music. She commissioned from Copland (and thus had dedicated to her) Appalachian Spring\u00a0and the\u00a0Piano Quartet.
\nJacobo Ficher\u00a0(Ficher Collection). Argentinian composer. Copland's letters to him document his interest in South American music.
\nIrving and Verna Fine\u00a0(Irving Fine Collection). Irving Fine was a composer and younger colleague of Copland whose choral arrangements of several of Copland's Old American Songs\u00a0have given them a life as choral works. Copland shared houses with Irving and Verna Fine for several summers at Tanglewood. After Irving Fine's death in 1962 Copland continued to be supportive of Verna Fine, and his letters to her retain warmth and sparkle to the end of his letter-writing years. Copland dedicated \"Sleep Is Supposed to Be,\" one of the two central songs of his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to Irving Fine. The Irving Fine Collection also contains letters from Copland to Verna Fine's mother, Florence Rudnick, in whose Boston apartment he sequestered himself to write\u00a0In the Beginning.
\nSerge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky\u00a0(Koussevitzky Collection). Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony from 1924 to 1949, was the first performer to champion Copland's music in America and remained a supporter of Copland (and of many other American composers) until his death. Copland, in turn, was a major help to Koussevitzky from 1940 on in the running of the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Copland's letters to Koussevitzky's first wife, Natalie, are, for the most part, social; his letters to Koussevitzky's second wife, Olga (Olga Naumoff, Koussevitzky's secretary, until 1947), concern the running of Tanglewood. Copland's\u00a0Third Symphony\u00a0is dedicated \"To the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky.\"
\nMinna Lederman\u00a0(Modern Music\u00a0Archives). Lederman was editor of the journal of the League of Composers,\u00a0Modern Music, which was published from 1924 to 1946. Copland was a major contributor to the magazine and a trusted advisor to Lederman.
\nMarcelle de Manziarly\u00a0(Copland Collection; originals). French composer, Boulanger student. Copland dedicated \"Heart, We Will Forget Him,\" the fifth of hisTwelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, to de Manziarly.
\n\nOlga Naumoff:\u00a0see Serge, Natalie, and Olga Koussevitzky.
\nWalter Piston\u00a0(Piston Collection). American composer. The body of Piston's correspondence is in the Boston Public Library; the one letter in this online collection represents the small but important collection of letters to Piston from the years 1931-55 that is in the Music Division of the Library of Congress.
\nFlorence Rudnick:\u00a0see Irving and Verna Fine.
\nRoger Sessions\u00a0(Copland Collection; photocopies) American composer; co-producer with Copland of the Copland-Sessions Concerts during the years 1928-31.
\nNicolas Slonimsky\u00a0(Slonimsky Collection; some early letters in the Koussevitzky Collection). Musical polymath. During most of the period in which Copland corresponded with him he was musical secretary to Koussevitzky; the jokey letters to the incorrigibly humorous Slonimsky serve to balance Copland's oh-so-serious letters to Koussevitzky himself.
\nHarold Spivacke\u00a0(Coolidge Collection; Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, Sub-Committee on Music). Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, 1937-1972. Spivacke's tact and unflappable serenity kept the commissioning of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0on course.
\nWilliam Strickland\u00a0(Strickland Collection). American conductor. Some of the letters in this online collection are concerned with Strickland's editorship of the H. W. Gray organ series, for which Copland wrote his\u00a0Episode.
\n\"The man is in the letters.\" It might then seem as though a collection of more than eight hundred letters, postcards, and telegrams from Aaron Copland would give a complete portrait of the man and the composer. However, users of this online collection should remember that these letters represent only the holdings of the Music Division of the Library of Congress. At least equally important are Copland's letters to Virgil Thomson (at Yale University); Claire Reis and William Schuman (at the New York Public Library); Howard Clurman, David Diamond, and Walter Piston (at the Boston Public Library); and several others. To each of his correspondents Copland shows a slightly different aspect of his personality, so the letters in this online collection provide a detailed self-portrait if not a complete one.
\n\nThis online collection contains approximately 2500 pages of Aaron Copland's sketches\u00a0for his music, representing thirty-one of his works\u2014thirty-three if one includes the\u00a0Sextet\u00a0and the\u00a0Orchestra Variations, covered by the sketches for the Short Symphony\u00a0and\u00a0Piano Variations\u00a0respectively. Representing many of Copland's best-known and most significant works, the sketches are often revelatory. Except for some miscellaneous accompanying material, the online collection includes all the sketches for the works in the online collection.
\nThere are works for which the Library of Congress's archival Copland Collection contains no sketches. These include some of the early works and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait. Those who are interested in finding out whether the Library has sketches for a particular work not represented in the online collection, or curious about whether one of the works included has any material not presented online, should consult the Copland Collection Finding Aid.
\nWithin the sections of the online collection, the sketches are presented as much as possible in the order in which they were received from Aaron Copland or his estate. They have been much used by scholars, and they represent Copland's not always systematic use of music-paper. Some sets of sketches have been numbered by stamp at their top left- or right-hand corner; this numeration was done by the Library of Congress when the sketches were filmed in the mid-1970s and do not represent Copland's numbering. When two separate sets of sketches exist for a single work, they are presented here as two separate items. (Note: The page numbers of some of these sketches may not appear in numerical order online. However, they are presented here in exactly the order that Copland produced them.)
\nThe sketches reveal to scholars the history of Copland's work on the compositions, but they can also mean something to the general reader. The sketches for the Piano Variations, the\u00a0Short Symphony, and the\u00a0Fanfare for the Common Man\u00a0show Copland searching for titles to do justice to three of his most characteristic works; the sketches for\u00a0Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson\u00a0show him deciding what poems to include in the cycle; the sketches for\u00a0Billy the Kid show that the opening music was first intended to be the start of\u00a0Music for Radio\u2014 which now begins with much more complex music.
\n\nThe photographic materials in the Library of Congress's\u00a0Aaron Copland Collectionnumber more than twelve thousand items spanning the years 1889 to 1985 and include both black and white and color prints, contact sheets, 35-mm negatives, color slides, and photograph albums. A substantial number of photographs were taken by Copland's lifelong friend, the professional photographer Victor Kraft. Widely known photographers whose work can be found in the collection include Carl Van Vechten, Irving Penn, Gordon Parks, and Margaret Bourke-White. The subject material comprises an inclusive chronology of Copland's life and includes Copland's family; Copland himself throughout his life; friends; acquaintances; fellow composers and other people with whom he worked; places where he studied, composed, or visited; and special events.
\nFrom this vast collection, 111 photographs have been initially selected for the online collection. The digitized images fall into five broad categories: Family ; Copland Alone; Copland's Music; Copland with Other Composers and People; and Places and Events. Photographs that cannot be dated precisely or approximately have been given the designation of \"middle\" or \"late.\"
\nOf the seven family photographs, one is a formal sitting of Copland's paternal grandparents and three of their children, while another shows Copland's parents, Sarah and Harris Copland, in front of their department store in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. The other five capture Copland with other family members.
\nThe twenty-four photographs of Copland alone show him both formally and informally and at a range of ages from six to his seventies. Several feature Copland at his home, Rock Hill, in Courtlandt near Peekskill, New York.
\n\nTwenty-one photographs capture performances or rehearsals of thirteen musical works. The orchestral works represented are the\u00a0Piano Concerto, in a photograph showing Copland at the piano and Andr\u00e9 Previn conducting; the\u00a0Clarinet Concertowith Benny Goodman as the soloist and Copland conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and the\u00a0Lincoln Portrait\u00a0in two rehearsal photographs, one in color with Marian Anderson as the speaker and the other with Adlai Stevenson, both with Copland conducting. The two ballets represented are scenes from the premiere performance of\u00a0Appalachian Spring\u00a0at the Library of Congress and\u00a0Billy the Kid, which was premiered by Lincoln Kirstein and the Ballet Caravan.
\nThree of the eight films for which Copland wrote music scores are illustrated in this online collection. Production stills represent\u00a0The North Star\u00a0and\u00a0The Red Pony. There are also two informal photographs of the making of\u00a0The Red Pony depicting Copland with the pony and the young boy and one studio-recording shot of Copland conducting the music for\u00a0Something Wild\u00a0that shows the star, Carroll Baker, in a television monitor.
\nOne chamber work is represented in a rehearsal of the\u00a0Nonet\u00a0at the Library of Congress with Copland conducting. Two photographs depict William Warfield with Copland during rehearsals of\u00a0Old American Songs. There is also a stage shot of the opera\u00a0The Tender Land.
\n\nNumerous photographs capture Copland with fellow composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Ch\u00e1vez, Norman Dello Joio, Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, Irving Fine, Arthur Berger, Douglas Moore, Benjamin Britten, Darius Milhaud, Philip Ramey, Walter Piston, Domingo Santa Cruz, Virgil Thomson, Roger Sessions, and Igor Stravinsky. He is also shown with such notable cultural figures and musicians as Artur Rubinstein, Claire Booth Luce, Clarence Adler, Nadia Boulanger, Victor Kraft, Vivian Perlis, Claire Reis, Jack Garfein, Thorton Wilder, Serge Koussevitzky, Agnes de Mille, and Oliver Smith.
\nThe group of photographs entitled Places and Events shows Coplan Fontainebleau and Aldeburgh; in Paris, Germany, England, Peru, Israel, and Mexico; at Nadia Boulanger's studio with other students; at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Tanglewood; and at the University of Kansas, Brown University and Columbia University.
\nAaron Copland was best known first as a composer and later, in the 1960s and '70s, as a conductor. His name is less frequently associated with literary endeavors. The\u00a0Writings\u00a0portion of the\u00a0Aaron Copland Collection\u00a0suggests that in this respect his reputation should perhaps be revised: it includes a vast array of articles, lectures, speeches, book drafts, and radio and television commentaries that span the years 1925 to 1988. The long stream of Copland's literary efforts began with an article written for publication in 1925, shortly after his return to the United States from three years in Paris, and continued into the late 1970s and early 1980s. He displayed the same technique in his writings that he did in his music: that is, a frequent self-borrowing in which he used the same material in different media.
\nThe writings selected for this online collection comprise eighty-six items. The selections represent unpublished drafts of material for articles, lectures, and speeches. Some selections display Copland's literary processes in thoughtful revisions, word changes, rearranging, and other editorial techniques. He usually began with handwritten notes or drafts and proceeded through several typewritten drafts before creating a final unmarked typewritten version. (Example: \"A Visit to Snape,\"\u00a0Version 2\u00a0and\u00a0Version 3\u00a0) Not every literary work in the Aaron Copland Collection illustrates this transformation, however. The lectures and speeches display another aspect of Copland's literary endeavors: the fact that he underscored almost every word in red or blue pencil. Because he probably made these markings to help him deliver his speeches, they recapture something of the sound as well as the thought of his vocal presentations. They also add a colorful element to the handwritten and typed drafts.
\nLike many conductors, Copland used a similar device in his conducting scores, where red and blue pencil markings draw the eye to changes in time signature, dynamics, and the entrances of instruments. [Example:\u00a0\"Talk on Leonard Bernstein\"]
\nWhatever their intended uses, the online examples of Copland's unpublished writings can be grouped into four categories: autobiographical, about Copland's music, about other composers, and about other people.
\nThe two autobiographical titles contrast the esoteric concerns of\u00a0\"Music and the Human Spirit\", in which Copland addresses \"the creation of an art music\" as one of \"humanity's truly unique achievements,\" with the practicality of\u00a0\"The Composer as Conductor\"\u00a0in which he recalls that \"Some twenty years ago, during the course of a memorable evening at the Stravinskys' home in Los Angeles, the venerable maestro turned to me and said in no uncertain terms: 'My dear, you should conduct your own music. All composers should conduct their own music!'\"
\nThe writings about Copland's music highlight eleven of Copland's compositions in five different media. Writings on two ballets describe his collaboration with Martha Graham (Appalachian Spring) and his work with Lincoln Kirstein on the story forBilly the Kid, (\"About\u00a0Billy the Kid\" and\u00a0\"Notes on a Cowboy Ballet\"). Copland discusses the creation of his three major solo piano works,\u00a0Piano Fantasy\", \"Piano Sonata,\" and \"Piano Variations,\" in two different lectures under the title Compositional Phases [on My Three Piano Works].\" An article about the 1925 orchestral work\u00a0Music for the Theatre\u00a0summarizes the reaction of audiences, musicians, and reviewers in the United States and Europe, including the performance by the New York Symphony Orchestra in which its conductor, Dr. Walter Damrosch, had \"revenge in the end.\" Copland wrote\u00a0A Visit to Snape\u00a0for a tribute to Benjamin Britten on his fiftieth birthday; in it, he extols the \"kind of composer rapport\" between them and the \"exchange of musical impressions\" between his own \"The Second Hurricane\" and Britten's Piano Concerto No. 1.
\nAs the composer of several film scores, Copland was frequently asked to lecture or write about composing for the movies. In his discussions on the subject, Copland speaks not only about his experiences and the scores he wrote, but about other film composers and working in Hollywood. In\u00a0\"Film Music\", a lecture given at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library in 1940, Copland briefly describes Hollywood and the mysterious nature of film music. He talks about the music he wrote for the film\u00a0Of Mice and Men; four film composers, Eric Korngold, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, and Herbert Stoddard; and some of their film scores. By the time he gave the lecture\u00a0\"Film Talk\"\u00a0at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971, Copland's credentials as a film composer included six feature films and two documentaries. On that occasion, excerpts from three features (Something Wild,\u00a0The Red Pony, and\u00a0The Heiress) and one documentary (The City) were screened as he commented on how music may help a film and how one sets music to a film.
