Library of Congress's Blog, page 144

Library in the News: June 2015 Edition

 

In June, the Library of Congress issued two major announcements that made headlines nationwide: the appointment of a new Poet Laureate and the retirement of the current Librarian of Congress.

After nearly three decades of service, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced his retirement effective January 2016.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were among many members of Congress who expressed appreciation for Billington and his work.

“No one is held is higher esteem on Capitol Hill than James H. Billington,” said Boehner. “As kind as he is brilliant, Dr. Billington has revolutionized the Library of Congress and the American people’s relationship with it.”

“Dr. James Hadley Billington’s unwavering commitment to scholarship helped steer the Library of Congress into the 21st century,” added Pelosi. “For Dr. Billington, the pursuit of knowledge has been a life-long endeavor that is both integral to enriching our nation’s democracy and engaging with people across the nation and around the world.”

“Billington was a scholar and an intellectual, and he positioned the library not just as a repository of information but also as a locus of debate and cultural exchange,” wrote Philip Kennicott for The Washington Post.

“Since Billington joined the library in 1987, the collection has nearly doubled in size to 160 million items,” said Brett Zongker in his story for the Associated Press. “Billington is credited with leading the library into the digital age, making research materials and legislative databases available online.”

While news of Billington’s successor will have to wait until next January, news of the appointment of Juan Felipe Herrera as the nation’s next poet laureate was received with much acclaim.

“Mr. Herrera is a poet you’d like to hear declaim from the National Mall,” wrote Dwight Garner for the New York Times. “When he is on he is really on, in touch with his audience and in touch with democratic gifts. His senses are open toward the world and his bearing on the page is noble and entrancingly weird.”

“I’m here to encourage others to speak,” Herrera told The Washington Post. “To speak out and speak up and write with their voices and their family stories and their sense of humor and their deep concerns and their way of speaking their own languages. I want to encourage people to do that with this amazing medium called poetry.”

Herrera told the that he hopes to encourage more young Latino students to write and read and benefit from the Library of Congress’ resources.

In other news, the Library began welcoming educators participating in its Teaching With Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institutes. Regional outlets from New York, Michigan, Arizona and Mississippi, among others, announced local teachers who would be attending.

Rare Book of the Month: Redouté’s Royal Roses

(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.)

Frontispiece portrait of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, (1759-1840) from “Les Roses.” Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

When Pierre-Joseph Redouté put together his three-installment publication (1817-1824) “Les Roses” in Paris, he created a thing of great beauty as well as a scientific compendium on the botany of roses. Commissioned by the Empress Josephine, this work is a reflection of what was considered fashionable and visually appealing in royal circles at the time. Redouté was even the court artist for Marie Antoinette and other royalty.

Making use of an understanding of botany and a painterly eye, Redouté created a work that chronicles an interesting time in history – when art and science intersected to produce a work that was both educational and attractive.

Dutch in origin, Redouté (1759-1840) was a product of the Flemish school of still-life painting. This style required an eye trained and focused on depicting botanicals in what was considered their most true and beautiful form. Redouté conferred with the most learned of botanists of his day to accurately depict the various components of the rose. Botanical illustration strove to document in a photographic manner but through the lens of romantic notion. The results record gentle beauty in great detail.

Redouté used Empress Josephine’s own garden at Malmaison for inspiration to create “Les Roses,” and the result is more than 250 beautiful illustrations of a variety of roses. The Empress was an avid gardener and wished to transform Malmaison into a sanctuary for study of the rose, along with other flowering plants. She purchased countless rose varieties and contributed to the popularity of the rose, as well as to the propagation of varieties of roses that make up many roses gardens to this day.

Rose illustration from “Les Roses”: Rosa Gallica Officinalis. Rosier de Provins ordinaire. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

When Redouté was finished with his rose watercolors, he had the paintings transferred into engravings. In all, 170 prints were produced, accompanied by the commentary of botanist Antoine-Claude Thory, who attempted to describe the genus and variety of all roses contained in the work.

“Les Roses” is still referenced to identify-lesser known antique varieties of roses, as it is nearly exhaustive in its catalogue. However, “Les Roses” is primarily lauded as one of the masterpieces of botanical illustration. The beauty, delicacy and accuracy of each flower portrayed is unsurpassed by any other botanical illustrator.

“Les Roses” was quite expensive to produce and because of this, not many copies were made. Only the very wealthy would have the means to acquire a copy of the work. Thanks to the collector Lessing J. Rosenwald, the Library of Congress has a copy of this incredible work to offer. “Les Roses” has been fully digitized and is available for all to appreciate. Like the rose itself, it is not only for the eye of aristocracy but is available to all who wish to behold the visions of beauty that Redouté created.

