Library of Congress's Blog, page 115

Oz Squared, Cowboy Pop, Ziggy, Gospel and Pie

This year’s National Recording Registry is a sonic smörgåsbord– quite a lot to choose from, and all of it audibly appetizing. The 25 selections being preserved by the Library of Congress based on their cultural, historic or aesthetic value include two takes on “The Wizard of Oz,” in the form of Judy Garland’s version of “Over the Rainbow” from the 1939 movie and the entire soundtrack of the 1975 original Broadway cast version of “The Wiz,” the urbane African-American take on the tale.

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Lots of people recorded “Over the Rainbow,” but Judy owned it. Courtesy MGM

There’s ethereal beauty, from opera soprano Renee Fleming’s album “Signatures” featuring arias such as “Dove sono e bei momenti” from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” to Judy Collins’ goosebump-inducing version of “Amazing Grace” from her 1970 album “Whales and Nightingales.”

There’s soul – “In the Midnight Hour” by Wilson Pickett; disco, via “We are Family” by Sister Sledge (rest in peace, Sister Joni); rap, in “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A.

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Richard Pryor “Wanted-Richard Pryor” album cover. Courtesy Warner Bros.

And there’s “Ziggy Stardust” by the late, icon-breaking David Bowie and “Wanted:” by the late, side-splitting Richard Pryor. Also “People,” by the early Barbra Streisand, whose amazing career is nearing its sixth decade.

There’s western-influenced music, from “Their Greatest Hits” by The Eagles to Marty Robbin’s “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs,” featuring that ultimate earworm, “El Paso.” (Years ago, when I worked in the Lansing bureau of Associated Press, we had a technical problem that forced us to send our copy by phone lines out of Michigan to El Paso, Texas and back into the state to our member papers in Michigan. A song parody emerged: “Out in the west Texas town of El Paso/Michigan copy was clearing the wire/Suddenly circuits snapped loose like a lasso/zapping reporters and starting a fire …”)

There’s gospel— another two-versions recognition, with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the “Black National Anthem,” by the Manhattan Harmony Four (1923) and a more recent version recorded by Melba Moore in 1990 backed by Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, Dionne Warwick and Bobby Brown, in an attempt to reacquaint young African Americans with this historic and beloved song. The registry also recognizes the 1948 recording of “I’ll Fly Away” by the Chuck Wagon Gang.

Also history (the 1888 London cylinder recordings of Col. George Gouraud, a pal of Thomas Edison and the Vin Scully broadcast of the 1957 last game at the Polo Grounds between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants) and more Broadway, with Irving Berlin’s inimitable “Puttin’ On the Ritz” as sung by Harry Richman in 1929.

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Talking Heads, “Remain In Light” album cover. Courtesy Sire Records

There’s the song everyone knows the words to, perhaps better than they know the words to the U.S. national anthem: Don McLean’s “American Pie.” And an album you may know the words to, even if you don’t quite get the free-verse way they hang together: “Remain in Light” by Talking Heads, which includes the singles “Once in a Lifetime” and “Houses in Motion.” (“And as we watch him/ Digging his own grave/ It is important to know / That was where he’s at. / He can’t afford to stop / That is what he believe./ And he’ll keep digging/ for a thousand years.”)

The National Recording Registry will begin taking nominations for next year’s selections right away, however, so if you have a song or album at least 10 years old that you particularly dig, you can nominate it here.

Before Jackie Put the White House on TV, Mrs. Hoover Made Home Movies

This is a guest post by Stephen Leggett, a program coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board for the Library of Congress.

On the eve of the Great Depression, there were movies, but they were as devoid of brilliant hues as the economy was about to be. But even as those dark clouds moved in, a technological breakthrough captured a priceless record of the Hoover-era White House, in color: seven reels of home movies taken by then-first lady Lou Hoover.

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Film clip of Mrs. Hoover in the White House Rose Garden. Courtesy of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

Those movies, shot with a 16mm camera using the now-obsolete Kodacolor process, have been preserved by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, with a $5,600 federal grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Library of Congress’ advisory body, the National Film Preservation Board. The nonprofit NFPB has a mandate from Congress to provide national leadership in the field of film preservation.

As chronicled in a March 22 article, this archived footage—preserved with grant funding provided by Congress—is believed to be the earliest color footage of the White House grounds. The exciting discovery of these films highlights once more the critical need for our nation to preserve its richly diverse moving-image heritage, so future generations may enjoy and study these works as a cultural record.