\nThe largest category of writings in this online collection centers on Copland's views about other composers. In these works, Copland speaks not only about his American contemporaries but about Mozart\u00a0(\"At the Thought of Mozart\"), Berlioz\u00a0(\"Berlioz - from the Composer's Standpoint\"), and\u00a0Pierre Boulez;Composers in Russia\u00a0and the\u00a0Composers of South America; Michael Tippett (\"Cousin Michael\"),\u00a0Darius Milhaud, Dmitri Shostakovitch (\"Dmitri Shostakovitch and the New Simplicity\"),\u00a0Gabriel Faur\u00e9,\u00a0Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler\u00a0(\"Mahler (XX Cent[ury]\"),\u00a0Igor Stravinsky, Serge Prokofieff [Sergey Prokofiev]\u00a0(\"On the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Serge Prokofieff\")\u00a0, Benjamin Britten\u00a0(\"Special Fondness for B.B. [Benjamin Britten]\")\u00a0, and\u00a0Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly. Copland was concerned above all with educating others about composers and their music, and in these writings he sometimes presents his personal viewpoints and reflections. At the National Arts Club in 1968, for example, he spoke about Leonard Bernstein's gifts and how it was \"impossible to imagine the American musical scene in the last quarter century without him.\" [Example:\u00a0\"LB\"]
\nAs Copland lived on through the century, he was asked to write celebratory epistles or obituaries about many of his contemporaries, whether they were composers or others who had influenced his life. These writings about other people offer Copland's portraits of his Parisian teacher, Nadia Boulanger\u00a0(\"Intro[duction] of N[adia] Boulanger as Teacher\"); his early theory teacher, Rubin Goldmark(\"Rubin Goldmark: A Tribute\"); his publisher, Ralph Hawkes\u00a0(\"Ralph Hawkes: In Memoriam\")\u00a0; his friend and colleague at the League of Composers,Claire Reis; and his long-time supporter, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky\u00a0(\"Serge Koussevitzky - The 100th Anniversary [unpublished writings]\"). \"It is almost forty years since first I rang the bell at Nadia Boulanger's Paris apartment . . . \" begins the 1960 tribute to his teacher,\u00a0(\"The Teacher: Nadia Boulanger\"), the person who was most influential in molding and forming the composer Aaron Copland.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Individual Composers"], "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 941}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "photo, print, drawing", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "aaron copland collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["individual composers", "performing arts", "history", "composer", "copland, aaron", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Aaron Copland Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ahii/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2003652945/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ahii"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["sebah & joaillier", "abdullah fr\u00e8res", "abd\u00fclhamid ii"], "count": 1825, "date": "1880", "dates": ["[1880 TO 1893]", "1880"], "description": ["This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/500_500.jpg"], "index": 4, "item": {"aka": ["ahii", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2003652945"], "digitized": 1823, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "This collection contains 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II and highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.
\r\nAbdul-Hamid (1842-1918), an avid collector and promoter of photography, appears to have conceived the work as a portrait of his empire for a western audience. He presented a copy of the survey to the Library of Congress in 1893 or 1894. He also gave another almost identical collection to the British Museum (now in the British Library).
\r\nWell-known Ottoman commercial photographers such as Abdullah Fr\u00e8res, S\u00e9bah & Joaillier, and Ph\u00e9bus took the bulk of the photographs. Turkish military photographer Ali Riza Pasa and the Photographic Unit of the Imperial School of Engineering also contributed numerous images.
\r\nThe images show students and educational facilities, including law, medical and military schools; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. The collection also documents historic Byzantine and Ottoman monuments, mosques, mosaics, fountains, palaces, and mausoleums, and includes panoramic landscapes and urban scenes. Other photographs depict Abdul Hamid's Yildiz Palace, yacht, and horses.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/", "research-centers": ["prints-and-photographs"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Photographs, Prints and Posters", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East"], "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1824}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/", "language": ["turkish, ottoman (1500-1928)"], "location": ["middle east", "bursa", "greece", "ottoman empire", "bosporus", "turkey", "istanbul"], "number": ["2003652945", "2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "number_lccn": ["2003652945"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t20:03:16.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul hamid ii collection", "prints and photographs division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["turkey", "cityscapes", "world cultures & history", "group portraits", "middle east", "photographs, prints and posters", "ottoman empire", "portrait photographs", "photograph albums", "albumen prints", "arts and culture", "hamid ii, abdul", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul Hamid II Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/hamidbooks/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 325, "description": ["In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\""], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 5, "item": {"aka": ["hamidbooks"], "digitized": 321, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: \"Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D.\"
\r\nThe Sultan's gift arrived in the U.S. Capitol, where the Library of Congress was housed, until the Jefferson Building was completed and they could be unpacked and shelved.
\r\nIn the 1907 Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam stated: \"About 400 volumes, bound in red Morocco with gilt edges, have been given by the present Sultan, Ghasee Abdul-Hamid II. They comprise works of native authorship, also translations from European languages of works on Medicine, History, Law, Mathematics, Arts, Drama, Fiction, etc.\"
\r\nThe remarkable story of how the Sultan met and befriended Abram Stevens Hewitt (1822-1903), Member from New York's 10th district, reported in the New York Tribune (July 13, 1884), began while Hewitt and his young son were touring around St. Sophia and palace grounds in Constantinople during a very hot day. When the young boy fainted, he was taken to the guard house where two other boys his age observed all the excitement and reported back to their father, the Sultan, what they had seen.\u00a0Their father dispatched his emissaries to Hewitt's hotel to inquire about his son's well-being and to request that he and his son visit the palace the next day.
\r\nDuring the visit, the Sultan noticed Hewitt's indelible pencil and special cigarettes which resulted in a gift shipment to Abdul-Hamid II when Hewitt returned home. Shortly thereafter, Hewitt received a notice that he owed $1,480 in customs duties on a shipment of Ottoman books. He wrote back to the Sultan that he didn't deserve such an honor and that the Sultan should give the books to the Library of Congress. The Sultan agreed and had the special collection prepared for the Library and invited Hewitt to keep the first set for himself. Hewitt paid the duty and this set is now in the New York University Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
\r\nBy 1984, it was determined that the Abdul-Hamid II gift books had become very brittle with paper that was too fragile to serve to researchers and a decision was made to microfilm the collection. 309 books and serials have been scanned from this microfilm for this digital collection. There are 26 existent Abdul-Hamid II books which also have been digitized.
", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Africa & the Middle East", "Middle East", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 321}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "abdul-hamid ii collection of books and serials gifted to the library of congress", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "middle east", "arts and culture", "middle eastern studies", "africa & the middle east"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abdul-hamid-ii-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincoln/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm78030189/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000005"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["lincoln, abraham"], "count": 20207, "description": ["The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 6, "item": {"aka": ["lincoln", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78030189"], "digitized": 20157, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). \u00a0Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.
\nTreasures in the collection include Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses, his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, the two earliest known copies of the Gettysburg Address (the Nicolay and Hay copies), his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest, and a condolence letter written to Mary Todd Lincoln by Queen Victoria following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln’s Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.
\nNotable correspondents include Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, Edward Bates, Montgomery Blair, Salmon P. Chase, Schuyler Colfax, David Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, John Hay, Andrew Johnson, Reverdy Johnson, Mary Todd Lincoln, George Brinton McClellan, George Gordon Meade, Edwin D. Morgan, John G. Nicolay, William S. Rosecrans, William Henry Seward, Horatio Seymour, Caleb B. Smith, Edwin McMasters Stanton, Charles Sumner, Lyman Trumbull, E. B. Washburne, and Gideon Welles.
\nThe Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, created by the Manuscript Division in 1960 after the bulk of the collection was microfilmed, provides a full list of the correspondents and notes the series number, dates, and mounting-sheet numbers for items in Series 1-3 of the Abraham Lincoln Papers. This information, in addition to the keyword search capability in the online presentation, is helpful in finding individual letters or documents in the online version. Additional letters received by the Library after 1960 are not listed in this index.
\nA current finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Abraham Lincoln Papers is also available online.
\nAbraham Lincoln’s papers were acquired by gifts, transfers, deposits, purchases, and reproductions during the years 1901-2013. The Lincoln Papers came to the Library of Congress from Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), who arranged for their organization and care shortly after his father was assassinated on April 14, 1865. At that time, Robert Todd Lincoln had the Lincoln Papers removed to Illinois, where they were first organized under the direction of Judge David Davis of Bloomington, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln's longtime associate. Later, Lincoln’s presidential secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, assisted in the project. In 1874, most of the Lincoln Papers returned to Washington, D.C., and Nicolay and Hay used them in the research and writing of their ten-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History (New York, 1890). Robert Todd Lincoln deposited the Lincoln Papers with the Library of Congress in 1919, and deeded them to the Library on January 23, 1923. The deed stipulated that the Lincoln Papers remain sealed until twenty-one years after Robert Todd Lincoln’s death. On July 26, 1947, the Lincoln Papers were officially opened to the public.
\nThe most complete account of the early history of the Abraham Lincoln Papers appears in volume 1 of David C. Mearns, The Lincoln Papers (Garden City, N.Y., 1948), 3-136. An article by the same author which appeared in the December 1947 issue of the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly External contains the substance of the story. An additional history of the provenance of the collection was prepared for the Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers, pp. v-vi, and subsequently reproduced in the finding aid (PDF and HTML). A version appears on this website as the essay Provenance of the Abraham Lincoln Papers.
\nSome Lincoln documents which had been retained by Nicolay were restored to the Lincoln Papers and were arranged as Series 2 to assure their identification. Other miscellaneous acquisitions are found in Series 3 and 4.
\nScanned images from the Abraham Lincoln Papers first became available online in 2001 as the American Memory website Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcriptions prepared for roughly half of the documents by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College were added in 2002. The present iteration of the online Abraham Lincoln Papers is an updated version of the American Memory site, with additional features, original materials not included in the previous presentation, and the replacement of images scanned from the microfilm edition with full-color images scanned from the original documents.
\nThe Abraham Lincoln Papers are arranged in five series. All of the documents contained in Series 1-3 are reproduced online, as are the original materials contained in Series 4. \u00a0Although collection items in the online presentation are described at the item level, they may be accessed in groups at the Series level.\u00a0 Individual document headings and available transcriptions can be searched by keyword.
\nSeries 1, General Correspondence and Related Documents, 1833-1916
\n\tConsists of manuscripts inherited by Robert Todd Lincoln, which have been designated “The Robert Todd Lincoln Collection of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.” Series 1 includes the so-called “Carpet Bag Documents,” which were stored in a carpet bag that suffered water damage. A list of the “Carpet Bag Documents” created in 1874 by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay is available in this series.
Series 2, Additional Correspondence, 1858-1865
\n\tComprised of correspondence retained by Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay, which remained with the Nicolay Papers (received by the Library in 1947) until August 1959, when the letters were removed and reincorporated with the Lincoln Papers.
Series 3, Miscellaneous, 1837-1897
\n\tIncludes single or small numbers of manuscripts which have been acquired by the Library of Congress from a variety of sources.
Series 4, Addenda, 1774-1948
\n\tThe addenda to the Abraham Lincoln Papers consists mostly of reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1774-1887. Reproductions of documents held by the National Archives are not represented on this online collection, nor are published materials. Original items contained in Series 4 are included in this online collection and include letters written by Abraham Lincoln, an autobiographical sketch written in 1859 at the request of Jesse W. Fell, mourning cards, political ephemera, a pen purportedly used by Abraham Lincoln, and papers omitted as not being integral to the collection when it was microfilmed and indexed in 1960. Please consult the collection finding aid (PDF and HTML) for more detailed information about the contents of Series 4.
Oversize, 1776-1865
\n\tIncludes original correspondence and facsimile reproductions, certificates, pardons, a petition, a poem, pen, and printed matter. Images of all oversize materials in Series 1-3 and original materials in Series 4 are included in the online presentation and appear with the series from which they were withdrawn when rehoused as part of an oversize series. Oversize facsimiles and reproductions were not included in the online presentation.
Transcriptions Included on this Website
\nTranscriptions are included for about 10,000 items (about half of the online collection). The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois performed the editorial work, which included selecting the documents to be transcribed. Their choices were based on either a document's historical importance or as representative of the president’s unsolicited incoming mail. Annotated transcriptions were provided for all of the documents in Lincoln's own hand and for secretarial copies of Lincoln documents located in Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers. Many of the other transcriptions were also annotated to aid users in identifying the people involved and in better understanding the content and historical contexts. Annotations for Lincoln's autograph documents usually include a headnote providing historical and documentary context, as well as annotations on the content of the document. Annotations for incoming correspondence typically identify persons and organizations writing to Lincoln or referred to in the documents, explain terms and events, and provide brief historical context. Together, these fully searchable transcriptions and annotations dramatically extend access to the Abraham Lincoln Papers and enhance their teaching and research value. For more information on transcriptions in the Abraham Lincoln Papers see the essay Editors’ Preface to the Transcriptions.