Rose illustration for “Les Roses”: Rosa Sulfurea. Rosier jaune de souffre. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

The Library offers several resources related to botany and botany illustration through the Science, Technology and Business Division, including selected Internet resources on the topic of botany, Economic Botany: Useful Plants and Products, Plant Exploration and Introduction and this video on plant hunters.

The Library’s collection of Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry (1888-1897) offers digital copies of a weekly periodical. In total, the full 10-volume run of Garden and Forest contains approximately 8,400 pages, including more than 1,000 illustrations and 2,000 pages of advertisements.

To preview a listing of some the Library’s other images of botanical illustration, search for “botanical illustration.” Many of the supplied images are from the Prints and Photographs Division and are of individual prints or were captured from pages of books on the topic of botany.

(Every month, the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division will highlight a unique book from its collections, and the Library of Congress blog will take an in-depth look at the historical volume. Make sure to check back again next month!)

Letters About Literature: Dear Wendelin Van Draanen

Letters About Literature, a national reading and writing program that asks young people in grades 4 through 12 to write to an author (living or deceased) about how his or her book affected their lives, announced its 2015 winners today.

More than 50,000 young readers from across the country participated in this year’s initiative funded by a grant from the Library’s James Madison Council with additional support from the Library’s Center for the Book. Since 1997, more than a million students have participated.

The top letters in each competition level for each state were chosen. Then, national and national honor winners were chosen from each of the three competition levels: Level 1 (grades 4-6), Level 2 (grades 7-8) and Level 3 (grades 9-12). For the next few weeks, we’ll post some of the winning letters. This year’s winners are from all parts of the country and wrote to authors as diverse as Sandra Pinkney, Walter Isaacson, Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman.

The following is the Level 1 national prize-winning letter written by Gerel Sanzhikov of New Jersey to Wendelin Van Draanen, author of “The Running Dream.”

Dear Wendelin Van Draanen,

I have never lost a leg. I was not born with cerebral palsy. I do not use a wheelchair. I do not have speech problems. But I have lost the one thing I loved the most. My family is made up of my dad, my two grandmothers, my sister, and me. Where is my mom? Look above you. She has landed among the stars.

My mom fought for two years in the battle of cancer. We lost her in September of 2012. I remember when my mom was first diagnosed; she started losing her hair a couple strands at a time. Next thing you know, she was almost bald. Jessica and my mom both lost something important. Out of nowhere, Jessica lost her leg in a car accident. My mom lost most of her hair. They both lost some of their pride. Life is funny, you know? Like at first, your life is going perfect and you have everything you could wish for, and just like that . . . it’s gone. Everything is ripped apart. Simply just . . . gone.

I was heartbroken. My mom looked miserable. I could not stand seeing her suffer like that. She needed countless doses of medicine and weekly chemo therapies. She went through the same cycle for two years. But on a beautiful sunny afternoon, she grew wings. She was an angel in heaven and she was flying in the sky. I was downcast but also happy she was free from suffering. Before I read your book, I never thought I could be joyful again.

But then I read it. I have realized that I am not the only one who has this problem. As I was reading “The Running Dream,” I saw how difficult it was for Jessica to adjust to such a dramatic change and I could relate. Jessica needed to use a prosthetic leg and learn how to walk with crutches. I needed to embrace the fact that my mom was in a better place. Reading your book gave me a different perspective on things. I thought I would never be happy again, but when I read how Jessica got her running leg and practiced running little by little, I realized that I could jump back on track too. When her teacher showed her the YouTube video of the running amputee, she thought, “Maybe I can run again.” And so did I.

I could not put your book down as I was reading. One of the reasons I fell in love with it is because it is so inspiring. You would never think that a girl like Jessica – popular, pretty, and perfect – would become friends with a girl like Rosa – who had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. I love how your novel showed that anything is possible if you believe and try. Jessica and Rosa developed a bond that will never break.

Your book moved me in a way that no book has ever done before – it gave me hope. By reading “The Running Dream,” I have learned many things. I have always wondered why I was never happy, besides the fact that my mom had passed. But then it hit me. If I spent the rest of my life focusing on all the negative elements, I would never be able to enjoy all the little things that make up a good life.

Your book also taught me that when life knocks you down, you just need to pick yourself up and keep on moving. When Jessica lost her leg, it did not stop her from pursuing her dream. And I am not going to spend the rest of my life feeling sorry for myself. I will live life to the fullest and live like there is no tomorrow.