Since its inception in 1996, the foundation has raised $14 million, supplemented that sum with $7 million in federal funds from the Library and made that pool available as grants and preservation support to 284 institutions in all 50 states, saving 2,287 films. The NFPF receives federal money through the Library of Congress to distribute as grants, but raises operating and project funding from other sources.

View brief excerpts below of the newly discovered film footage. Courtesy of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

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Celebrating Women’s History: Women on the March

Hundreds of thousands of women marched on Washington, D.C., on inaugural weekend this year to voice their concerns about an array of issues. News outlets nationwide and overseas reported a massive turnout that exceeded all expectations. Crowd size aside, the march was not without precedent. More than a hundred years earlier, American women organized a march on Washington to coincide with a presidential inauguration.

On March 3, 1913, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, the National American Woman Suffrage Association sponsored a procession to support enactment of a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

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Official program for the March 1913 suffrage procession.

“We march today to give evidence to the world of our determination that this simple act of justice shall be done,” the official program stated. “We march that the world may realize that, save in six states, the newly-elected President has been chosen by only one-half of the people.” At the time, only six states enfranchised women.

The marchers rushed to organize in time for President Wilson’s inauguration because they knew press would be in town for the event. “We talk about how quickly the women’s march this past January got organized,” says Janice Ruth, assistant chief of the Manuscript Division, where many papers related to women’s suffrage reside. “Think about . . . December 1912, no Internet, not many people with telephones, and they were able to get the word out and assemble in Washington.” Between 5,000 and 8,000 women participated.

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Crowd shot on Pennsylvania Avenue looking toward the Capitol. Photo by G.V. Buck.

Lawyer Inez Milholland, the event’s “mounted herald,” led the procession astride a white horse, an image reflected on the cover of the official program. Behind her were groups of women organized by different categories, including occupation. Harriet Hifton of the Library of Congress Copyright Division led the librarians’ contingent.

The procession started out smoothly. But after a few blocks, the crowd began to encroach on the marchers, jeering, tripping and shoving the women. “Ambulances were making trips for six hours, taking women to the area hospitals,” Ruth says.

The women’s treatment by the onlookers resulted in indignation meetings across the country. A congressional inquiry was held, and the police superintendent for Washington, D.C., lost his job. “It certainly marked a shift in the American women’s suffrage movement at that point in time,” Ruth says. Before the march, suffrage organizers had been casting about for ways to reinvigorate support.

Within two weeks, marchers obtained an audience with President Wilson, and they had several more afterward. “Sadly,” however, “it took him about five years to come out publicly in support of women’s suffrage,” Ruth says. He did so in 1918.

Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, on June 4, 1919. It was ratified on August 18, 1920, and become law on August 26.

The Library of Congress holds many collections related to women’s suffrage, including the records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party, the Susan B. Anthony Collection and suffrage scrapbooks.

For a full recounting of the 1913 women’s march and links to additional materials, see “Marching for the Vote: Remembering the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913.”

Pic of the Week: Celebrating Women’s History Month at the Library

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, far right, shares a laugh on March 22 with, from left, Molly Smith of Arena Stage, Deborah Rutter of the Kennedy Center and Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden hosted a conversation with three dynamic leaders in the arts on March 22 in celebration of Women’s History Month at the Library of Congress. Hayden, who is the first woman to serve as Librarian of Congress, spoke with Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Molly Smith, artistic director of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Hayden spoke with them about their life experiences and achievements and trends in the cultural community.

The event took place in the Members Room of the Thomas Jefferson Building and was streamed live. A recording is available on the Library’s YouTube site.

New Book: “Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps”

Designed to educate, amuse or advertise, pictorial maps were a clever and colorful component of print culture in the mid-20th century, often overlooked in studies of cartography. A new book published by the Library of Congress in association with the University of Chicago Press, “Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps,” by Stephen J. Hornsby, celebrates these vibrant maps, tracing their development and proliferation.

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Jacket design by Lauren Michelle Smith

Cartographers have long incorporated illustrations into their maps, drawing mountains, cities and even sea monsters on maps, looking back at some medieval examples. Hornsby demonstrates how 20th-century artists adapted this tradition, encouraged by improvements in print technology and inspired by trends in advertising, graphic design and popular culture.

More than 150 maps, most drawn from the Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division, are illustrated in six thematic chapters. “Maps to Amuse” includes satirical works like “A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America” (1935), while “Maps to Instruct” shows such maps as “A Pictorial Chart of American Literature” (1932), marking the residences of famous American authors. Regional tourism ads, World War II posters and maps of colonial America are just a few of the many types of maps encountered in this volume.