\n\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "The Presidency and the Executive Branch", "Abraham Lincoln"], "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 20157}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "illinois"], "number": ["mm78030189", "2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78030189"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t14:54:14.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "abraham lincoln papers at the library of congress"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "national expansion and reform", "civil war and reconstruction", "american history and civilization", "the presidency and the executive branch", "government, law & politics", "abraham lincoln", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210570/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 22, "date": "2009", "dates": ["2009"], "description": ["The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies, banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 7, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210570"], "digitized": 20, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "\n
\n The Afghanistan Web Archive is comprised primarily of websites produced by the Afghan government, specifically\n the executive branch. Also included are a selection of sites from statistical reporting agencies,\n banking institutions, universities, U.S. Embassy and critical NGOs supporting democratic and human rights\n initiatives. The date range of the collection overlaps with the country's presidential (2009) and\n parliamentary (2009) elections, which were the second national elections held in the country since the\n founding of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2003.\n
\n\nCollection Period: July 2009 to December 2010.
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture monthly, with fewer targeted for capture weekly.
\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "United States"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Human Rights", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["afghanistan", "united states"], "number": ["2019210570", "online resource", "2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210570"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:47:13"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "afghanistan web archive", "african and middle eastern division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "world cultures & history", "government, law & politics", "human rights", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-iran/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210408/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 437, "date": "2015", "dates": ["2015"], "description": ["This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 8, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-iran", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210408"], "digitized": 230, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "This collection consists of official government websites for Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan and provides an overview of the political, economic, administrative and social situation in these four countries. Several of these governmental websites contain information in English, Urdu, Persian (Farsi and Dari dialects), Pashto, Tajik and Russian languages. The depth of information is best for the Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Tajik languages, so pages in all four of these languages have been harvested. Through this archive collection, researchers can track the development and evolution of important political positions, related publications and changes in government agencies and the quasi-governmental organizations (universities, cultural institutions, museums, etc.) that together comprise the current governments of these four countries.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\nMay 2015 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly, with some targeted for capture twice-yearly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, with Urdu, Pashto, Tajik and the Persian dialects of Farsi and Dari.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n\n\t\n\n\n\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 230}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/", "language": ["urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "pushto"], "location": ["afghanistan", "tajikistan", "iran", "pakistan"], "number": ["2019210408", "online resource", "2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210408"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:03:43.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["afghanistan, iran, pakistan and tajikistan government web archive", "digital collections", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history", "middle eastern studies"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghan-elections-web-archive/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2020210661/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. african and middle eastern division", "library of congress"], "count": 183, "date": "2014", "dates": ["2014"], "description": ["The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 9, "item": {"aka": ["afghan-elections-web-archive", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2020210661"], "digitized": 124, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived during these countries\u2019 election seasons since 2014. This archive collection includes websites for government bodies, political parties, presidential candidates, election observers and political commentators which offer significant information related to presidential and general elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Pertinent social media channels are also included in this collection in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the internet to the general public.
\n\nCollection Period:\t\n
March 2014 to October 2014\n
May 2017 to present (this is an ongoing archive)
Frequency of Collection:\t\nThe majority of sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, with fewer sites targeted for capture monthly.
\n\nLanguages:\t\nCollection material in English, Persian, Urdu, Tajik, Pushto/Pashto, and Russian.
\n\nAcquisition Information:\t\nSites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["Afghanistan", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Pakistan", "Tajikistan"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern", "asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Political Science", "Elections", "Middle Eastern Studies"], "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 124}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/", "language": ["russian", "urdu", "pashto", "persian", "english", "tajik", "pushto"], "location": ["tajikistan", "international organizations", "iran", "pakistan", "afghanistan"], "number": ["online resource", "2020210661", "2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2020210661"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:16:01.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "afghanistan, iran, pakistan, and tajikistan elections web archive", "asian division", "african and middle eastern division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["world cultures & history", "elections", "history", "government, law & politics", "middle eastern studies", "political science"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan Elections Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/afghanistan-iran-pakistan-and-tajikistan-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ccg-aaballet/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2024655311/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2024003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["johnson, virginia", "adelekun, jasmine", "cooper, sylvia", "washington, delaney", "bullard, micah", "robinson, kira", "welters, lynn b.", "rosebar, erin", "williams, stephanie rae", "brockington, derek", "thurmon, kamilah", "wright, david", "american folklife center", "andrew w. mellon foundation", "fortune, sandra (fortune-green)", "welters, raigan", "rego, luis fernando", "davis, kouadio", "dickerson, ariana", "haynes, kahina", "hutchinson, alexandra", "jones, alexandra rene", "davis-williams, beatrice", "gibson, felicia"], "count": 15, "date": "2024", "dates": ["2024"], "description": ["This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/500_500.jpg"], "index": 10, "item": {"aka": ["ccg-aaballet", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2024655311"], "digitized": 207, "formats": ["audio", "film-and-videos", "photos", "manuscripts"], "html_content": "This collection is based on the project, Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C., which was supported by a 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant (CCG) and led by Emmy-nominated producer, filmmaker, and storyteller Kamilah Thurmon. The collection features oral interviews with African American, Washington, D.C.-based ballet legends Sandra Fortune-Green, Virginia Johnson, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Lynn Welters, and Kahina Haynes. In addition, video footage of ballet classes and recitals are also documented to illuminate the ways their knowledge and skills are passed on to younger generations of dancers. Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington D.C. brings needed attention to the rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds, especially African Americans in the field of ballet. This history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally-acclaimed ballet, among other dance troupes, have only begun to accept Black members, and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in Washington, D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. As based on the project, Thurmon produced the 2025 documentary film, Making Their Pointe, which explores how Washington, D.C. became a hub for extraordinary Black ballet dancers, and has been screened at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other venue.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Ballet", "Dance"], "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "topics": ["African American History", "Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 207}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["washington d.c."], "number": ["2024655311", "2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "number_lccn": ["2024655311"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-06-15t13:36:01.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "film, video", "photo, print, drawing", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "african american ballet in washington, d.c.: a legacy in motion"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "ballet", "local history & folklife", "dance", "interviews", "oral histories", "sound recordings", "performing arts", "video recordings", "digital photographs", "arts and culture", "color", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Ballet in Washington, D.C.: A Legacy in Motion", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-ballet-in-washington-dc/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/murray/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603", "https://www.loc.gov/item/99483603"], "campaigns": [], "count": 893, "date": "1875", "dates": ["[1875 TO 1900]"], "description": ["\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/500_500.jpg"], "index": 11, "item": {"aka": ["murray", "https://lccn.loc.gov/99483603"], "digitized": 353, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "\"African American Perspectives\" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others.
\r\n\r\nThe 800 + titles in the collection include sermons on racial pride and political activism; annual reports of charitable, educational, and political organizations; and college catalogs and graduation orations from the Hampton Institute, Morgan College, and Wilberforce University. Also included are biographies, slave narratives, speeches by members of Congress, legal documents, poetry, playbills, dramas, and librettos. Other materials focus on segregation, voting rights, violence against African Americans, the colonization of Africa by freed slaves, anti-slavery organizations and investigative reports. Several of the items are illustrated with portraits of the authors.
\r\n\r\n\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00", "01", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization", "African-American History", "National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Slavery and Abolition"], "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "topics": ["African American History"], "total": 353}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/", "location": ["north america"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["digital collections", "african american perspectives: materials selected from the rare book collection", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "african american", "national expansion and reform", "civil rights", "civil war and reconstruction", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "rise of industrial america", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "slavery and abolition", "african-american history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-perspectives-rare-books/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/anedub/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2005682657/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.38447", "http://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.38447/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.anedub"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["calloway, thomas j.", "daniel murray collection (library of congress)", "du bois, w. e. b. (william edward burghardt)"], "count": 557, "date": "1899", "dates": ["1900", "1899"], "description": ["The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1"], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-photographs-1900-paris-exposition/500_500.jpg"], "index": 12, "item": {"aka": ["anedub", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2005682657"], "digitized": 484, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900) devoted a building to matters of \"social economy.\" The United States section of the building featured an exhibit that, according to W. E. B. Du Bois, attempted to show \"(a) The history of the American Negro. (b) His present condition. (c) His education. (d) His literature.\" 1
\nDu Bois and Thomas J. Calloway, who was named special agent for the Exposition, spearheaded the planning, collection and installation of the exhibit materials, which included 500 photographs, as well as 32 charts, numerous maps, and a display of 200 books written by African Americans. Calloway's report to the U.S. Commissioner-General for the exposition mentions such sources of photographs as:
\nThe Library of Congress holds approximately 220 mounted photographs reportedly displayed in the exhibition (LOTs11293-11308), as well as material specially compiled by Du Bois: four photograph albums showing \"Types\" and \"Negro Life\" (LOT 11930); three albums entitled \"The Black Code of Georgia, U.S.A.,\" offering transcriptions of Georgia state laws relating to blacks, 1732-1899 (LOT 11932); and 72 drawings charting the condition of African Americans at the turn of the century (LOT 11931).
\nThe materials cataloged online include all of the photos in LOT 11930, and any materials in the other groups for which copy negatives have been made.
\nThe African Government Web Archive provides links to information from key African government ministries, institutions and organizations for the 51 countries in Africa south of the Sahara. This will ensure that the Library of Congress and the United States Congress have ongoing access to information from Africa and to official 'born digital' government publications from African nations. The digital initiative adds to the Library\u2019s existing vast collection of resources from Africa and is part of its continuing efforts to seek documentation in all formats to support current research and future scholarly activities.
\r\n\r\nGovernment ministries websites, such as those concerned with commerce, economic development, social welfare, and foreign affairs, were particularly targeted for archiving. Often these sites are document-rich in all formats, including PDFs, videos and social media, with vital primary source materials such as annual reports, development plans, economic reports, budgets, statistics and foreign affairs. Coverage and priorities among the countries vary greatly.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period:\tNovember 2014 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis or once.
\r\n\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English, with French, Portuguese, Swahili, Somali, Arabic, and other languages.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Angola", "Benin", "Botswana", "Burkina Faso", "Burundi", "Cameroon", "Cape Verde", "Central African Republic", "Chad", "Comoros", "Cote d'Ivoire", "Darfur", "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Djibouti", "Equatorial Guinea", "Eritrea", "Ethiopia", "Gabon", "Gambia", "Ghana", "Guinea", "Guinea Bissau", "International Organizations", "Iran", "Kenya", "Lesotho", "Liberia", "Madagascar", "Malawi", "Mali", "Mauritius", "Mozambique", "Namibia", "Niger", "Nigeria", "Republic of Congo", "Rwanda", "Sao Tome and Principe", "Senegal", "Seychelles", "Sierra Leone", "Somalia", "South Africa", "South Sudan", "Swaziland/Eswatini", "Tanzania", "Togo", "Uganda", "Zambia", "Zimbabwe"], "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "African Government Web Archive", "topics": ["Government, Law & Politics", "World Cultures & History"], "total": 20}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/", "language": ["arabic", "french", "swahili", "english", "amharic", "portuguese"], "location": ["zambia", "lesotho", "swaziland/eswatini", "zimbabwe", "burkina faso", "international organizations", "republic of congo", "iran", "seychelles", "malawi", "mali", "benin", "south sudan", "angola", "djibouti", "rwanda", "south africa", "mozambique", "uganda", "sierra leone", "burundi", "guinea", "gabon", "niger", "ghana", "c\u00f4te d'ivoire", "mauritius", "botswana", "sub-saharan africa", "sao tome and principe", "chad", "central african republic", "senegal", "nigeria", "comoros", "darfur", "gambia", "guinea bissau", "togo", "namibia", "kenya", "equatorial guinea", "eritrea", "somalia", "democratic republic of the congo", "tanzania", "cape verde", "ethiopia", "madagascar", "liberia", "cameroon"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000", "2019210589"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210589"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.700000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "african government web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history", "web sites", "government, law & politics", "history"], "subject_topic": ["government, law & politics", "world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African Government Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-government-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aabm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 308, "date": "1883", "dates": ["[1883 TO 1923]"], "description": ["The core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/african-american-band-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 14, "item": {"aka": ["aabm"], "digitized": 357, "formats": ["notated-music", "audio"], "html_content": "\nThe core of this presentation consists of \"stock\" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays.
\n\n\nThe Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. Some of the music of this period, including that composed by African-Americans, features words, phrases, and \"dialect\" portrayals that can be considered offensive and demeaning. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, but is displaying this little-known facet of American history in order to draw attention to the struggles and triumphs of the great African-American musicians of a century ago.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/stocks/stocks-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "African American History", "Arts and Culture", "Performing Arts", "Music"], "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "topics": ["African American History", "Performing Arts"], "total": 363}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "music division", "african-american band music & recordings, 1883-1923"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "recordings", "performing arts", "african-americans", "band music", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/african-american-band-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-postcards/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 1300, "description": ["The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 15, "item": {"aka": ["africana-postcards"], "digitized": 1295, "formats": ["photos"], "html_content": "The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960.
\nThe Africana Historic Postcard Collection has significant value for researchers and students working on sub-Saharan Africa’s colonial life and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to documenting representations of African life from a specific period of time, postcard images also chronicle the transformation of cultural, political and social landscapes in the African continent.
\nMost of the postcard imagery from the African colonies was taken by military and colonial officials, missionary workers and professional photographers. Images unique to the collection include the works of Ukrainian-born postcard photographer-producer Casimir Zagourski (1883-1944) and prolific French photographer and ethnographer Francois Edmond Fortier (1862-1928) who disseminated the most comprehensive photographic record of West Africa. African postcard photographers include notable names such as Alphonso Lisk-Carew from Sierra Leone, Demba N’Diaye from Senegal, W.S. Johnston from Gold Coast (now Ghana) or Sierra Leone, F.W.H. Arkurst from Gold Coast, Frederick Grant from Gold Coast, N. Walwin Holm from Gold Coast and Alex Agbablo Accolatse from Togo.