During the two years that my mom has not been here, I have realized that only one thing has kept my life together, and that is hope. So thank you. Thank you for giving me that. I know that the life I live is not perfection, but it is enough for now. One of the most important things I have learned is that life is a big stinking blob of mess, but that’s the glory of it too.

Gerel Sanzhikov

You can read all the winning letters here, including the winning letters from previous years.

Under the Boardwalk

Panorama of beach and boardwalk from pier, Atlantic City. 1897. Prints and Photographs Division.

The travel and tourism industry owes itself to many historical “firsts.” In 1782, Scottish engineer James Watt invented the first steam engine able to turn wheels. On May 10, 1869, the completion of the first transcontinental railroad was commemorated with the driving of a “golden spike.” In 1794, the City Hotel opened in New York City, making it the very first building in America specially built for the purpose of being a hotel. In 1900, the first cruise ship, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, was built. DELAG, the world’s first airline, was founded on Nov. 16, 1909.

And on this day in history – June 26, 1870 – the very first section of the Atlantic City boardwalk opened along the Jersey Shore. Located on Absecon Island, the boardwalk was also America’s first.

Steel Pier, Atlantic City, N.J. Between 1910 and 1920. Prints and Photographs Division.

Dr. Jonathan Pitney, who thought the island would be a good spot for a health resort, first developed the area in the 1850s. With the help of civil engineer Richard Osborne, the construction of the Camden-Atlantic City Railroad began, and on July 5, 1854, the first tourism train arrived from New Jersey.

Because encroaching sand was a problem, a local railroad conductor and hotel owner petitioned the city council asking that a mile-long footwalk be established. The city used its tax revenues to build an eight-foot-wide temporary wooden walkway from the beach into town that could be dismantled during the winter. In 1880, the boardwalk was replaced by a larger version. More than a decade later, Steel Pier was added, which included a large amusement park.

 

To get an idea of what sunbathing was like during the early days of the Atlantic City boardwalk, check out this video from 1901 filmed by Thomas Edison.

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Neptune (Hudson Maxim), Miss America (Margaret Gorman) at Atlantic City Carnival, Sept. 7, 1922. Photo by Bain News Service. Prints and Photographs Division.

These historic images from the Detroit Publishing Company also give a good idea of the boardwalk and beaches around the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As a way to keep tourists around past Labor Day, the Atlantic City Pageant debuted in 1921 and featured bathing beauties vying for the Golden Mermaid trophy. Miss Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C. won the first title. From this contest the Miss America pageant was born.

During Prohibition, Atlantic City was a hotbed of activity, with bootleg booze, gambling and other vices appealing to the revelers of the city.

In the 50s and 60s, the boardwalk was popular with stars of stage and screen, including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, to name a few.

Atlantic City. Photo by Carol Highsmith, between 1980 and 2006. Prints and Photographs Division.

Today, the Atlantic City boardwalk is known for its casinos, the first of which opened in 1978. And, the Jersey Shore remains a popular destination for locals and East Coast residents.

Travel and tourism are well documented in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. The Panoramic Photograph Collection features many images of travel destinations such as amusement parks, beaches, fairs, hotels and resorts.

The Library also has Pinterest boards featuring images of travel and summer fun.

Sources: USA Today, NY Daily News

 

The Hero of Two Worlds

 

The Marquis de Lafayette. Chromolithograph by P.S. Duval, 1851. Prints and Photographs Division.

The “hero of two worlds” – as the Marquis de Lafayette has been called – has recently been in the news. A replica of the 18th century French frigate that ferried him to America on his most important mission has been making the rounds of the East Coast, on a journey to commemorate the historic relationship between the United States and France. In 1780, the Hermione (pronounced Hair-me-OWN) brought Lafayette to America with news that the French would be supporting the revolutionary cause with money and troops.

This trip was actually Lafayette’s second voyage to America. He first arrived on these shores in 1777, at only 19, to join the Continental Army. He purchased his own ship to make the trip because King Louis XVI forbade him to come.

“He came to America to re-invent himself,” said Laura Auricchio, who was at the Library last Tuesday discussing her new biography on the Marquis. “At Versailles, he was an awkward provincial, unsuited for the life of a courtier. The life he envisioned for himself was a life of military glory.”

The First meeting of Washington and Lafayette, Philadelphia, Aug. 3rd, 1777 . Lithograph by Currier & Ives, c1876. Prints and Photographs Division.

Auricchio did much of her book research at the Library, which holds the microfilm papers of the Marquis de Lafayette. (This article from a 1995 issue of the Library of Congress Information Bulletin offers more insight into the scope and contents of Lafayette’s papers.)

