Research Guides: Music in the US II: The somewhat hidden universe

How can you find what you don't know about?

Whole worlds of information exist in libraries, archives, rare books rooms, and special collections. Some have holdings listed online, but not all. Finding aids, inventories of collections, digitized copies may be available, but they may not. Here are a few teasers:

Programs. Community Concert Association. ML42.C66
- Who toured the US for various classical music series in the early/mid-20th century?
- What kind of music was being "fed" to classical music audiences?
- This resource is not indexed (meaning quite a bit of hands-on time for exploration and discovery).
Opperman Music Hall is named for..
- Ella Scoble Opperman
- Her papers are held in the Allen Music Library and in Special Collections, Strozier Library
Manuscript/papers collections in Allen Music Library

America's Historical Newspapers, 1690–1922 This link opens in a new window
Think reception history!
Abbreviation: eana
Vendor: NewsBank
Coverage: 1690-1922
Subjects: Communication, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
Offers full-page-images and article images from the New York Times newspaper from its first issue in 1851 to three years before the current date. This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand primary source accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Abbreviation: nythist
Vendor: ProQuest
Coverage: 1850-Current - 3 years
Subjects: History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life This link opens in a new window
One of the darker chapters in American history and one of the lesser discussed events of World War II was the forced internment, during the war, of an important segment of the American population-persons of Japanese descent. This collection, consisting of 25 individual titles, documents life in the internment camps.
Abbreviation: jarc
Vendor: Gale
Coverage: 1942-1945
Subjects: Asian Studies, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials.
Abbreviation: nawomens
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Coverage: Colonial times to 1950
Subjects: History, Literature, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Datasets / Statistics, Directories, Historical / Primary Sources, Images

Geeky Librarian Tools

A few of my favorites...

The Library of Congress Authority File
Where you can see how many spelling variations exist for Mussorgsky. More importantly, this often includes a person's birth/death dates, and what resources were used for confirmation.
Musicians Necrology
Yeah, it means list of dead people. But if you need to verify if Elliott Carter's still alive (bad old musicologist's joke, as he died in 2012 at 103) or another musician active in the past 50 years, go here. Information updated daily, and includes wonderful references. (so what if the gif links are wonky; do a mouse-over and you'll see which letter to click in the lower toolbar of your browser)
Find a Grave
Continuing the theme of verifying dates. One of my favorites: Estelle Getty

Music in the US II

Music Quick Links

Head, Warren D. Allen Music Library

How can you find what you don't know about?

Geeky Librarian Tools