\n", "research-centers": ["african-and-middle-eastern"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["African Studies"], "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 1295}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "photo, print, drawing"], "partof": ["african and middle eastern division", "digital collections", "africana historic postcard collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african studies", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Africana Historic Postcard Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/africana-historic-postcard-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/pearl/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections//"], "campaigns": [], "count": 139, "date": "1941", "dates": ["[1941 TO 1942]"], "description": ["After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/500_500.jpg"], "index": 16, "item": {"aka": ["pearl", ""], "digitized": 58, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then \"assistant in charge\" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called \"Dear Mr. President,\" was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II.
\n\n\tThe 1941 recordings were made as a part of the the Library of Congress' Radio Research Project. A portion of this project aimed to create documentary recordings of Americans from around the country who described their lives, sang their songs, and told the stories of their own regions. The project's staff believed that most commercial radio broadcasts of the day were dominated by programs created in the great urban centers and that these programs failed to reflect regional culture, local talent, and, in particular, the voices of the people speaking in their own words. Alan Lomax was serving as folklore consultant for the project when he sent the December 8, 1941 telegram, asking fieldworkers to collect \"man-on-the-street\" reactions. This request resulted in approximately four and one half hours of recordings that were used to create a fifteen-minute radio program for the Mutual Broadcasting System.
\nA second set of recordings, in which the interviewees were asked to address their thoughts and opinions on the attack and the declaration of war directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was made under the auspices of the Office of Emergency Management in January and February 1942. These recordings total approximately seven and one half hours and were also used to create a radio program, entitled \"Dear Mr. President,\" which was broadcast in May 1942. Pete Seeger and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) recorded original songs for the \"Dear Mr. President\" interviews. Included in this presentation are Pete Seeger's \"Dear Mr. President\" and \"The Martins and Coys.\"
\nIn most cases, the recordings were digitized by Library of Congress staff directly from the discs on which they were originally recorded. The only editing redacted interviewee names from several recordings and removed Leadbelly's two songs for which permissions have not yet been received. Otherwise, the recordings are presented as they were originally recorded.
\nThis online presentation includes one essay: \"Making and Maintaining the Original Recordings.\" Also included are biographies of the fieldworkers who conducted and arranged the interviews, complete transcripts of the interviews, related manuscripts, and original disc sleeves.
\nThis online presentation also includes a set of interviews conducted in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. During the course of these interviews, Library interviewers advised some interviewees that the interviews would not be broadcast. Presumably, the agreement to safeguard the identity of these persons was intentional, as some of the interviewees worked for the Federal government and/or otherwise required anonymity in order to participate. For this reason, the Library has edited the Washington, D.C., audiotapes and transcripts to remove interviewee names.
\nThis presentation was made possible with the generous support of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the New Deal Network.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Great Depression & World War II, 1929-1945", "World War II"], "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 58}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "after the day of infamy: \"man-on-the-street\" interviews following the attack on pearl harbor", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "interviews", "pearl harbor", "world war ii", "labor disputes", "racial prejudice", "lomax, alan", "great depression & world war ii", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:04.735Z", "title": "After the Day of Infamy: \"Man-on-the-Street\" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/interviews-following-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-quilt/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019655313/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2019048"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["jones, cleve", "names project foundation", "rhoad, julie"], "count": 5164, "date": "1980", "dates": ["1980"], "description": ["This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/500_500.jpg"], "index": 17, "item": {"aka": ["aids-quilt", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019655313"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world.
\nThese records were maintained by NAMES Project staff from 1987 until their donation to the American Folklife Center in 2019. AFC continues to receive regular accruals to the panel maker files from the National AIDS Memorial. This digital collection presents the manuscript and still image panel maker records for Quilt panels that are more than 25 years old. Records concerning panels that are less than 25 years old and other media formats are available onsite in the Folklife Reading Room.
\nA typical panel file contains a letter written by a panel’s maker. These moving and heartfelt letters often include memories and descriptions of the AIDS victim memorialized on the panel, or explain the maker’s motivations. The files also often contain obituaries, news clippings, and funeral service prayer cards. Files sometimes contain photos of the memorialized or photos of the Quilt panel being crafted. Occasionally the file contains records created by the AIDS victim before their death \u2013 mostly writings or other artworks. Files also contain NAMES Project administrative records about the panels. These administrative documents vary in depth and utility. Not every Memorial Quilt panel has a corresponding panel maker file \u2013 many panels were submitted without accompanying records.
\n\nDigitization of this collection was made possible by the Ford Foundation.
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "American History", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2019655313", "2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2019655313"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-04-07t12:20:27.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "aids memorial quilt records", "digital collections"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "records (documents)", "ephemera", "sound recordings", "correspondence", "digital photographs", "video recordings", "arts and culture", "color", "registers (lists)", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "AIDS Memorial Quilt Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/aids-memorial-quilt-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-ezochi/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 93, "description": ["This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/500_500.jpg"], "index": 18, "item": {"aka": ["ainu-ezochi"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books", "maps"], "html_content": "This collection of rare materials brings together books, manuscripts, and maps produced during the 18th and 19th centuries that document Japanese exploration and observation of the island and prefecture now known as Hokkaido in Japan, as well as Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in Russia. For several centuries these areas were inhabited primarily by Ainu peoples, who shared closely related languages, traditions, and modes of existence that were distinct from their ethnic Japanese neighbors to the south. Prior to and during much of the Edo period (1600-1868), the range of Ainu communities also extended south across parts of northern Honshu, the largest of the four major islands that comprise modern Japan, in addition to the eastern Amur River region and southern Kamchatka.
\r\nFrom the viewpoint of ethnic Japanese, or Wajin as the Ainu called them, these northern lands were collectively known as Ezo or Ezochi (\"Ezo land\"), a name suggestive of less civilized or culturally inferior peoples. Beginning in the 17th century, the Wajin began pushing further into historically Ainu lands, establishing a foothold on the southern part of Hokkaido. In contrast to Ezochi, where the Ainu predominated, territory in this northerly region that was controlled by ethnic Japanese became known as Wajinchi (\"Wajin land\"). During the 18th and 19th centuries, growing numbers of Wajin set out to explore, survey, and map Ezochi for political, military, and economic reasons.
\r\nIn the 1870s, the Japanese central government, as part of its mission to modernize and strengthen the country as a bulwark against the Western imperial powers, set out on a colonizing mission of its own\u2014to settle Ezochi with Japanese citizens, reap the benefits of its natural resources, and bring it firmly under Japanese sovereignty. The Ainu, who were primarily hunters and fishers, were displaced from their lands and forced into a settled Japanese agricultural lifestyle. Ainu language and customs were rejected as \"uncivilized\" and children were forced to attend newly created public schools to hasten their assimilation as imperial Japanese subjects. Today, the number of ethnic Ainu remains difficult to identify precisely, but estimates range from 20,000 up to 200,000.
\r\nThe materials in the Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection primarily cover the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest item in the collection is Ezo shi (\"Ezo gazeteer\") dating to around 1720, by the noted scholar and high-ranking bureaucrat Arai Hakuseki. This work is the oldest known publication about the Ainu and Ezochi that was based on first-hand accounts, rather than folklore or legends. Because the Ainu did not possess a written language, the materials in this collection include some of the earliest textual accounts of Ainu culture. They also include many color illustrations that document the Ainu people’s unique clothing, housing, cuisine, religion, family structures, and customs, albeit from the perspective of the Wajin rather than the Ainu themselves.
", "research-centers": ["asian"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "topics": ["World Cultures & History"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/", "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book", "map"], "partof": ["digital collections", "asian division", "ainu and ezochi rare collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "world cultures & history"], "subject_topic": ["world cultures & history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/ainu-and-ezochi-rare-collection/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-manuscripts/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2004447761/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc2004004"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["american folklife center", "archive of american folk song", "association for cultural equity", "lomax, alan"], "count": 6613, "date": "1933", "dates": ["1933"], "description": ["The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/500_500.jpg"], "index": 19, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-manuscripts", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2004447761"], "digitized": 770, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s. The collection contains approximately 650 linear feet of manuscripts, 6400 sound recordings, 5500 graphic images, and 6000 moving images.
\r\nThis presentation contains more than 500,000 pages of Alan Lomax’s personal papers and office files from his time at the Library of Congress (1932-1942) and from his post-Library career through the 1990s. Featured are Lomax’s writing projects such as Land Where the Blues Began (1993), the unpublished Big Ballad Book, as well as documentation of his extensive work in radio for the CBS and BBC networks. Also included are thousands of pages of field notes and correspondence associated with his field projects beginning in the 1930s.
\r\nThe 2004 acquisition of the Alan Lomax Collection was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the American Folklife Center, the Association for Cultural Equity External, and the generosity of an anonymous donor. This collection joins the material Alan Lomax collected during the 1930s and early 1940s for the Library's Archive of American Folk-Song, bringing together the entire seventy years of Alan Lomax's work under one roof at the Library of Congress.
\r\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\r\nTranscription datasets for this collection are available online at Transcription dataset from the Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 770}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/", "language": ["english", "french"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2004447761", "2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "number_lccn": ["2004447761"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t22:30:34.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "other_title": ["Former title: Alan Lomax archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["interviews", "folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "photographs", "personal correspondence", "sound recordings", "manuscripts for publication", "performing arts", "correspondence", "songs", "ethnographic films", "video recordings", "motion pictures", "manuscripts", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lomax-michigan/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2008700315/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.afc1939007"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["pohjala, aina", "gaza, v. sipoo", "thrasher, ed", "romel, adolph", "floriani, veko", "warslzyk, tony", "lomax, alan", "nemeth, kalman", "dobri\u010dan, lazar", "kubesh, john g.", "frazier, clara", "leclaire, leilia", "styes, archie", "carri\u00e8re, fred", "lewandowski, stephanie", "mcdonough, patrick", "kubien, rose", "hirvel\u00e4, w\u00e4in", "green, john w.", "king, edward", "marinetti, victor", "sainovi\u0107, ilija", "hulan", "forster, yalmer eino", "ketvirtis, charles", "lewandowski, stephan", "mcbride, bill", "tomi\u0107, pajo", "trivanovi\u0107, stefan", "gallagher, andrew e.", "palmer, mason", "kania, felix", "marttila", "scheffer, peter", "preda, emil milan", "baratono, art", "raj\u010devi\u0107, stepan", "cloud, clarence", "halinen, selma elona", "pol, thomas", "szabo, andy", "carri\u00e8re, dolphis", "happy jack woodward", "viita, frank", "frazier, viola", "velin, maria", "mccauley, edward", "rautanen, vernon", "bellaire, mose", "aho, pekka", "lewandowski, edwina", "o'donnell, mike j.", "wallen, mr", "bonner, daniel", "cadeau, john", "larson, nils", "trueblood, asel", "krawezak, b.", "cadeau, mathilda", "norman, john", "brideup, louis", "marczis, joseph", "romel, ted", "aho, lillian", "romel, leo", "romel, sylvester", "berky, nandor", "frazier, lonnie", "romel", "floriani, margaret", "gallagher, emerald", "vasvary, steve", "szilagyi, dizso", "meyers, herman", "kruczynski, clara", "archive of american folk song", "h\u00e4rk\u00f6nen, amanda", "pittman, sampson", "lewandowski, ted", "pope, allan c.", "simil\u00e4, gusti", "lathrop, carl", "miron, joe", "allen, perry", "vizina, adelore", "larson, john", "strzelecki, tony", "mccormick, ed", "marinetti, john", "frazier, calvin", "mccarthy, barney", "maki, frank", "vujanovi\u0107, stjepan", "bellaire, exilia", "floriani, vladimir", "olah, julius", "cadeau, ed", "gallagher, dominic", "rudzinski, alex", "fredrickson, john", "hyv\u00f6nen, john", "mahoski, henry", "cloud, joe", "wells, lester", "korvenpaa, charles", "basrak, stjepan", "bonner, patrick", "graham, bert", "niewiadomska, frances", "frazier, belle", "juhani, aapo", "jackson, andrew", "kallio, kalle", "fredrickson, kaisa", "grbi\u0107, ludevit", "maki, emil", "guzal, frank", "bangac, petar", "sielvankiewiez", "dragi\u0107, todor", "larson, steen", "ricksgers, joseph", "mat\u00e9", "pischner, helen", "erickson, max", "delmas, adolphus"], "count": 1270, "date": "1938", "dates": ["1938"], "description": ["In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/500_500.jpg"], "index": 20, "item": {"aka": ["lomax-michigan", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2008700315"], "digitized": 447, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax\u2014already a seasoned field worker at age 23\u2014to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan.
\nThe Alan Lomax collection of Michigan and Wisconsin recordings (AFC 1939/007) documents Irish, Italian, Finnish, Serbian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Croatian, French Canadian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swedish songs and stories, as well as occupational folklife among loggers and lake sailors in Michigan and Wisconsin. Lomax’s itinerary took him from Detroit through the Saginaw River valley to the northern counties of the Lower Peninsula, including Beaver Island. Crossing the Straits of Mackinac, he collected across the Upper Peninsula to the far northern Calumet area and then along the Lake Superior coast to easternmost Wisconsin.
\nThe recordings in this collection and related collections in the American Folklife Center provide early documentation of the Upper Midwest’s rich culture. This collection is the result of a conscious decision by the Library of Congress to undertake regional documentation of American folk song in recognition that the voices of ordinary people have a place at the national library. The sound recordings in this online collection are presented in their raw form, as full disc sides without speed correction or other digital processing. The eight folders of manuscripts (primarily correspondence, song lists, and notes) and the films are not included at this time.