Lafayette was commissioned a major general by Congress, having never fought in battle. According to Auricchio, George Washington thought the title honorary and was uncertain about placing the French nobleman in battle. However, the two men bonded almost immediately – Washington was impressed with Lafayette’s enthusiasm.

Lafayette proved his mettle in the Battle of Brandywine by rallying the troops during the American retreat, all while suffering from a wound in the leg. He was awarded the command of an actual army division following his recuperation.

“Lafayette became the living embodiment of the French-American alliance,” said Auricchio. “Washington was so impressed he took him under his wing.”

Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge. Painting by John Ward Dunsmore, c1907. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Marquis stayed at Washington’s side in Valley Forge the winter of 1777-78. In these two letters from the Library’s collection of George Washington’s papers dated  and , Lafayette discusses military strategy with Washington, as they prepare their departure from camp.

In the June 17 letter, Lafayette writes, “An enterprise against Philadelphia, if successful, would be of an infinite and glorious advantage,” although he goes on the express concern of being discovered by the enemy. Two days later, the Continental Army retook Philadelphia following the departure of the British troops.

Lafayette returned to France in 1779 following campaigns in Barren Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island. He had hoped to return to America as head of the French forces. While that distinction was ultimately given to Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau (whose papers are also part of the Library’s collections), Lafayette returned to America in 1780 with Rochambeau and French troops and resumed his position as major general of American forces.

Washington before Yorktown, with the Marquis de Lafayette to the immediate right. Painting by Rembrandt Peale. Prints and Photographs Division.

Lafayette’s forces played a major part in the Virginia campaign and siege of Yorktown in 1781. The Hermione was also part of the blockade that helped lead to the British surrender.

Included in the Library’s map collection are six rare manuscript maps drawn by Michel Capitaine du Chesnoy, the skilled cartographer who served as the Marquis de Lafayette’s aide-de-camp during the American Revolutionary War. As a group, the maps document major aspects of Lafayette’s activities while serving as a volunteer in the Continental Army directly under Washington’s command.

Beautifully drawn, hand colored, and in pristine condition, the Library’s collection includes a detailed map of the Virginia Campaign, dated 1781; two plans of the 1778 military activities in and around Newport, Rhode Island (here and here); a plan of the retreat from Barren Hill in Pennsylvania, 1778; a map of the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, 1778; and a map showing troop movements between the battles of Ticonderoga and Saratoga in New York, ca. 1777.

Map showing British, American and French forces at Yorktown. 1781. Geography and Map Division.

The large map of Virginia is considered to be one of the most important examples of Revolutionary War cartography. It documents the many skirmishes and military engagements that took place in 1781 on the long road to victory at Yorktown.

The Library is also home to the Rochambeau Map Collection, which contains cartographic items used by the commander in chief of the French expeditionary army (1780-82) during the American Revolution.

Shortly after the British defeat at Yorktown, the Marquis returned to France. He wouldn’t make another trip to America until 1824, and he never saw Washington again. For the remainder of his life he was an ardent friend and supporter of the United States. You can read more correspondence in Washington’s papers by searching for “Lafayette.” You can also read congressional documents pertaining to the Marquis in the Library’s collection of U.S. congressional documents and debates.

Hermione replica at Mt. Vernon. Photo by Sara Walker, June 2015.

When Lafayette passed away on May 20, 1834, Congress passed a  to honor “the friend of the United States, the friend of Washington and the friend of liberty.” Both houses of Congress were “dressed in mourning for the residue of the session,” members wore mourning badges for 30 days (and it was recommended that the American people do the same), and it was requested that John Adams give an oration on the life and character of Lafayette at the next session.

 

Celebrating Juneteenth

Emancipation Proclamation. Lithograph by L. Lipman, Milwaukee, Wisc., Feb. 26, 1864. Prints and Photographs Division.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

On June 19, 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger led Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s edict had little impact on the people of Texas, since there were few Union troops around at the time to enforce it. But, with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee in April 1865 and the arrival of Gen. Gordon Granger’s regiment in Galveston, troops were finally strong enough to enforce the executive order. Newly freed men rejoiced, originating the annual “Juneteenth” celebration, which commemorates the freeing of the slaves in Texas.

Although Juneteenth has been informally celebrated each year since 1865, it wasn’t until June 3, 1979, that Texas became the first state to proclaim Juneteenth an official state holiday.

The day of Jubelo. 1865. Prints and Photographs Division.