The New York Times calls the book “beautifully illustrated” and notes that it documents the golden age of pictorial maps from the 1920s to the 1970s. It includes the playful (distorted views of the country from the perspective of New Yorkers, Texans and Californians); the obscure (a map of volunteer fire departments in Philadelphia, circa 1792, commissioned and drawn in 1938); and more of the obscure (a map of Michigan bakeries).

“Picturing America” shows how midcentury mapmakers paired vivid illustrations with educational information, entrepreneurial spirit and humor to create lively pictorial maps that are as entertaining to today’s readers as they were to their original audiences.

Stephen J. Hornsby is director of the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine and a professor of geography and Canadian studies. He is the author and co-editor of several books, including the prize-winning “Historical Atlas of Maine.”

“Picturing America” is a 304-page hardcover book including more than 150 color illustrations. It is available for $45 in the Library of Congress Shop, 10 First St. SE, Washington, DC, 20540-4985. Credit-card orders are taken at (888) 682-3557 or online.

Bibliodiscotheque: Array of Events Planned to Celebrate Disco Culture

Today, the Library of Congress announced an exciting upcoming series: “Library of Congress Bibliodiscotheque.” Multiple events from April 12 through May 6 will explore disco culture, music, dance and fashion represented in the national collections.

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Gloria Gaynor. Courtesy Gloria Gaynor.

Disco’s influence on popular music and dance since the 1970s will be in focus through film screenings, performances, interviews and a symposium. You are welcome to experience the Library of Congress like never before with a diverse lineup of programs featuring appearances by disco icon Gloria Gaynor, whose “I Will Survive” is recognized in the National Recording Registry; fashion guru Tim Gunn; “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts; photographer Bill Bernstein; scholars Alice Echols and Martin Scherzinger; and legendary disco-ball maker Yolanda Baker.

Gloria Gaynor will be accompanied by her band for a performance in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building on May 6, followed by a late-night disco dance party presented in association with BrightestYoungThings and the District of Columbia Library Association.

All events are free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets will be released to the public via Eventbrite on Thursday, March 30, at 10:00 am (ET). If an event is listed as sold out, a limited number of patrons will have the opportunity to register for a waitlist (on the ticketing page).

For more information, contact (202) 707-5502 or concerts@loc.gov. Support free programming at the Library of Congress.[image error]

Inquiring Minds: Author Tells Story of Black Elite Through Library’s Daniel Murray

Daniel Murray, a pioneer in the black history movement, worked at the Library of Congress for 52 years, from 1871 to 1922. He began as special assistant to Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford, later serving as a librarian and a bibliographer of works by African-Americans.

In “The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era,” Elizabeth Dowling Taylor draws on Murray’s lived experiences to recount the story of the rise and disillusionment of the black elite in Washington, D.C. She is the bestselling author of “A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons” and a fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Taylor discussed “The Original Black Elite” at the Library of Congress on Feb. 14 in a “Books and Beyond” event cosponsored by the Center for the Book and the Daniel A. P. Murray Association. The event was part of the Library’s observance of African-American History Month. Her presentation can be viewed on C-SPAN. Here Taylor shares insights about the book, published in January, and her research at the Library.

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Elizabeth Dowling Taylor and Darren Jones and John Cole of the Library of Congress (fifth, sixth, and seventh from left in middle row) gather with descendants of Daniel Murray in the Great Hall on Feb. 14. following Taylor’s presentation. Photo courtesy of John Cole.

Your book follows the African-American elite in Washington, D.C., from Emancipation through Reconstruction to the Jim Crow era. What, briefly, is the story?

The larger narrative is the African-American experience over Daniel Murray’s lifetime (1851–1925)—the advance of prospects through Reconstruction and the subsequent betrayal at the hands of the government, which passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments but, in the name of reconciliation with the South, then abandoned the new citizens to renewed oppression by white supremacists. History is more meaningful and accessible when it is personalized, so the story unfolds through biography.

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Daniel Murray

Why did you want to tell this story?

This is a cautionary tale of rise and slide. All Americans need to understand that our freedoms, even those embedded in the U.S. Constitution, can be reversed. Rights won must be rights guarded. I focused on the black elite for two reasons. One was to underscore the heterogeneity of the African-American experience historically. For many, the existence of a black elite in the 19th century is a revelation. The other was to put the absurdity of white supremacy in highest relief. The rise of those in Daniel Murray’s circle was realized rather than potential. Its members attained high levels of education, achievement, culture and economic security. They were living proof that African-Americans did not lack the ability to become full contributors to American society.

How did you decide to tell the story through Daniel Murray?

