Manuscript Resources on The History of Music, Drama, and Other Performing Arts
This guide describes manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections that document performing arts history. Most of the collections relate to music, with smaller numbers dealing with theater, and a few dealing with dance. Geographically, most of the collections center around Louisiana, with many reflecting the rich cultural history of New Orleans and its diverse French and American cultural streams. Baton Rouge and other cities and towns are documented to a lesser degree. The cultural life of rural Louisiana is reflected in plantation collections containing sheet music, playbills, and other evidence of cultural activity.
The collections include papers of music and drama teachers, composers and writers, and performers. They also contain papers of those who sat in the audiences of musical and other performances and commented on them in letters and diaries, or compiled collections of programs and other ephemera dealing with the performances they witnessed. Finally, they contain papers of researchers who wrote about music and theater history.
Though extensive, the resources listed in this guide form a small part of the totality of materials documenting performing arts history in LSU's Special Collections. An exhaustive search of available inventories of manuscript collections would turn up additional important documentation. The Rare Book Collections contain a wide variety of relevant imprints, and include an extensive database of uncataloged sheet music. Similarly, the Louisiana Collection contains additional imprints on the performing arts, specifically related to Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley. A folder containing several music history finding aids in addition to this one is available at the Special Collections reference desk.
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Work Projects Administration. Ex-Slave Narrative Project, 1937-1941, undated 39 items [photocopies]. Location: W:11. Narratives based on interviews with ex-slaves in the Alexandria and New Orleans areas pertain to slave life; post-emancipation black life; and black folklore, religion, and music. Originals in Louisiana State Library, Baton Rouge. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2858. |
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Works Projects Administration. Federal Theatre and Federal Music Projects Programs, 1938. 4 items. Location: E:Imprints. Playhouse of the Federal Theatre, New Orleans. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1980. Referenced in Guides: Performing arts, New Orleans 1866-
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Wurtele, Mildred Orkney. Scrapbook, 1910-1912. 1 ms. vol. Location: M:18. 'A Theatre-Goer's Record' of entertainment in Chicago and New Orleans. Scrapbook contains clipped programs for plays, operas, ballets, concerts, vaudeville, and motion pictures, lengthy comments by Wurtele, and photographs of the artists. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2306. |
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Wynne, Michael D. Collection, 1826-1976. 6 linear ft., 13 volumes. Location: W:34-35; P:19; 5:31-32, 43; VAULT MRDF 6; VAULT:1, 25; OS:W. Resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, and collector of historical materials on south Louisiana history and culture. Collection includes papers of planters, Civil War soldiers, politicians, and professionals. It contains letters, Confederate currency, sheet music, photographs, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks documenting New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and surrounding parishes. Also included are papers of the Mayer Brass Band of Opelousas, Louisiana (1892-1909). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3053. Referenced in Guides: Politics, Plantations, Performing arts, New Orleans in the Civil War, New Orleans 1866-, Civil War, Baton Rouge, 20th Century Wars
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Yarbrough, Cornelia. Papers, 1963-2004 (bulk 1973-2004). 5 linear feet. Location: 8:66-68. Professional papers of Cornelia Yarbrough, professor of music education and researcher at Louisiana State University. Papers include academic and literary correspondence, research, writings, printed materials and audio recordings. In addition to writings and research, most materials are the product of Yarbrough's time spent in music education at Syracuse University and Louisiana State University. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4921. |