March 2, 1998 Miller Flute Collection Preview Now Available in National Digital Library Program

The National Digital Library Program, in conjunction with the Music Division, has released a preview Web site dedicated to the Library's extensive Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection. The release of this site follows the Music Division's four-day FluteFest (Feb. 24-27), held in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium and featuring world famous flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.

The Miller Collection is the world's largest flute archives, comprising not only musical instruments but also music manuscripts, portraits, autographs, concert programs, clippings, prints, photographs and other materials.

"The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection Preview is the first on-line view of a Library of Congress musical instrument collection," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "The Library is renowned for its Music Division collections, and this new Web site represents an expansion of the types of materials offered in our American Memory on- line collections."

The Miller Collection of flutes from many eras and from around the world is described on-line at www.loc.gov. This site contains an illustrated introduction to the catalog, a listing of more than 100 of the collection's approximately 1,650 flutes and a bibliography of literature by and about the collector, Dayton C. Miller.

This preview, produced by the Library's National Digital Library Program in conjunction with the Music Division, also features a detailed look at five selected instruments in the collection, including a ca. 1750 flute from the workshop of J.J. Quantz, made for Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. The future version of this site will feature the complete catalog (Wind Instruments in the Dayton C. Miller Collection) with illustrations and audio clips, as well as books, scores and correspondence showing the extensive range of this significant collection.

The National Digital Library Program will make millions of items relating to American history freely available on the Internet by the year 2000, when the Library of Congress will be 200 years old. Among the more than two dozen collections now available are "The George Washington Papers," "African American Perspectives," "Votes for Women Suffrage Pictures," "Early Motion Pictures" and "Panoramic Maps." More than 40 million transactions monthly are handled by the Library's Internet services.