Daniel Murray was a pioneer in the field of African-American history; a leader in the National Afro-American Council, the first national civil rights organization and forerunner of the NAACP; and a prominent member of Washington, D.C.,’s black elite. His compelling story deserves to be shared, and it neatly exemplifies the arc of the larger narrative on the rise and disillusionment of the black elite.

How did Library of Congress resources support your research?

Library historian John Cole, who was director of the Center for the Book at the time, encouraged me early on to pursue research on Daniel Murray. Murray’s papers were donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society by his last surviving son but were destroyed after being microfilmed. I worked from the copy of the 27 reels of microfilm held by the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress. Library staffers Jurretta Heckscher, Cheryl Fox and Adrienne Cannon were extremely helpful in bringing my attention to Library resources, including the miscellaneous personnel files on Murray from the Library of Congress archives.

Murray published a bibliography of African-American literature for the Paris Exposition of 1900. How did he come to do that and what was his goal?

In 1899, Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam approved a request from the organizers of the upcoming Paris Exposition to provide a bibliography of works by African-Americans and put Murray to the task. Murray took on the work with zeal and produced a preliminary list of black authors along with some of their books to be displayed in Paris. Once the exposition closed, he continued to grow his specialized bibliography. Murray had found not only a literary niche, but also an antidote to troubled race relations, believing that “the curse of prejudice is the hand-maid of ignorance.” He became the “go-to man” on all questions relating to black history as his reputation grew. No longer satisfied with bibliography and book collecting, Murray took on black history and biography. His goal eventually expanded to a monumental six-volume encyclopedia.

How was Murray’s work received in his lifetime?

Still laboring over his life’s work in retirement, Murray wrote, “I have not courted and do not now expect a place in the Temple of Fame, but shall be fully satisfied if thought worthy by those who may consult my work of the glorious distinction of admittance to the Temple of Truth.” Aware of Murray’s frail health, W.E.B. Du Bois pleaded with him to allow parts of his encyclopedia to be published in periodicals, but Murray refused to break up the six volumes. Murray died in 1925, never having found a publisher to underwrite his opus. It was Carter G. Woodson who would become known as the Father of Black History.

In 1897, Murray experienced a setback in his Library of Congress career. What happened and why?

Just two months after being named to helm the new Division of Periodicals, Murray was demoted and reassigned to his former position by newly appointed Librarian of Congress John Young. The reason given was “friction incident to caste.” Murray’s humiliation was exacerbated by a substantial drop in salary. He complained that his pay was now lower than that of others with similar duties. This injustice was ignored, and Murray’s salary never rose for the remainder of his tenure.

How did Murray respond to the backward trend in African-American rights and status?

When the rug was pulled out from under African-Americans with the premature abandonment of Reconstruction, the elite had only further to fall. Before the 1890s were over, black leaders attempted to block the slide away from full citizenship. Murray took on a leadership role on the executive committee of the National Afro-American Council and was appointed director of its Legal and Legislative Bureau. The bureau lobbied Congress to pass antilynching and anti-Jim Crow laws, and it laid the groundwork for a constitutional test case challenging disenfranchisement of black voters.

World War I: Norvel Preston Clotfelter

(The following is a guest post by Rachel Telford, archivist with the Veterans History Project.)

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Norvel Preston Clotfelter. Veterans History Project.

In 1917, Norvel Preston Clotfelter’s life was upended when he was drafted into the United States Army. He postponed his wedding, left his job as a school teacher in Mazie, Okla., and began his service at Camp Travis, Texas; he would go on to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces in England and France. But one thing in Clotfelter’s life did not change – he had been keeping a diary since 1912, a habit he would maintain for 37 years – and the 17 months he spent in the Army were no exception. His family recently donated his original wartime diary to the Veterans History Project (VHP), so that his account of his service will be preserved at the Library of Congress for future generations.

As he served in France with the 357th Infantry Regiment, Clotfelter noted his unit’s movements, the weather, commented on the food and briefly described his duties. On Aug. 25, 1918, he was sent to the front lines, noting, “Some of the boys seem to be scared. Others don’t mind it. My first night didn’t bother me at all.” The next night, he is less blasé about his situation, writing “Most of the boys seem to have enough war already. I am one of them.”

On Oct. 13, 1918, Clotfelter began hearing rumors of an armistice, but the rumors proved false, and he would soon learn that the worst was yet to come. On Oct. 27 he writes, “Fine day but we did not enjoy it much. … One shell wounded three this evening. Have dysentery & fever. Am so weak I can hardly get around. Irregular meals, dead horses, bad water, insufficient covering & constant nerve tension are enough to kill anyone.”