So, why the two-and-a-half year delay? According to Juneteenth.com, some possible explanations include a murdered messenger, the deliberate withholding of news by plantation owners, and that federal troops actually waited so that slave owners could benefit from one last cotton harvest.

The Library’s “Voices from the Days of Slavery” presentation contains several interviews with former Texas slaves.

The Library’s collections are particularly wealthy in resources regarding African-American history and slavery, including photographs, documents and sound recordings. This web guide is a good place to start.

You can also read more about Juneteenth in this blog post.

 

The Battle of Waterloo

Meeting of the generals Wellington and Blucher, after the conclusive Battle of Waterloo, at the farm La Belle Alliance. 1816. European Division.

(The following is a guest post from Taru Spiegel, reference specialist in the Library’s European Division.)

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the history-changing Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This engagement ended in the conclusive defeat of Napoleon and his French generals and was a costly victory for the Anglo-Dutch, Belgian and German forces. The expression “to meet one’s Waterloo,” or to face a final defeat, refers to this event.

Scholars have presented many reasons for the importance of this fight. Among others, it has been argued that a victory by Napoleon might have resulted in a much earlier united and liberal Europe.

Napoleon. Prints and Photographs Division.

Napoleon, the revolutionary turned Emperor of the French, was forced to abdicate in 1814 and was exiled after 23 years of warfare and conquest of Europe. However, he made a stunning comeback in 1815. The “dancing” Congress of Vienna (so called because of the lavish balls and social events that took place while the ambassadors of the European states were in the city to restore order after the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars), busily re-dividing Europe after Napoleon, had barely concluded business when the Battle of Waterloo was fought nine miles south of Brussels. Both sides incurred devastating losses. In the words of one of the victors, the Duke of Wellington, it was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

The Library of Congress has hundreds of works in several languages pertaining to or inspired by the Battle of Waterloo. These range from historical accounts to memoirs, novels, poems, photographic prints, music and maps.

One notable and generously illustrated work in the Library’s collections was published in 1816, a year after the battle. This early work on Waterloo by Jan Scharp, “Gedenkzuil van den Nederlandschen krijgsroem in Junij 1815″ (“Memorial column of the Netherlands military glory in June 1815″) is a depiction of the history of the battle from the Dutch-Belgian point of view. In the manner of the time, the book notes in detail the role of the Dutch royal family in the war effort and subsequent commemorations and the fact that the Prince of Orange himself was wounded in the battle.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange with his arm in a sling after being wounded in the battle of Waterloo.  1816. European Division.

The book was a gift to correspondent L. Boyer from Frederica Luise Wilhelmine, the Dowager Duchess of Braunschweig (aka Brunswijk or Brunswick), who was closely related to two of Napoleon’s adversaries, Prince Willem of the Netherlands and Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Braunschweig.

A variety of works on Napoleon himself can also be found in the Library’s collections, including music, photographic prints, books, manuscripts and this film from 1909 depicting various events in the life of the French leader, including Waterloo.

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And, if you are curious about how Napoleon handled mining rights in France – of importance because the French military needed large quantities of iron, lead and other resources while fighting in the Napoleonic Wars – you can learn more with this blog post from the Law Library of Congress.

It’s also important to note that the United States acquired Louisiana from France in 1803 during the time that Napoleon ruled. This presentation tells the story through a selection of materials in the Library.

Inquiring Minds: Music Scholar Uncovers Forgotten Songs from “My Fair Lady”

Dominic McHugh

The musical “My Fair Lady,” based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” has been praised as the “perfect musical” and is filled with some of the most recognized songs in American musical theater. The hit show opened on Broadway in 1956 and starred Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins. Harrison reprised his role in the 1964 film version that also starred Audrey Hepburn as Eliza.

Audiences, myself included, have delighted in the ambiguous relationship of Eliza and her Higgins and have happily sung along to such tunes as “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live.” The show included other songs that never saw the Broadway stage and thus a way into our hearts. Five songs were scrapped before rehearsals even began, with two more songs and a ballet sequence cut prior to the Broadway debut.

Dominic McHugh, lecturer in musicology at the University of Sheffield, uncovered the musical numbers while conducting research at the Library of Congress. Last month, the songs were performed for the first time in nearly 60 years during a concert he put on at Sheffield.

We caught up with him to talk about his discovery.

Tell me a little about yourself? What brought you to the Library of Congress for research?

I first came to the Library in October 2006 to begin my doctoral research on “My Fair Lady.” I was a PhD student at King’s College London from 2006 to 2009 and wrote a dissertation about the musical’s genesis and sources. Subsequently, I developed my thesis into a book, “Loverly: The Life and Times of ‘My Fair Lady,'” which was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. I’ve also used my research to write program notes for the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival, and I also spoke about it on a BBC TV documentary called “Michael Grade’s Stars of the Musical Theatre.”