\n", "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music", "Folk Music", "World Cultures & History"], "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Performing Arts"], "total": 450}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["wisconsin", "illinois", "michigan"], "number": ["2008700315", "2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "number_lccn": ["2008700315"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t02:36:43"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "alan lomax collection of michigan and wisconsin recordings"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["folk music", "local history & folklife", "world cultures & history", "finnish americans", "franco americans", "irish americans", "performing arts", "songs", "field recordings", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-in-michigan/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/schatz/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 12255, "description": ["Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/albert-schatz/500_500.jpg"], "index": 21, "item": {"aka": ["schatz"], "digitized": 12253, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "Albert Schatz (1839-1910) was a German music dealer with life-long interest in opera and its history. In 1873, when Schatz assumed ownership of the Musikalienhandlung Ludwig Trutschel Nachfolger in Rostock, Germany, he confirmed his intent to write a comprehensive history of opera through the study of primary sources. Research for the book necessitated extensive travel throughout Europe to collect libretti including many first and early Italian, German and French editions from the 17th and 18th centuries: in the end, his collection totaled 12,000 operatic and 238 oratorio and cantata libretti.
\r\nSchatz's poor health impeded the completion of his book; in 1908, he personally offered to sell his unparalleled libretto collection to Music Division Chief and friend Oscar Sonneck, who negotiated the purchase that same year. Later, after Schatz's death, the purchase of the manuscript portion of his collection, consisting of research papers and notes, was also arranged by Sonneck.
\r\nThe scope of this digital presentation comprises all 12,253 Schatz libretti; the images were generated from the Library's microfilm copy of that collection.
\r\n", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 12253}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/", "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "partof": ["albert schatz collection", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["arts and culture", "music", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Albert Schatz Collection", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/magbell/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm76051268/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000006"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["hubbard, gardiner g. (gardiner greene)", "bell, mabel gardiner hubbard", "bell, alexander melville", "fairchild, marian", "bell, alexander graham"], "count": 4715, "date": "1862", "dates": ["[1862 TO 1939]"], "description": ["The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alexander-graham-bell-papers/500_500.jpg"], "index": 22, "item": {"aka": ["magbell", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76051268"], "digitized": 15032, "formats": ["manuscripts"], "html_content": "The collection contains over 145,000 items. The online version contains 4,695 items (equaling about 51,500 images), consists of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research. Dates span from 1862 to 1939, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1865 to 1920. Included among Bell's papers are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, \"Mr. Watson--Come here--I want to see you.\" Bell's various roles in life as teacher, inventor, celebrity, and family man are covered extensively in his papers. Complementing the Bell Papers are digital images of photographs from the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division.
\nThe Bell Family Papers is divided into several archival series, including Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, Laboratory Notebooks, Article File, and Speech File. The online presentation includes the following:
\n\nSeveral factors defined the selection of Bell Papers for digitization. The collection as a whole includes the personal papers of not only Alexander Graham Bell but also those of his father, mother, wife, father-in-law, and other family members. Because the Bell Papers are so numerous and inclusive, navigation through them can be difficult. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the selection process was to identify those materials which mainly focused on Alexander Graham Bell and his work, varied interests, and achievements. Another important goal was to choose those materials that best offered a well-rounded portrayal of Bell--not only as an inventor and scientist but also as a teacher, husband, and father. Items were also selected if they appeared historically useful or significant, such as correspondence pertaining to the development of the Bell Telephone Company or Mabel Hubbard Bell's written accounts of her experiences growing up deaf.
\nThe Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers were donated to the Library of Congress by his heirs in 1975. Prior to this donation, the papers were on deposit at the National Geographic Society, where they were organized and maintained. In order to make the collection easier to use, the Society prepared typed transcripts of a large portion of the handwritten letters. These valuable transcriptions were retained and have been reproduced here along with the original letters. Occasionally the original is missing and only the transcription is still available. One should keep in mind that these transcripts are now decades old and may occasionally be difficult to read due to faded, bleeding, or blurred text.
\nThe Bell Papers contain a considerable amount of correspondence, much of which reflects the writing practices of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As letter writing becomes less popular, some awareness of common, older practices may be helpful. Since the typical handwritten letter is essentially a single sheet of paper folded in half (and usually written on all four sides), the digital scan and display of each unfolded sheet usually show an image of pages four and one (or back and front), and another of pages three and two (or the inside two pages). Example Today's readers also should be aware of such papers-saving tactics as writing-over, or text over text. In such cases, the writer would literally write over a completed page, making the added words somewhat readable by turning the page sideways and writing horizontally against what were now vertical written lines. Example Surprisingly, if the writer was careful and lengthened his or her hand while also trying to write only in the spaces between lines, such letters can be read with little difficulty.
\n\n\n\n\n \n Letter from Alexander Graham Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell, November 19, 1876. Box 35, \"Subject File: Bell, Mabel Hubbard--Family Correspondence--Bell, Alexander Graham, August-November 1876.\" Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
\n \nExample of a folded letter with pages one and four on one side and pages three and two on the other.
\n \nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his\n\tpersonal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and\n\tcorrespondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families. The collection, consisting of approximately\n\t12,000 items dating from 1708 to 1917, documents Hamilton's impoverished Caribbean boyhood (scantily); events in the\n\tlives of his family and that of his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton; his experience as a Revolutionary War officer\n\tand aide-de-camp to General George Washington; his terms as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress\n\t(1782-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787); and his careers as a New York state legislator, United States\n\ttreasury secretary (1789-1795), political writer, and lawyer in private practice. Most of the papers date from 1777\n\tuntil Hamilton's death in 1804. Additional details may be found in the collection's finding aid (
Among the many correspondents in the papers are John Adams, Angelica Schuyler Church, Henry Clay, Elizabeth Schuyler\n\tHamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Rufus King, the Marquis de Lafayette, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, James McHenry,\n\tJames Monroe, Robert Morris, Timothy Pickering, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Philip Schuyler, Baron von Steuben,\n\tRobert Troup, George Washington, James Wilkinson, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
\nThe federal government bought the bulk of the Hamilton papers in 1848. They were transferred from the State\n\tDepartment to the Library of Congress in 1904. Additional papers came to the Library of Congress later through gifts\n\tand purchases from the Hamilton family and other sources. \u00a0Papers accumulated through 1981 were scanned from the\n\tmicrofilm edition made that year, and items acquired since were digitized from the originals.
\nBetween 1961 and 1987, Columbia University Press published a twenty-seven-volume edition of the Papers of\n\t\tAlexander Hamilton, edited by Harold C. Syrett. Between 1964 and 1981, Columbia University Law School\n\tpublished a five-volume-edition of Hamilton's legal papers, with Julius Goebel as editor. These two editions have\n\tbeen used as definitive sources in the verification of names and in the dating and identification of manuscripts in\n\tthe Hamilton Papers at the Library of Congress.
\nAlthough this collection is the largest gathering of Alexander Hamilton papers at the Library of Congress, there are\n\tsignificant additional groups of Hamilton letters and other papers in other Library of Congress collections, notably\n\tin the George Washington Papers. To\n\tidentify these collections, consult the bibliography under
The collection is arranged in eight series as follows.
\nThe papers of Alexander Hamilton Stephens (1812-1883), lawyer, journalist, governor of Georgia, member of both houses of the United States Congress, and vice president of the Confederate States of America, span the years 1784-1886, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1850-1883. \u00a0The collection consists primarily of correspondence, supplemented by an autobiography and journal and miscellaneous memoranda, legal documents, and clippings. \u00a0The papers are organized in three series: General Correspondence, Letters from Servants, and Autobiography and Journal.
\nThe correspondence, mainly letters received, touches on virtually all aspects of Stephens’s private and public life, focusing on the divisive issues leading to the Civil War, the operation of the Confederate government, and postwar problems and issues in the South. \u00a0Specific topics discussed include plantation management, slavery, Texas annexation, territorial expansion, political parties, states’ rights, the compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, secession, formation of the Confederate government, the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction in the South, and the disputed election of 1876. \u00a0Broader subjects include transportation, the tariff, education, and social, economic, and literary matters.
\n\nProminent correspondents include Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), Joseph E. Brown, Fitzwilliam Byrdsall, Henry Cleveland, Howell Cobb, Martin Crawford, A. H. Garland, John. B. Gordon, Paul Hamilton Hayne, William H. Hidell, Henry R. Jackson, Herschel V. Johnson, Richard Malcolm Johnson, L. Q. C. Lamar, James Ryder Randall, J. Henley Smith, Robert Augustus Toombs, James Iredell Waddell, and Ambrose R. Wright.
\nAll or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the \u201cImage w/Text\u201d option above the image itself, or by selecting the \u201cText\u201d option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting \u201cText (all pages)\u201d opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.
\nA transcription dataset for this collection is available online as part of Transcription dataset from \"'Such Eventful Times': Women and the American Civil War\", Manuscript Division. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see \u201cDatasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.\u201d
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics"], "total": 15032}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["confederate states of america", "united states", "georgia", "southern states", "texas"], "number": ["mm78041335", "2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "number_lccn": ["mm78041335"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:30:21.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "alexander hamilton stephens papers"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "american history and civilization", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Alexander Hamilton Stephens Papers", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-stephens-papers/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/lincolniana/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2014656901/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000004", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/lprbscsm.scsm1303"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["alfred whital stern collection of lincolniana (library of congress)", "library of congress", "stern, alfred whital"], "count": 1536, "date": "1824", "dates": ["[1809 TO 1865]", "1824"], "description": ["The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:11:28.609Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/alfred-whital-stern-lincolniana/500_500.jpg"], "index": 25, "item": {"aka": ["lincolniana", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2014656901"], "digitized": 1529, "formats": ["books", "photos", "notated-music"], "html_content": "\nThe collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date.
\nAlfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his outstanding collection of Lincolniana to the Library of Congress in 1953. Stern began collecting in the 1920s. His collection documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics.
\nHighlights of the online collection include Lincoln's own scrapbook of the 1858 political campaign against Stephen A. Douglas; the Tiffany seed pearl necklace and bracelets that Lincoln gave to his wife, Mary Todd; a Lincoln life mask cast in bronze by Clark Mills, as well as the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the evening of his assassination. Probably the single most famous Lincoln manuscript in the collection is the January 26, 1863, letter to General Joseph Hooker, placing him in command of the Army of the Potomac.
\nAlfred Whital Stern's gift to the Library represents the most extensive collection of Lincolniana ever assembled by a private individual.
\nBelow is a listing of the types of items in the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.
\n| Types of Items in the Collection | \n\t\tNumber of Items | \n\t
|---|---|
| Advertisements | \n\t\t302 | \n\t
| Books | \n\t\t\u00a0 5 | \n\t
| Broadsides | \n\t\t515 | \n\t
| Correspondence | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Ephemera | \n\t\t206 | \n\t
| Government publications | \n\t\t33 | \n\t
| Humor, satire | \n\t\t76 | \n\t
| Legal cases and case notes | \n\t\t224 | \n\t
| Letters | \n\t\t81 | \n\t
| Manuscripts | \n\t\t298 | \n\t
| Maps | \n\t\t\u00a0\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Newspapers | \n\t\t296 | \n\t
| Pamphlets | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Periodicals | \n\t\t290 | \n\t
| Photographs | \n\t\t69 | \n\t
| Poetry | \n\t\t57 | \n\t
| Portraits | \n\t\t336 | \n\t
| Postcards | \n\t\t\u00a0 9 | \n\t
| Realia | \n\t\t24 | \n\t
| Sheet music | \n\t\t249 | \n\t
| Speeches | \n\t\t27 | \n\t
This collection highlights the history of the hymn “Amazing Grace” from the earliest printing of the song to selected performances of it on published and field recordings. These items have been collected from several divisions in the Library of Congress, including the Music Division, the American Folklife Center, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, and the Rare Books Division. Also available here is the Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection of data on published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by more than 3000 different musicians or ensembles. Since its creation in 1779 in England, \"Amazing Grace\" has grown in popularity to become one of the best-known hymns in America.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection at the Library of Congress comprises more than 3000 published recorded performances of the hymn \"Amazing Grace\" by different individual musicians or musical ensembles. The collection, compiled by Allan Chasanoff and Raymon Elozua, is undoubtedly the largest such collection of a single musical work in the recorded sound collection of the Library of Congress.
\nThe recordings in the Chasanoff/Elozua \"Amazing Grace\" Collection were made between the 1930s and 2000. The audio formats represented in the collection include: compact disc, mp3 files (all acquired legally), vinyl long-playing 33-1/3 rpm discs, 78 rpm discs, cassette tapes, and various video media.
\nThe full breadth of the collection is revealed by the great range of performance styles: big band, blues, classical, country, 'easy listening,' electronic, folk, gospel, different styles of jazz, 'novelty,' operatic, pop, rap, rock, rhythm 'n' blues, soul, and various ethnic, or 'world music,' styles. The wide array of performers include children's groups, religious ensembles, concert bands, bagpipers, steel guitarists, and American Indians.
\nThe Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection is available for public listening and research in the Recorded Sound Reference Center, Madison Building, Room LM 113. For more information, call 202-707-7833.
", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/grace/grace-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "Amazing Grace", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "Religion & Philosophy"], "total": 49}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording", "book", "notated music"], "partof": ["amazing grace", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["revolution", "amazing grace", "recordings", "chasanoff/elozua", "articles", "religion & philosophy", "performing arts", "songs", "hymns", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "religion & philosophy"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "Amazing Grace", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/work/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2001561557/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/collmbr.mi000002"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division", "paper print collection (library of congress)"], "count": 158, "date": "2000", "dates": ["[1894 TO 1915]", "2000"], "description": ["Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/500_500.jpg"], "index": 27, "item": {"aka": ["work", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2001561557"], "digitized": 153, "formats": ["film-and-videos"], "html_content": "Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
\nAmerica at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 consists of 150 motion pictures, 62 of which also appear in other online collections. The majority of the films are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. Both of these collections have printed catalogs available in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room at the Library. The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century. The selection is limited, however, by what is available from these collections; not every possible occupation or leisure activity from the turn of the century is represented.
\nThe films in the Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from 1894 to 1912 as positive pictures on paper. Many were deposited in this manner on paper rolls frame by frame. For preservation and access purposes, the Library of Congress has made 16mm prints of these Paper Print titles, and has more recently been making 35mm prints of selected titles. For this presentation, 35mm and 16mm prints have been used as the original source material for digitization. Many of the 35mm prints have been produced especially for this Web presentation.
\nThe George Kleine Collection consists of films obtained by film distributor and producer George Kleine. The collection includes films produced from 1898 to 1926, representing films by the Edison Company, French and Italian imports, and those produced by Kleine. The collection contains both 35mm and 16mm prints.
\nLinks to films in other online collections, such as Inside an American Factory: The Westinghouse Works, 1904; The Last Days of a President: McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition; and Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies are also in the presentation to add further diversity to the films listed.
\nThe online collection offers films available in MPEG, QuickTime, and MP4. In the case of the first two formats, films are segmented when longer than four minutes so that file sizes will not be prohibitively large to download.
\n", "research-centers": ["moving-image"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Science, Technology and Business", "Business & Industry", "Technology", "American History", "American History and Civilization", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900", "Sports, Recreation & Leisure", "Industrialization, Urbanization and Labor", "Recreational Activities"], "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "topics": ["Social & Business History", "Sports & Recreation"], "total": 153}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["online resource", "2001561557", "2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2001561557"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t18:52:44.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "film, video"], "partof": ["america at work, america at leisure: motion pictures from 1894-1915", "digital collections", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["social & business history", "business & industry", "american history and civilization", "progressive era to new era", "technology", "recreational activities", "george klein collection", "science, technology and business", "rise of industrial america", "paper print film", "sports, recreation & leisure", "motion pictures", "industrialization, urbanization and labor", "sports & recreation", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["social & business history", "sports & recreation"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america-at-work-and-leisure-1894-to-1915/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/ncss/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2002564463/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/collrbc.rb000003"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. rare book and special collections division"], "count": 4292, "date": "1999", "dates": ["[1775 TO 1910]", "1999"], "description": ["Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/500_500.jpg"], "index": 28, "item": {"aka": ["ncss", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2002564463"], "digitized": 4290, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "\n\n Contains 4291 song sheets. Included among these American songs are ninety-seven British song sheets from Dublin and London. The collection spans the period from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of the song sheets were published during the height of the craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.\n
\n\n\n\tFor most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music. These were new songs being sung in music halls or new lyrics to familiar songs. Some of America's most beloved tunes were printed as song sheets, including \"The Star Spangled Banner\" and \"Battle Hymn of the Republic.\" Song sheets are an early example of a mass medium and today they offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and economic life of the time, especially during the Civil War. Some were dramatic, some were humorous; all of them had America joining together in song.
\n\nSong sheets first found popularity in the British Isles as early as the 1500s, but their popularity in the United States skyrocketed in the early nineteenth century, fueled by the introduction of the mechanized printing press. Historically, sheets had been printed in editions of fewer than one hundred copies, on hand presses, using type that had been manually set. The new technology of the industrial age allowed runs of more than one thousand copies, using engraved illustrations and \"plates\" of text that were often bought and sold among publishers.
\n\nPrinters used the \"relief\" method of printing, in which the raised portion of the plate is inked and used to make the impression. If by chance an intaglio plate is used, one in which the carved-out portion provides an image, the effect is not what the printer or reader might expect.
\n\n\tPublishers who chose to include an illustration on a song sheet would typically select from the illustrated vignettes owned by the printing house. These depicted political and military figures, pastoral and industrial landscapes, scenes of battles, and social settings. Sometimes printers used generic illustrations if nothing else was available. For example, the song, \"Welcome Mother,\" is decorated with an illustration of the White House. The illustrations were sometimes colored, either by hand or with pre-cut blocks.
\nMany songs sheets employ the use of illustrative borders, usually cut from wood, that could be used to frame almost any plate of text. These frames usually include the printer's imprint and street address. A song sheet published by H. DeMarsan provides an example. Printers could use one of their own borders to frame the text acquired from a different printer. This interchangeability further encouraged the migration of plates between publishing houses.
\nThe date of publication seldom appears on song sheets, but it can sometimes be estimated quite accurately using a knowledge of a publisher's history, including changes in address and company name. For example, the prolific publisher J. H. Johnson was known with and without his initials, and set up shop in various locales throughout Philadelphia.
\n\n\n\tThe proliferation of the mechanized printing press coincided with a period of expanding industrialization, immigration, and commerce in America. The relative ease and low cost of producing song sheets met the demand of a nation eager for a means of expression. By the height of their popularity, song sheets could be found almost everywhere. They were distributed in town squares, taverns, homes, and around camp fires. They are evidence of a country desiring to be heard, as well as to listen.
\nPerhaps most of all, there was a desire to sing with others. Often the song sheets provided new lyrics to a familiar song, like \"Yankee Doodle,\" or \"Just Before the Battle, Mother.\" Other sheets offered the lyrics of popular new songs. Among these, the byline commonly named the performer who sang the song, and where it was performed. \". . . To great acclaim,\" they often boast. \"Performed to swells of applause.\" A modern reader can assume that a degree of hyperbole is present in such proclamations. In spite of this, these rave reviews often hold clues about the original arrangements. Though the sheets do not include musical notation, a byline mentioning a performance by a \"celebrated banjoist\" gives a hint of what patrons heard and saw in the music hall.
\n\n\n\tMany songs were written purely for entertainment. There are songs of love and songs of death. There were parodies of songs already well known and loved. \"The Last Potato,\" a culinary monologue to a tuber, is a parody of \"The Last Rose of Summer.\" There are tall tales such as \"Jack Muggins, or, the Donkey Balancer,\" about a farmer and his talented donkey.
\nOther song sheets were dramatic and serious. There are cautionary maxims about the hazards of alcohol, and critical responses to the temperance movement. There are songs of heartbreak. And of particular importance, there are songs about the Civil War, composed, performed, and published as events unfolded. Songs profess loyalty or disdain for statesmen and military leaders. They celebrate the bravery of individual regiments. They track shifting dominion throughout the course of the war, and report on specific battles, such as Antietam, Bull Run, and Spotsylvania.
\nAs well as reporting the facts of the war, some songs documented civilian attitudes toward it. These attitudes range from highly patriotic to guardedly hesitant. Songs like \"We Are Coming, Father Abraham\" are rallying cries. Others are less straightforward. \"Don't Draft Me, My Wife Has Got a Sick Baby, I Have to Stay Home to Give It Catnip Tea\" may express reluctance, or, if played for laughs, may subtly underscore the importance of patriotism.
\nThe patriotic muse is rarely so subtle in the mid-nineteenth century. Many of the Civil War songs are heavy with melodrama. \"Mother Kissed Me in My Dream\" and \"Let Me Kiss Him for His Mother\" tugged at the heartstrings, and had the power to strengthen the spirit of citizens on both sides of the war.
\nThe variety of subjects and viewpoints conveyed by song sheets make them a unique and indispensable historical resource. The title of this digital collection comes from Walt Whitman's poem \"I Hear America Singing.\" It was published in Leaves of Grass, at a time when song sheets were enjoying immense popularity. The nation had indeed been singing, and the songs they sang continue to tell the American story.
", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amsshtml/amsshome.html", "research-centers": ["rare-book-and-special-collections"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History and Civilization", "Arts and Culture", "Music", "Sheet Music"], "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "topics": ["Performing Arts", "American History"], "total": 4290}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["england", "united states"], "number": ["computer disc", "2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000", "2002564463"], "number_carrier_type": ["computer disc"], "number_lccn": ["2002564463"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-06t19:33:01.100000"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "other_title": ["Nineteenth-century song sheets"], "partof": ["america singing: nineteenth-century song sheets", "digital collections", "rare book and special collections division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["singing", "sheet music", "song sheet", "american history and civilization", "patriotism", "performing arts", "lyrics", "civil war", "arts and culture", "music", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts", "american history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:20.667Z", "title": "America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/nineteenth-century-song-sheets/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america-250/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 55, "description": ["On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 29, "item": {"aka": ["america-250", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 53, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration.
\r\n\r\nThis web archive provides a representative record of federal, state, and local semiquincentennial commissions, as well as websites from cultural and professional organizations. It also preserves digital content reflecting commemorations, historical interpretation, and community experiences across the United States.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: September 28, 2023 to September 4, 2027.
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis, with some added to crawl once or quarterly.
\r\n\t\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English and Spanish.
\r\n\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites were added incrementally to the project as they were identified.
\r\n", "locations": ["Spain", "United States"], "research-centers": ["newspaper-and-current-periodical"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "America250"], "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["African American History", "American History", "Art & Architecture", "Geography & Places", "Government, Law & Politics", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 53}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/", "location": ["spain", "united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "serial and government publications division", "america250 semiquincentennial web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["african american history", "local history & folklife", "government, law & politics", "geography & places", "america250", "art & architecture", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["african american history", "american history", "art & architecture", "geography & places", "government, law & politics", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "America250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/america250-semiquincentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "https://www.loc.gov/item/98801326", "http://lccn.loc.gov/98801326", "http://www.loc.gov/item/98801326/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/collmus.mu000010"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. national digital library program", "library of congress. music division"], "count": 325, "date": "1998", "dates": ["[1490 TO 1929]", "1998"], "description": ["A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:04.070Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/500_500.jpg"], "index": 30, "item": {"aka": ["dance", "https://lccn.loc.gov/98801326"], "digitized": 204, "formats": ["books"], "html_content": "A collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The list begins with a rare late fifteenth-century source, Les basses danses de Marguerite d'Autriche (c.1490) and ends with Ella Gardner's 1929 Public dance halls, their regulation and place in the recreation of adolescents. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance. All illuminate the manner in which people have joyfully expressed themselves as they dance for and with one another.
\nLibrary of Congress staff selected this set of materials relating to ballroom (also called social) dance from various divisions and collections in the Library. Selections came from the General Collections, the Music Division, and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Hence, this web presentation is the only existing version of this special subject collection. Why these dance materials are in various locations throughout the Library is in itself a history of dance in the United States.
\nIt has long been a goal of the Library's dance specialists and of scholars using the collections to one day provide an annotated bibliography to these dance materials that would pull together, intellectually, what has for so long been physically divided. Finally, through the use of new technology we have been able to do far more than simply identify and describe these materials. We have been able to bring the vast majority of these materials to the user in their entirety, and in most cases we have also been able to provide full text searching capability. These tools will assist scholars in the analysis and study of the manuals in ways that have never been possible before. This Web access of the dance instructions will also allow dancers around the world to download and learn these dances, which up until now, were only available to the dedicated scholar who searched several catalogs at the Library of Congress or at other libraries in New York, Paris, or London.
\nNo selection is ever complete or perfect. Inevitably inclusions and exclusions must be made for a whole list of practical reasons, unrelated to an item's presence or absence from our collections. Please forgive the exclusion of your favorite manual or treatise. We invite the user to locate additional manuals and treatises in their local libraries, on other Web sites, or even in their grandma's attic.
\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Theater and Dance", "Dance"], "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 204}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000", "98801326"], "number_lccn": ["98801326"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t17:49:36.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "book"], "other_title": ["Dance instruction manuals, ca. 1600-1920"], "partof": ["an american ballroom companion: dance instruction manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "digital collections", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american ballroom", "performing arts", "dance manuals", "theater and dance", "arts and culture", "dance"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acm/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 140, "date": "1865", "dates": ["[1865 TO 1922]"], "description": ["The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:08:16.274Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-choral-music/500_500.jpg"], "index": 31, "item": {"aka": ["acm"], "digitized": 193, "formats": ["notated-music"], "html_content": "The seventy-six works presented here are limited to a period beginning shortly after the Civil War and ending at 1922. The music selected reflects the diversity of choral music in the collections written during the later nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes accompanied music, a cappella, sacred and secular music, and works for mixed choirs, for women's and men's ensembles, and for children's choruses.
\n\nAmerican Choral Music is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Choral Directors Association (ACDA). In 2007, the ACDA and the Library of Congress began a collaborative effort to create this Web site devoted to choral music that would present music in the public domain, available for users to download. The site serves to highlight the collections of sheet music in the Library of Congress and to advance and promote the performance of choral music.
\nTwenty-three composers' works are represented, five of whom are women. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer. Mabel Wheeler Daniels composed The Desolate City, op. 21, among other significant works during her many stays as a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Margaret Ruthven Lang composed the song Ojalá, which brought her international attention at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. Gena Branscombe was a conductor and composer whose hymn Arms that have Sheltered Us was adopted by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1960. Patty Stair was a composer, organist and conductor.
\nMany of the composers represented here were from the Second New England School and were influential in music education as well as composition. George Whitefield Chadwick, often credited as the \"dean of American Music,\" reorganized the New England Conservatory. Chadwick influenced Daniel Gregory Mason, a composer known for both orchestral works and song cycles is represented, as is Horatio William Parker. Parker became dean of the School of Music at Yale; many of his manuscripts reside in the Music Division. Another member of the New England School was John Knowles Paine, the first professor of music at Harvard, and a composer who established the first music department at an American university. Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell were also members of the Second New England School. Also represented is Dudley Buck, an organist, conductor, and founding director of the Brooklyn Apollo Club's male chorus, and Harvey Bartlett Gaul, a student of Dudley Buck. William W. Gilchrist founded the Mendelssohn Club. Peter C. Lutkin was a composer instrumental in support of a cappella singing, and a founder of the American Guild of Organists. African-American music is represented with the compositions of R. Nathaniel Dett, Will Marion Cook, and Harry Burleigh. Other notable composers are Henry F. Gilbert, Arthur B. Whiting and Septimus Winner.
\nThe works in this presentation were selected from a variety of sheet music collections and publishers in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. The majority of the compositions chosen by the American Choral Directors Association are from the A. P. Schmidt Company Archives, one of the most valuable resources for the study of American choral music. This archive of music occupies a special place in the history of American music publishing. In 1958, the publisher Summy-Birchard bought out the Arthur P. Schmidt Company, and both principals agreed to donate the Schmidt papers to the Library of Congress. Included in the large deposit of business papers and financial records were numerous containers of music manuscripts, including many holographs, and printed sheet music. The A. P. Schmidt Company Archives contains over 300 boxes of manuscripts and published choral music, including the music of Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick, Horatio Parker, and John Knowles Paine. Because Schmidt championed the music of women, the collection is also rich in the holdings of holographs and sheet music of Amy Beach, Mabel Wheeler Daniels, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Florence Newell Barbour, Marion Bauer, Helen Hopekirk, Gena Branscomb, and Anna Pricella Rischer.
\nView a finding aid for the A. P. Schmidt collection
\nIf you have specific questions, please Ask a Librarian
\n", "legacy-url": "https://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/choralmusic/choralmusic-home.html", "research-centers": ["performing-arts"], "shards": ["00", "08"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["Arts and Culture", "Music"], "title": "American Choral Music", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 193}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "notated music"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american choral music", "music division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["american", "a capella", "second new england school", "composers", "performing arts", "choral music", "arts and culture", "music"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Choral Music", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-choral-music/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acws/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210582/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress. researcher and reference services division", "library of congress"], "count": 199, "date": "2011", "dates": ["2011"], "description": ["The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 32, "item": {"aka": ["acws", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210582"], "digitized": 191, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive is a collection of websites presenting various projects and events in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This anniversary is historically significant, and this significance is reflected in the number and diversity of the associated websites. This web archive will serve as a useful tool for researchers in studying the American Civil War and its memorialization.
\r\n
Over 200 sites comprise this archive. Some sites document Civil War reenactments and living history events. Some are specific to aspects of the war or collections of war-related materials. Other sites have a reflective, solemn tone, rather in contrast to the more celebratory events seen during the 1961-1965 Civil War Centennial.\u00a0Most sites are location or region specific, showing that much as it was 150 years ago, the Civil War was and remains to be a locally important part of American cultural history and identity.
\r\n
Many organizations, government bodies at all levels, and individuals created an online Sesquicentennial presence, often times instead of or in addition to print materials. This archive will act as a tool for researchers wanting to study the Civil War Sesquicentennial (2011-2015) in comparison to the Civil War Centennial\u00a0(1961-1965) and other commemorative events in form, content and in the context it took place among other events going on in American society at the time.
\r\nCollection Period: March 2011 to September 2015.
\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture weekly, monthly, twice-yearly, yearly, or once.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United Kingdom", "United States"], "research-centers": ["main"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "War & Military"], "total": 191}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united kingdom", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000", "2019210582"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210582"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t09:54:09.200000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "other_title": ["Civil War sesquicentennial web archive", "Civil War 150 web archive"], "partof": ["researcher and reference services division", "digital collections", "american civil war sesquicentennial web archive"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "web sites", "history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Civil War Sesquicentennial Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-civil-war-sesquicentennial-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/acj/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm2004085137/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000020", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms00020x"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["vester, bertha spafford", "spafford, anna t.", "american colony (jerusalem)", "spafford, horatio gates"], "count": 536, "date": "1870", "dates": ["[1870 TO 2006]"], "description": ["The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288 images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd., which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:09:47.458Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-colony-in-jerusalem/500_500.jpg"], "index": 33, "item": {"aka": ["acj", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2004085137"], "digitized": 114, "formats": ["manuscripts", "photos"], "html_content": "The papers of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a non-denominational utopian Christian community, consist of\n approximately 16,600 items, spanning the years 1786-2007, of which about three-fourths of the materials (50,288\n images) have been digitized and presented on this site. The American Colony was founded in 1881 by a small group of\n American expatriates and their associates in Ottoman Palestine. The collective community expanded greatly in numbers\n in 1896 with an influx of Swedish millennialist migrants and members of Arab Christian and other heritage\n backgrounds. It operated businesses, provided social welfare services during World War I, and continued to thrive\n and contribute to the civic life of Jerusalem throughout the British Mandate period. The collection was donated to\n the Library of Congress between 2004 and 2009 by the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd.,\n which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early members.
\n\nMost of the manuscripts date from 1870 to 1968. They were initially assembled by colony member Bertha Spafford\n Vester, daughter of American Colony founders Horatio Gates Spafford and Anna T. Spafford, while writing her memoir\n Our Jerusalem (1950), and later by her daughter-in-law Valentine Vester and others at the American Colony\n Hotel.\n
\n\nCollection items include draft manuscripts, letters, postcards, telegrams, diaries or journals, scrapbooks,\n newslippings, printed materials, photographs, hand-drawn maps and ephemera. Most items are in English, with some\n materials in Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Swedish.
\n\nThe collection content reflects the activities of many members and leaders of the American Colony across generations\n and through decades of political changes in the Middle East, with emphasis on the Ottoman and British Mandate\n periods and continuing after the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. Highlighted is the leadership by members of\n the Spafford, Vester, and Whiting families. The collection also documents the activities of many others and their\n interactions with those in the larger community and region, including information pertaining to the colony\u2019s Swedish\n members and other residents and employees, as well as neighbors, friends, diplomats, dignitaries, educators,\n governmental and religious leaders, and associates in Jerusalem and internationally.
\n\nAmong the businesses, social services, and collectives operated by the American Colony, the materials document the\n American Colony Photo Department, Vester & Company American Colony store, American Colony Nurses, American Colony\n School of Handicrafts, Anna Spafford Baby Home (now the Spafford Children\u2019s Center), Christian Herald Orphanage, and\n other enterprises operated in Jerusalem and the United States under colony auspices. The collection provides\n information about international visitors to the colony and changes in colony membership and operations over time. It\n charts the colony\u2019s role in the arts, business, commercial, educational, philanthropic, social, religious, and\n political life of Jerusalem and its importance in the Middle East tourism and hospitality industries. Major figures\n include Anna Spafford, Horatio Gates Spafford, Jacob Spafford, Bertha Spafford Vester, Frederick Vester, Grace\n Spafford Whiting, John D. Whiting, G. Eric Matson, Lewis Larsson, Valentine Vester, and other associates and leaders\n of colony businesses and activities.
\n\nItems available in digital format include all items from the collection which were originally displayed as part of\n the Library of Congress exhibition on the American Colony in\n Jerusalem presented at the Library in 2005. These items, which include mixed media manuscript, print, and\n photographic materials, constitute the entirety of Part I of\n the collection housed in the Manuscript Division.
\n\nAlso available online is the entirety of Part II of the collection, with the exception of one restricted series, and\n a select portion of Part III. The forty-eight
The American Colony in Jerusalem Collection is arranged in three parts and multiple series as described below. A\n finding aid (PDF and
The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection contains 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. The recordings include speech samples, linguistic interviews, oral histories, conversations, and excerpts from public speeches. They were drawn from various archives, and from the private collections of fifty collectors, including linguists, dialectologists, and folklorists. They were submitted to the Center for Applied Linguistics as part of a project entitled "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was funded by the Center for Applied Linguistics and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
\r\nThe collection includes recordings from forty-three states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and parts of Canada. They were made from 1941 to 1984, with the bulk being recorded between 1968 and 1982. In some cases, transcripts (and partial transcripts) made by the collectors are available as part of this web presentation. The survey's documentation covers social aspects of English language usage in different regions of the United States. It reveals distinctions in speech related to gender, race, social class, education, age, literacy, ethnic background, and occupational group (including the specialized jargon or vocabulary of various occupations). The oral history interviews are a rich resource on many topics, such as storytelling and family histories; descriptions of holiday celebrations, traditional farming, schools, education, health care, and the uses of traditional medicines; and discussions of race relations, politics, and natural disasters such as floods.
\r\nIn 1983, The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, initiated the "Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings," which was undertaken to compile a directory of American speech samples, and ultimately to improve access to them. There were two parts to the project. The first part surveyed collectors of speech samples and resulted in a report entitled "American English Speech Recordings: A Guide to Collections" (PDF, 3MB) which describes over 200 collections. The second part of the project was designed to select from the 200 collections a representative sample of recordings with the goal of "creating a centralized source of American dialect samples and to provide for the preservation of this valuable resource that might otherwise be lost." Additional information about the project may be found in "A Survey and Collection of American English Dialect Recordings" (PDF, 6.1MB).
\r\nThe recordings from the project's second phase were donated to the Library of Congress in May 1986, and comprise the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection (AFC 1986/022). The collection contains speech samples from over 50 collectors. There are 405 recordings which average about 15 minutes in length. In addition to providing a wide variety of material for the study of American speech, the recordings capture a diverse range of topics and people.
\r\nSome of the voices will be quite familiar, such as those of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Other voices, despite the speakers' fame, are seldom heard, such as those of Amelia Earhart, Jack Dempsey, and H. L. Mencken. Most of the recordings, however, are of the voices of people whose specific identities are unknown, but whose comments represent the richness of the American experience. There are Gullah speakers from coastal South Carolina, sharecroppers from Arkansas, Puerto Rican teenagers in New York City, Basque sheepherders from Colorado, Chesapeake Bay watermen, Vietnamese immigrants from Northern Virginia, and many others.
\r\nA selection of 350 of the collection's entire 405 audio recordings are available on this website; of these, 148 have accompanying transcripts. The remaining recordings, which could not be posted due to copyright issues and other restrictions, may be heard in the Folklife Reading Room.
\r\nUsers may notice that descriptive data for the website varies from recording to recording. That is a result of the collection containing material from a wide variety of collectors. The data presented, for the most part, is that which was supplied by the collector.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n
The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
\nThe collection is arranged, filed, and numbered as received. Volumes 251, 310, and 313 were not received by the Library. \u00a0Each volume contains an index of correspondents.\u00a0 Prominent names include Susan B. Anthony, Grover Cleveland, William Hugh Johnston, John L. Lewis, L. J. McGruder, P. J. McGuire, John Mitchell, John Morrison, Herman Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Daniel Joseph Tobin, Henry White, and Woodrow Wilson.
\nA finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the American Federation of Labor records is available online.
", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "Social & Business History"], "total": 72300}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states", "pennsylvania"], "number": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000", "mm78051185"], "number_lccn": ["mm78051185"], "number_source_modified": ["2026-05-11t15:58:23.500000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american federation of labor records"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["government, law & politics", "social & business history", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "social & business history"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Federation of Labor Records", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/afc/"], "campaigns": [], "count": 23, "description": ["The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 36, "item": {"aka": ["afc", "https://lccn.loc.gov/"], "digitized": 21, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Folklife Center Archive, established in the Library of Congress Music Division in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, is now one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center meets its mission to \u201cpreserve and present\u201d folklife in all its diversity by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise.
\n\nThis web archive collection aims to capture digital content related to the Center\u2019s collectors and collections. For instance, reflected here are websites of many artistic, historical, and cultural institutions which have been creating or gathering ethnographic content as found in the American Folklife Center Archive.
\n\nCollection Period: May 2020 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a quarterly basis, with fewer added on a weekly or monthly basis.
\n\t\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["american-folklife-center"], "status": "production", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "topics": ["American History", "Local History & Folklife"], "total": 21}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/", "location": ["united states"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["american folklife center", "digital collections", "american folklife center web archive"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "local history & folklife"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Folklife Center Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-folklife-center-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/wwielection/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "https://www.loc.gov/item/96703617", "http://lccn.loc.gov/96703617", "http://www.loc.gov/item/96703617/", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsrs/collmbr.rs000001"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["cox, james m. (james middleton)", "daniels, josephus", "de valera, \u00e9amon", "gompers, samuel", "pershing, john j. (john joseph)", "poindexter, miles", "cummings, homer s. (homer still\u00e9)", "purdy, richard a. (richard augustus)", "wise, stephen s. (stephen samuel)", "rockefeller, john d., (john davison)", "hitchcock, gilbert m. (gilbert monell)", "lewis, james", "vanderlip, frank a. (frank arthur)", "lodge, henry cabot", "long, breckinridge", "lane, franklin k.", "roosevelt, franklin d. (franklin delano)", "robinson, corinne roosevelt", "coolidge, calvin", "baker, newton diehl", "hays, will h. (will harrison)", "butler, nicholas murray", "colby, bainbridge", "owen, robert l. (robert latham)", "harding, warren g. (warren gamaliel)", "mcadoo, w. g. (william gibbs)", "white, george", "wood, leonard", "clark, champ", "palmer, a. mitchell (alexander mitchell)", "gerard, james w. (james watson)"], "count": 97, "date": "1918", "dates": ["1918"], "description": ["The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/500_500.jpg"], "index": 37, "item": {"aka": ["wwielection", "https://lccn.loc.gov/96703617"], "digitized": 59, "formats": ["audio"], "html_content": "The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label.