As the war dragged on, Clotfelter continued to suffer ill health, lack of food and German attacks, until respite came in an unlikely form – the Spanish Flu. Though it would claim the lives of an estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for World War I, the Spanish Flu pandemic secured Clotfelter a path away from the front lines. On November 6, he and 20 other men hiked three miles in order to meet their transport to the 359th Field Hospital at Sivry-la-Perche. There, he notes he was “put into influenza ward… Heavy blankets & good eats. Good place to rest.”

As Clotfelter recuperated in the hospital, he once again heard talk of an armistice, and on Nov. 11, 1918, he and his fellow patients listened as heavy artillery barrages ceased at exactly 11 a.m. Clotfelter was honorably discharged from the Army in February 1919 and returned to Mazie, where he married his sweetheart and resumed his job a school teacher.

Do you have original WWI material that you would like to see preserved at the Library of Congress? Please consider donating it to the Veterans History Project! Visit the Veterans History Project website to find out how.

World War I Centennial, 2017-2018: With the most comprehensive collection of multi-format World War I holdings in the nation, the Library of Congress is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about The Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

Literacy: You’ve Got Ten Days Left!

(The following is a guest post by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer in the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.)

There is still time to get your application in for a Library of Congress Literacy Award. The deadline is midnight EDT on March 31.

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Literacy Awards benefactor David Rubenstein interviews 2016 award winners Allister Chang of Libraries Without Borders, Sarah Walzer of the Parent-Child Home Program and Noel Gunther of WETA Reading Rockets on October 27, 2016. Photo by Shawn Miller.

By spending just a few hours to fill out the application (and obtain the necessary letters of recommendation), the payoff can be great: an award of either $150,000 or $50,000 or recognition by the Library of Congress as a “best practices” practitioner.

If you are an organization doing great things in reading and literacy promotion, or know of an organization worthy of recognition, please send us an application. Our Literacy Awards advisory board will carefully review and consider your application.

So far, the Literacy Awards program has given more than $1 million to extraordinary literacy organizations in the United States and around the world. With the help of these awards, organizations large and small are making an important difference in increasing global literacy rates.

You can learn more about the work of past winners by reviewing our best practices publications for the past four years. You will also see a list of award winners for 2013 through 2016. The application, an FAQ and other relevant details are available here.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress administers these awards, which were created and are supported by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who also supports many other Library initiatives, including its annual National Book Festival, now in its 17th year, to take place this Sept. 2.

Women’s History Month: Library to Live Stream Talk with Arts Leaders

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will host a discussion at noon on March 22 with three dynamic leaders in the arts in celebration of Women’s History Month at the Library of Congress. The event will be streamed live on the Library’s Facebook page and its YouTube site. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter and #WomensHistory.

“In Conversation with the Librarian of Congress: Leaders in the Arts, a Celebration of Women’s History Month” will feature Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Molly Smith, artistic director of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Hayden, the first woman to serve as Librarian of Congress, will speak with these leaders about their life experiences and achievements and trends in the cultural community.

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Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008. Her tenure as the BSO’s music director has garnered national and international attention for her innovative programming and artistry. In 2005, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first and only conductor ever to receive this award. In the same year, she won the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist. She was also the first artist to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor’s Award in the same year (2003). She makes regular guest conducting appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Deborah Rutter is the artistic and administrative director of the world’s busiest performing arts center. She manages all facets of the facility, including expansive theater, contemporary dance, ballet, chamber music and jazz seasons, as well as affiliates the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera and offerings in Hip Hop and contemporary music and comedy. The center encompasses one of the nation’s largest arts education programs, reaching millions of people of all ages each year, and includes VSA, the international organization on arts and disability. She became president of the Kennedy Center on Sept. 1, 2014, the third person to serve in this capacity. Prior to her work at the Kennedy Center, she served as president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association from 2003 through 2014 and as executive director of the Seattle Symphony from 1992 through 2003.

Molly Smith has served as artistic director at Arena Stage since 1998. Her more than 30 directing credits at Arena Stage include “Carousel,” “Oliver!,” “The Originalist,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Camp David,” “Mother Courage and Her Children,” “Oklahoma!,” “A Moon for the Misbegotten” and “My Fair Lady.” She most recently directed “Our Town” at Canada’s Shaw Festival. Her directorial work has also been seen at The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, Montreal’s Centaur Theatre and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979 to 1998. She has been a leader in new play development for more than 30 years. She led the reinvention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway.