March 17, 2004 Announcement of Acquisition of Alan Lomax Collection

WHAT:
Press briefing and video presentation to announce the Library's acquisition of the Alan Lomax collection.

WHEN:
10 a.m. Wednesday, March 24

WHERE:
Whittall Pavilion, ground floor of Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C.

WHO:
SPEAKERS:

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will announce the acquisition and comment on its importance;

Anna Lomax Wood, daughter of Alan Lomax and director of the Association for Cultural Equity (ACE), New York;

Mickey Hart, musicologist, former member of the Grateful Dead and American Folklife Center board member;

Peggy Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center.

The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress has acquired the Alan Lomax Collection, which comprises the unparalleled ethnographic documentation collected by the legendary folklorist over a period of 70 years. The acquisition was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the American Folklife Center and the Association for Cultural Equity at Hunter College and the generosity of an anonymous donor.

With this acquisition, the Alan Lomax Collection joins the material that he and his father John collected during the 1930s and early 1940s for the Library's Archive of American Folk Song, thus bringing the entire collection together for the first time at the Library of Congress.

A press packet, including a CD-ROM of selected images and audio clips of Lomax and selections from the collection, will be available at the briefing.