\r\nThe recordings fall into two distinct series. The 1918 series was devoted mostly to World War I topics and was apparently distributed only to political organizations and other groups. The notable exception is the recording of General John Pershing (with Ambassador James Gerard speaking on the reverse side), which was sold commercially. All of the recordings from the 1918 series were pressed on ten-inch discs. The 1919-1920 series was devoted mostly to postwar issues and the 1920 presidential election. Recordings in this series were released at a rate of two per month, one Republican and one Democrat. The recordings were pressed on twelve inch discs and sold for two dollars each. With two exceptions, the reverse side of the records in both series consisted of patriotic music, usually a march. These selections are not duplicated here.
\r\nThe Nation's Forum project may also have planned to record foreign statesmen. The collection includes three speeches by Eamonn DeValera, who led the fight to establish the Republic of Ireland. At the time of the recordings, DeValera had escaped from an English prison and was living in exile in the United States. The label of one DeValera recording states that with the sale of each album, a royalty of twenty-five cents would be paid to Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary Irish Parliament.
\r\nThe speeches included in the Nation's Forum collection are not actuality recordings -- recorded at the time of their original delivery. Instead, speakers were invited to repeat their significant orations for the Nation's Forum project at a location convenient to the particular speaker. All of the Nation's Forum recordings were acoustically made. Until the development in the mid-1920's of electrical recordings -- recording aided by microphones and electrical amplifiers during the recording process, and electrical amplification and loudspeakers for playback -- all sound recording processes were acoustic. The diaphragm and needle cutting an acoustic record were powered only by the force of a voice. A speaker making a record had to shout into a recording horn to successfully record. Thus, almost no speeches recorded in the acoustic era are actuality recordings. All of the speeches recorded for the Nation's Forum were delivered solely for the recording machine, without a public audience. Since phonograph records in this period were limited to about three minutes, someone -- presumably the speaker -- abridged or selected highlights from longer speeches. Some speeches are represented by two or three very similar takes.
\r\nThe total number of recordings made by the Nation's Forum is unknown. The Library of Congress holds fifty-nine examples in a collection that has been assembled over a period of years from a variety of donors and record collectors. Of the fifteen 1918 recordings at the Library of Congress, the Pershing/Gerard record is an original shellac disc, eleven records are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and two recordings are audio tape dubs. Of the forty-four recordings from the 1919-1920 series at the Library of Congress, twenty-four are original shellac discs, seventeen are modern vinyl test pressings struck from original masters, and three are audio tape dubs.
\r\n", "legacy-url": "https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/", "research-centers": ["moving-image", "recorded-sound"], "shards": ["00", "01"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", "Government, Law & Politics", "Elections & Voting", "Military History", "World War I", "American History and Civilization"], "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "topics": ["American History", "Government, Law & Politics", "War & Military"], "total": 65}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["96703617", "2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000", "audio disc"], "number_carrier_type": ["audio disc"], "number_lccn": ["96703617"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t22:45:38.800000"], "original_format": ["collection", "sound recording"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american leaders speak: recordings from world war i", "recorded sound research center", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["war & military", "military history", "progressive era to new era", "american history and civilization", "government, law & politics", "world war i", "elections & voting", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["american history", "government, law & politics", "war & military"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:25:49.017Z", "title": "American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-and-1920-election-recordings/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/fwp/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "https://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715", "http://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715", "http://www.loc.gov/item/mm82055715/", "https://link.gale.com/apps/collection/3TQA/GDSC?u=loc_main&sid=bookmark-GDSC", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000007", "https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000008", "http://whatamericaate.org"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["federal writers' project", "united states. works progress administration", "united states. work projects administration", "writers' program (u.s.)"], "count": 2838, "date": "1936", "dates": ["[1936 TO 1940]"], "description": ["This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/federal-writers-project/500_500.jpg"], "index": 38, "item": {"aka": ["fwp", "https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82055715"], "digitized": 23931, "formats": ["manuscripts", "books"], "html_content": "This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers\u2019 Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant\u2019s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts. The life histories comprise a small part of the larger Manuscript Division collection titled United States Work Projects Administration Records.
\nThe Federal Writers' Project materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division are part of a larger collection titled The U.S. Work Projects Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey. The holdings from Federal Writers' Project span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subprojects. Altogether, the Federal Writers' holdings number approximately 300,000 items and consist of correspondence, memoranda, field reports, notes, graphs, charts, preliminary and corrected drafts of essays, oral testimony, folklore, miscellaneous administrative and miscellaneous other material.
\nWell over one-half of the materials in this record group pertain to the American Guide, the sobriquet for the critically acclaimed state guides. The remainder of the material reflects other areas of interest that developed as the project grew in maturity. They include a rich collection of rural and urban folklore; first-person narratives (called life histories) describing the feelings of men and women coping with life and the Depression; studies of social customs of various ethnic groups; authentic narratives of ex-slaves about life during the period of Slavery; and Negro source material gathered by project workers. In addition, drafts of publications and intended publications are included. These publications express concern with the direction America was taking and with the preservation and communication of local culture. Titles include Hands That Build America, From These Strains, Lexicon of Trade Jargon, and Pockets in America.
\nThe arrangement of the larger collection generally reflects the division of work within the Writers' Project such as material relating to The American Guide, the Folklore Project, Social-ethnic Studies, and Slave Narratives. Other series are compilations for archival purposes such as administrative papers or Negro studies material. Still others are groups of similar material such as printed matter and the like.
\nThe plight of the unemployed writer, and indeed anyone who could qualify as a writer such as a lawyer, a teacher, or a librarian, during the early years of the Depression, was of concern not only to the Roosevelt Administration, but also to writers' organizations and persons of liberal and academic persuasions. It was felt, generally, that the New Deal could come up with more appropriate work situations for this group other than blue collar jobs on construction projects. To the Administration's liking were plans generated from a series of meetings held in 1934 between Jacob Baker, Harry Hopkins' chief Civil Works Administration assistant in charge of special and professional programs, Henry Alsberg, Bakers' assistant, Katherine Kellock, a writer familiar with international and social organizations, and others. The outcome of these sessions was a project for all the \"arts,\" (labeled Federal One), divided administratively by each specialty and headed by professionals in the field. The Writers' Project, later characterized by some as the federal government's attempt to \"democratize American culture,\" was approved for federal monies in June, 1935. Baker chose his assistant, Alsberg, as director. As the Project continued into the late thirties, the director was powerless to stop increasing criticism by reactionary Congressmen who were intent on shutting down the enterprise. In October 1939, the Project's federal monies ceased, due to the Administration's need for a larger defense budget. After 1939, emasculated, the Project sputtered along on monies funded to the states, closing completely one year or so after America's entry into World War II.
\nResearchers should note that the American Memory collection presented here is a coherent portion of the Library's larger Federal Writers' series and the WPA collection. It includes the life histories and corollary documents assembled by the Folklore Project within the Federal Writers' effort.
\nWithin the Federal Writers' Project, material relating to folklore and social-ethnic studies was collected and shaped through the efforts of John A. Lomax, Benjamin A. Botkin, and Morton Royce. The activity documented in writing traditional statements, expressions, songs, essays, stories, and the like, with tilt toward accounts of frontier and pioneer life. The Folklore Project filed its material under the general headings \"traditional\" and \"life histories.\"
\nThe Writers' Project staff variously described the life histories as life sketches, living lore, industrial lore, and occupational lore. The narratives were meant to reflect the ordinary person's struggle with the vicissitudes of daily living.\n
This American Memory presentation is limited to the Folklore Project life histories. Similar accounts may be found in the Social-Ethnic portion of the WPA collection; these may be digitized in the future.
\nAt the time, Botkin said, the collected lore and narratives were to be used as the basis for anthologies which would form a composite and comprehensive portrait of various groups of people in America. The entire body of material provides the raw content for a broad documentary of both rural and urban life, interspersed with accounts and traditions of ethnic group traditions, customs regarding planting, cooking, marriage, death, celebrations, recreation, and a wide variety of narratives. The quality of collecting and writing lore varies from state to state, reflecting the skills of the interviewer-writers and the supervision they received.
\n", "research-centers": ["manuscript"], "shards": ["00"], "status": "production", "subjects": ["American History", "Immigration and Ethnic Heritage", "Culture and Folklife", "The Great Depression"], "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "topics": ["Local History & Folklife", "Literature & Poetry"], "total": 23931}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["utah", "united states", "washington d.c."], "number": ["mm82055715", "2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "number_lccn": ["mm82055715"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-30t04:18:48.300000"], "original_format": ["collection", "manuscript/mixed material", "book"], "other_title": ["U.S. Work Projects Administration records", "Work Projects Administration records", "WPA records"], "partof": ["manuscript division", "digital collections", "american life histories: manuscripts from the federal writers' project, 1936-1940"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["local history & folklife", "personal correspondence", "local hisotry", "field notes", "narratives", "the great depression", "interview", "culture and folklife", "immigration and ethnic heritage", "occupations", "literature & poetry", "life histories", "american history"], "subject_topic": ["local history & folklife", "literature & poetry"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:47.448Z", "title": "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-creators/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210590/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 69, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:07:34.497Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 39, "item": {"aka": ["music-creators", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210590"], "digitized": 29, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Creators Web Archive is a collection of websites of musicians, performers, and composers contributing to the American music scene. The collection strives to be representative of all genres of music, including jazz, classical, country, rock, Latin American, hip hop, rap, R&B, blues, EDM, heavy metal, bluegrass and many more. Sites include artists on major labels and those on independent labels or creating music and publishing it online. Biographies, event dates, appearances, music tracks, images, videos, social networks and merchandise are represented on these sites.
\r\n\r\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\r\n\r\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture twice-yearly, with fewer targeted for capture quarterly.
\r\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\r\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\r\n", "locations": ["United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 29}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["united states"], "number": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000", "online resource", "2019210590"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210590"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:22.900000"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music creators web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "history", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Creators Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-creators-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}, {"access_restricted": false, "aka": ["http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "http://www.loc.gov/collections/music-industry/", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "https://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591", "http://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591", "http://www.loc.gov/item/2019210591/"], "campaigns": [], "contributor": ["library of congress", "library of congress. motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound division"], "count": 48, "date": "2018", "dates": ["2018"], "description": ["The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time."], "digitized": true, "extract_timestamp": "2026-07-26T05:10:42.306Z", "group": ["collections-portal"], "hassegments": false, "id": "http://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "image_url": ["https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/500_500.jpg"], "index": 40, "item": {"aka": ["music-industry", "https://lccn.loc.gov/2019210591"], "digitized": 22, "formats": ["web-archives"], "html_content": "The American Music Industry Web Archive captures the websites of individuals and companies that represent music creators and are involved broadly in the business of music. This includes mainstream and independent record labels and studios, music journalists and critics, and retail music sites. The goal of the collection is to document in what way music is created, discussed, promoted and consumed and how those interactions change over time.
\n\nCollection Period: April 2018 to present (this is an ongoing archive).
\n\nFrequency of Collection: Sites in the collection were targeted for capture quarterly.
\n\nAcquisition Information: Sites have been added incrementally since the project began and will continue to be added as they are identified.
\nLanguages: Collection material in English.
\n", "locations": ["International Organizations", "United States"], "research-centers": ["recorded-sound"], "shards": ["01"], "status": "production", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "topics": ["Performing Arts"], "total": 22}, "items": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/", "language": ["english"], "location": ["international organizations", "united states"], "number": ["online resource", "2019210591", "2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "number_carrier_type": ["online resource"], "number_lccn": ["2019210591"], "number_source_modified": ["2025-06-07t10:01:23"], "original_format": ["collection", "web archive"], "partof": ["digital collections", "american music industry web archive", "motion picture, broadcasting and recorded sound division"], "publication_frequency": ["other"], "shelf_id": "~/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/", "subject": ["web sites", "performing arts"], "subject_topic": ["performing arts"], "timestamp": "2026-07-26T06:24:33.576Z", "title": "American Music Industry Web Archive", "type": ["collection"], "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-music-industry-web-archive/about-this-collection/"}], "search": {"dates": null, "facet_limits": "", "field": null, "hits": 583, "in": "partof:digital collections", "query": "", "recommended": 0, "site": {"facets": {"include": [{"field": "subject_topic", "label": "Topic"}, {"field": "partof", "label": "Part of"}, {"field": "original-format", "label": "Original Format"}]}, "mode": "curated-discovery", "sortBy": "title_s asc", "style": "gallery"}, "sort_by": "title_s asc", "type": "search", "union_facets": "", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json"}, "site_context": "partof_title", "site_manifest": "collections/manifest.yaml", "site_search": true, "site_type": "collections", "timestamp": 1785064620642, "title": "Digital Collections", "type": "content-portal", "views": {"brief": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&st=brief", "current": "", "gallery": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&st=gallery", "grid": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&st=grid", "list": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json", "slideshow": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/?fo=json&st=slideshow"}}