This research led you to discover songs thought to be lost from the original performance of “My Fair Lady.” How did you make the discovery? What collections were you using? What was going through your mind when you found them?

I was so lucky from the start of my visit to the Library to have the help and guidance of the wonderful Mark Eden Horowitz [of the Library’s Music Division]. On the last day of my first visit, Mark showed me an inventory of the Warner-Chappell Collection, which came from the publisher of “My Fair Lady.” The collection is stored off-site, so I had to return in 2008 to look at it. It turned out to be 16 boxes containing the original band parts used by the players in the Broadway pit in 1956. But the most amazing materials were the handwritten scores by the dance arranger Trude Rittmann and the orchestrators Robert Russell Bennett, Phil Lang and Jack Mason. Rittmann’s scores showed the extent of her input into the show: she didn’t just arrange the dances but also wrote the routines for the overture, entr’acte, scene change music and reprises. It was also exciting to find a couple of scores in Frederick Loewe’s hand, including an intermediate version of “Why Can’t the English?” called simply “The English.”

Can you tell us about the musical numbers? 

The orchestrations for the three numbers [cut before the Broadway debut] were there: “Come to the Ball,” the “Decorating Eliza” ballet and “Say a Prayer for Me Tonight.” I’d always wondered what the ballet sounded like, so this was the most exciting discovery. I also came across several alternative orchestrations for “On the Street Where You Live,” the verse for which had to be revised during the tryouts because it wasn’t funny enough.

(Edit: It is also interesting to note that “Say a Prayer for Me Tonight” was finally heard by the public when Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe used the song for their musical “Gigi” a little later.)

Why were they dropped from the performance?

The three numbers were dropped because the show was simply too long. They formed a long sequence of perhaps 15 minutes in which Eliza returns from the ball, Higgins persuades her to go on with her lessons (“Come to the Ball”), she has more lessons (ballet) and then on the night of the ball she asks Mrs. Pearce to pray for her (“Say a Prayer for Me Tonight”). Lerner realized it could all be removed without affecting the show, and everyone felt the ballet was too cramped on the library set, so Lerner wrote a two-minute scene of dialogue instead. Loewe also wrote a completely different “Embassy Waltz,” which shows how much they worked on the final scenes of Act 1 during the tryouts.

Did you learn anything that you may previously not have known?

I hadn’t really appreciated how dark the ballet must have been until I saw the music. It was conceived as a nightmare and has music to fit! I also hadn’t realized that “Why Can’t the English” had caused so much trouble until I found various versions of it in the Warner-Chappell Collection, all of which dated from January 1956. They didn’t come to the final version until the very end of rehearsals.

How is finding them and reintroducing them significant to musical society/enthusiasts/scholars/educators?

As one of the most enduringly popular musicals of the 1950s, “My Fair Lady” remains of interest to a general audience to a greater extent than most of the other works written in that period. I decided to put on this concert with the cut material because it’s easy to take great works of art for granted, without appreciating how their apparent ease and fluency came about. Lerner and Loewe worked for several years on this musical, and it was a tough nut to crack. But it’s so famous that it’s almost a cliché that people dismiss without a second thought. So I felt that if we could look at some of the other material they wrote for the show – most of which is pretty good and all of which is interesting – it would help to illustrate the high level of self-criticism Lerner and Loewe had to exercise in order to get it right. Aside from all of that, I was dying to hear the ballet and the other cut numbers for which original orchestrations survived, and I was thrilled to finally get that opportunity. It was especially wonderful to share the experience with my students, who played in the orchestra. One of them, Matthew Malone, conducted and did a lot of restoration work on the orchestrations too, so it felt like scholarship in action.

You’ve conducted other research at the Library and produced publications on “My Fair Lady” and other American musicals. Why the interest there? 

The scholarly field of the American musical theater has considerably expanded in recent years, and I was lucky to enter it when it was just taking off. I had always loved musicals as a child, and not just in a casual way – I had all the Astaire-Rogers movies on video by the time I was 10 years old, for instance. As a teenager I then became obsessed with Italian opera, but while I was in high school I was musical director for quite a lot of shows, including “Kiss Me, Kate.” I read music at King’s College London, and in my third year I was lucky to attend a course on Broadway, taught by Professor Cliff Eisen. Cliff is a Mozart scholar, but he decided to introduce this course and I realized I already knew the entire repertoire and really loved it. As an adult I was able to appreciate its richness in a different way, so I abandoned my plans to do a PhD on Verdi and did “My Fair Lady” instead!

