Announcement of New Collection from National Digital Library

[danna bell-russel]

Attached is an announcement of a new collection from the National
Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress.  Our apologies for
any duplication as this message is being sent to a number of lists.
Please send questions to ndlpcoll at loc.gov

With a gift from Ameritech, for the past three years, the Library of
Congress has sponsored a competition to enable public, research, and
academic libraries, museums, historical societies, and archival
institutions (except federal institutions) to create digital collections

of primary resources.  These digital collections will complement and
enhance the collections of the National Digital Library Program at the
Library of Congress. It is with pleasure that the Library announces the
latest collection to be released as a part of the LC/Ameritech National
Digital Library Competition: Historic American Sheet Music: 1850-1920,”
a project undertaken by The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special
Collections Library at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

This collection can be found at the following URL:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncdhtml/hasmhome.html

The Historic American Sheet Music collection presents more than 3,000
pieces of historic American sheet music from the period between
1850-1920. Drawn from a collection of 18,000 titles from the Rare Book,
Manuscript and Special Collections Library at Duke University, this
selection will present a significant perspective on American history and

culture. The sheet music chosen for digital reproduction represents a
wide variety of musical types including bel canto, minstrel songs,
protest songs, patriotic and political songs, plantation songs, Civil
War battle songs, spirituals, songs from vaudeville and early musicals,
"tin pan alley" songs, and songs from World War I. The collection is
particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, Confederate imprints,
and Civil war songs. Also included is piano music of marches,
variations, opera excerpts, and dance music, including waltzes,
quadrilles, polkas, etc. In addition, some of this sheet music is
illustrated. Sheet music illustrations represent an important, and in
some cases almost unique, source of information for popular contemporary

ideas on politics, patriotism, race, religion, love, and sentiment. An
examination of sheet music reveals something of the inner life of the
American citizenry in a way distinguishable from diaries and newspaper
accounts, while also more intimate than the historian's descriptive
synthesis.

For additional information about this project please visit the page
announcing Duke's award which can be found at
http://memory.loc.gov:8081/ammem/award/97award/duke.html

For information about the LC/Ameritech competition please visit the
competition home page which can be found at
http://memory.loc.gov:8081/ammem/award/index.html