Can you tell us about other collections you’ve used? Any collections and/or items you’ve found most illuminating? Any other interesting discoveries?

By now I’ve looked at a large number of the musical theater collections in the Library. My favorite is the Richard Rodgers collection, because his sketches are extraordinary. He seems to have had an unprecedented ability to write out many of his songs almost fully formed. My heart is in the Lerner and Loewe collections. Their relationship is richly charted through Loewe’s manuscripts in particular, though I also love some of the correspondence in the Lerner collection, such as fan mail from Harold Arlen (composer of “The Wizard of Oz”). The Irving Berlin collection is great because he lived to be over 100 years old, and there’s some wonderful correspondence with Fred Astaire in it. They were great friends, and it’s fascinating to see how domestic their letters were.

I recently explored the Wright and Forrest collection, which I hope will form the basis of a future book project for me. They wrote hundreds of songs based on the music of classical composers, and I was stunned to find that they kept the published sheet music by those other composers, annotated with notes on how they were going to turn them into songs.

I also recently looked at the Hugh Martin papers – he was the composer of “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – and was impressed by how many songs he wrote for projects such as “Make a Wish” and “Look Ma, I’m Dancin,'” which weren’t particularly successful. In the Harold Rome collection I found a sketchbook for his musical “Fanny,” which indicated that he went and researched French folk songs before writing the score; to anyone who knows the show, that makes a lot of sense, and I was elated to find it. I should also mention the Cole Porter collection, which includes some brilliant sketches and manuscripts. At the moment I’m working on an edition of his letters, so I’ve spent some happy hours looking through this collection!

Why do you think it’s valuable for the Library to preserve such historical collections, and what do you think the public should know about the Library’s mission to collect and preserve our cultural and historical heritage?

At a time when public services are becoming more and more accountable, institutions such as the Library are an easy target for criticism. Why should money be poured into preserving bits of paper written on by dead people? But all the artists and other figures whose papers are held at the Library of Congress have created works of art that define what it means to be human: to be American or European, to be young or old, a man or woman, and so on. The arts and humanities represent our liberty – people have fought wars so that we can continue to live our lives with the freedom to be who we want to be, and that freedom is often best expressed through words, music songs or art. The American Musical Theater collections at the Library show this brilliantly, whether in the songs of Cole Porter, the music of Leonard Bernstein or the musicals of Howard Ashman. It doesn’t matter whether we all like the works of these writers. No price can be put on what they represent. America is lucky to have this unique library with its unparalleled collections, and I hope it continues to receive the support it deserves in preserving the country’s cultural heritage.

Book Festival Blogging

Crowd at 2014 National Book Festival held at the Washington Convention Center. Photo by Colena Turner.

Calling all readers, the new Library of Congress National Book Festival blog launched this week! It’s one of the many ways that we will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the nation’s premier celebration of books and reading.

This year’s festival will take place during Labor Day weekend on Saturday, September 5, 2015, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. A record 150 authors are scheduled to present in a range of pavilions including Children, Teens, Picture Books, Biography & Memoir, Contemporary Life, Food, Fiction, Graphic Novels, History, Mysteries & Science Fiction, Poetry & Prose, Science, Special Programs and few more yet to be announced.

The blog will be a way to keep you up to date on authors, activities and how you can take part. Already there are three blog posts up, including a Q&A with this year’s poster artist Peter de Sève as well a look back at all of the posters over the festival’s 15-year history.

We invite you to follow along on the festival blog, as well as we countdown to the summer’s biggest literary event!

Inquiring Minds: How a New Walt Whitman Poem was Found at the Library of Congress

(The following is a post written by Peter Armenti from the Poetry and Literature Center’s blog, From the Catbird Seat. Armenti spoke with a researcher who discovered a new Walt Whitman poem in the Library’s collections.)

Walt Whitman enthusiasts were treated to a surprise last December when news broke that Wendy Katz, an associate professor of art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had discovered a new poem by Whitman. The poem, titled “To Bryant, the Poet of Nature,” was uncovered by Katz in May 2014 as she examined penny press newspapers in the Library of Congress’s Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room while a Fellow in Residence at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Appearing on page 2 of the June 23, 1842, issue of the Democratic Republican New Era, the poem was found serendipitously by Katz while conducting research for a forthcoming art history book, “The Politics of Art Criticism in the Penny Press, 1833-1861.”

“To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature.” Democratic Republican New Era, June 23, 1832, page 2.

Dr. Katz, who split her time in Washington, D.C., conducting research at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Library of Congress was kind enough to discuss her discovery of the poem in an email exchange with me.

Whereas many recent discoveries of “lost” literary works are due to the increasing availability of keyword-searchable full-text databases that provide access to historical newspaper and periodical content, Dr. Katz found the Whitman poem through a more traditional method:

My typical day [at the Library] really was spent at one of the reading room tables, with foam supports, not browsing, but standing and methodically going through bound newspaper volumes. I would spend eight to 10 hours or more doing so. I identified volumes through the Library’s online catalog, but had assistance from the Newspaper circulation staff, who often could help me interpret the holdings more precisely. Since my time in Washington was short, I prioritized bound volumes, on the principle that subscription databases and microfilm “might” be obtainable elsewhere.

Dr. Katz took advantage of the Library’s late evening hours during the week and its Saturday hours to complete her research. She spent the first three months of her time at the Library going through the Library’s nearly complete run of New York’s Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, noting that it’s “one of the most important and longest-running Whig papers during this period, and as far as I know, not microfilmed or digitized.” Dr. Katz also noted that the paper is “a blanket sheet—literally 3 or 4 feet high and wide,” and that while skimming the pages is difficult, “to do so online or on microfilm would take ten or more times as long, because you could not get anywhere near all of one page’s contents in any particular screen or view.”

After she finished searching the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, she moved on to papers that had shorter runs, at least in the Library’s collection, reviewing about 35 papers in all. It wasn’t until May, however—the final month of her Library research—that the Democratic Republican New Era attracted her attention. As Dr. Katz describes:

Democratic Republican New Era, June 23, 1832, page 2. “To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature” appears at top of column 4.

I had started to find quite a bit of coverage of the arts in the Sunday weeklies that had started off with a Democratic bent to them—the Sunday Dispatch, and Atlas, for example, but also the Mercury—many of them of course became Republican by the 1850s. So that gave me a particular interest in the newspapers in that ‘circle’—but I was also trying hard to work through some of the newspapers that like the New Era had only a relatively few issues in the [Library’s] collection, to see if I could get a feel for whether they would be productive sources and should be pursued. But I didn’t single the New Era out in advance, or have particular hopes for it.

Her hopes changed dramatically on May 22, at about 8 p.m., when she came across the poem “To Bryant, the Poet of Nature,” written by “W.W.” Even though the author’s full name wasn’t given, she had little doubt the poem was by Whitman:

Since I really do go through the newspapers page by page, I had noticed in earlier issues mentions (usually praising his work) of Whitman, first by Levi Slamm, and then by Parke Godwin. So when the “W.W.” poem appeared shortly after one of these comments, I was pretty immediately sure that it must be by him. Though nothing in the composition or language of the poem was recognizable to me as Whitman per se, the subject–(William Cullen) Bryant, who I knew he admired, but also the idea of a poet’s fame—also pointed toward Whitman, for me. As did the fact that I knew he had edited a Democratic paper himself so had contacts and patronage within those circles.

Despite Dr. Katz’s certainty, her husband, the Whitman scholar Kenneth Price, “with his track record of identifying some 3000 Whitman documents in the National Archives,” was initially more skeptical. He was eventually swayed by Katz’s arguments, which were published in the Fall 2014 issue of Walt Whitman Quarterly Review (“A Newly Discovered Whitman Poem about William Cullen Bryant“).

When I asked Dr. Katz about the contributions of Library staff to her research, she offered words of praise for employees in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room:

I worked most closely with the circulation staff, who helped me identify the bound volumes I needed, which sometimes weren’t where I thought they were. They were really wonderful; thoughtful, always helpful, interested in my work, with a really good balance between keeping the materials accessible to researchers and making sure that best practices for conservation were in place.

“To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature.” [Transcription]

Let Glory diadem the mighty dead—

Let monuments of brass and marble rise

To those who have upon our being shed

A golden halo, borrowed from the skies,

And given to time its most enduring prize;

For they but little less than angels were:

But not to thee, oh! nature’s OWN, we should

(When from this clod the minstrel-soul aspires

And joins the glorious band of purer lyres)

Tall columns build: thy monument is here—

For ever fixed in its eternity—

A monument God-built! ‘Tis seen around—

In mountains huge and many gliding streams—

Where’er the torrent lifts a melancholy sound,

Or modest flower in broad savannah gleams.

W.W.

For further reading and research, make sure to check out the Library’s Pinterest board on Walt Whitman, which you can read more about here. For more stories on researchers and scholars using the Library’s collections, check out other blog posts in our “Inquiring Minds” series.