Library of Congress's Blog, page 186

Laurels for Morrill

(The following is a guest post by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library’s staff newsletter, The Gazette.)

The Library of Congress this month will celebrate the legacy of a man who helped bring higher education to millions of Americans and who played a key role in the creation of one of the nation’s most splendid pieces of architecture – the Jefferson Building.

Justin Morrill

On June 25, the Library plays host to a conference that explores three events that shaped America’s knowledge-based democracy: the founding of the National Academy of Sciences, the founding of the Carnegie libraries, and the passage of the Morrill land-grant colleges act – the last the work of then-Rep. Justin S. Morrill.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, takes place in the Coolidge Auditorium and features three panel discussions and remarks by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.).

The daylong event concludes at the Lincoln Memorial with speeches and the ceremonial laying of a wreath.

“Justin Morrill was not only the longest-serving member of Congress in the first 160 years of its history, he was arguably the most important elected official in creating a nationwide infrastructure for higher education and reinforcing a knowledge-based democracy in the second half of the 19th century,” Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said.

Morrill’s legislation helped establish public universities across America following its passage in 1862 – and thus opened the door to higher education for millions of ordinary Americans.

Morrill, the son of a Vermont blacksmith, had very little formal learning himself – only the modern equivalent of an elementary-school education.

He largely was self-taught but possessed a practical and curious mind: He amassed an impressive personal library. He studied architecture on his own and designed his family home. He owned a dry-goods business and did so well that he retired comfortably at 38.

Morrill Act

In 1854, Morrill was elected to Congress, where he became a prominent figure on the House Ways and Means Committee and, later, the Senate Finance Committee – though today he remains best known for the education act that bears his name.

As a member of Congress, Morrill made himself an expert in political economy.

“The precedent he set for the protective tariffs remained U.S. policy for decades,” said Barbara Bair, a curator in the Manuscript Division.

Morrill also worked hard to promote the interests of the Library of Congress, and he personally used its resources.

An exhibition accompanying the Coolidge event includes, among other things, a register that lists books checked out by Morrill from the Library – he once received a notice from the Librarian when he failed to return “The Scarlet Letter” and the “Dictionary of Political Economy” on time.

Morrill more than made up for his tardiness: He was instrumental in getting approval from Congress for a separate building for the Library on Capitol Hill.

In 1879, Morrill strongly endorsed the plan for a separate building in a major speech before Congress.

“There’s this great quote: ‘We just don’t have enough room. We either have to move out the Congress to keep the Library here or move out the Library to keep the Congress here. You choose,’ ” Bair said, paraphrasing Morrill.

He also promoted the idea that the Jefferson Building should be much more than just a place to house books.

“The idea that it should be a showcase – that it should be brilliantly beautiful – also was not the majority viewpoint,” Bair said. “Morrill pushed that through.”

Still, Morrill mostly is remembered today for the legislation that fostered the establishment of public universities – many of which still house halls named in his honor – from coast to coast.

The Morrill Act funded the creation of such universities by granting federal land to the states to develop or sell – every state received 30,000 acres for each of its representatives and senators in Congress. These schools would teach agriculture, science and engineering as well as classical studies.

Many of the schools established as a result of the act remain major institutions – the University of California system, Cornell, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Iowa State, for example.

“Almost any college that has the word ‘state’ in it probably is a land-grant college, and some of the major research institutions that are public universities come from a land-grant tradition,” said Michelle Krowl, a curator in Manuscript.

An expansion of the act, passed in 1890, fostered the establishment or expansion of many historically black colleges – Tuskegee University, Florida A&M and Alcorn State, among others.

Part of Morrill’s interest was economic: A better-educated populace of farmers would produce more, sell more, hire more and make the country more prosperous and secure.

The act also reflected a commitment to his rural constituents.

“People tend to think about farmers as not professionals: It’s just something that people do,” Krowl said. “But with the land-grant colleges, agriculture and mechanical sciences became worthy fields of study – not something you just pick up along the way.”

Morrill also understood – through his own humble upbringing – the importance of providing opportunity for a higher education to everyone.

“On a very personal level, he really wanted to help people like himself,” Bair said. “It’s about the democratization of education.”

Congress passed the Morrill Act in 1859, but President James Buchanan vetoed it. After Southern states that opposed the plan seceded from the Union, Lincoln signed the revamped act into law in 1862.

The act made a profound impact that continued for more than a century in all corners of the country – in 1994, the act was expanded again to include Native American schools.

“Look at how many colleges benefited from the Morrill land grant and how many people graduated from those colleges: You probably have millions of people for whom college otherwise might not have been possible,” Krowl said. “You’ve got all of the discoveries that come out of the research institutions, the educational impact for Americans of diverse backgrounds – the legacy is incredible.”

Growing a Family Tree

In addition to today being Flag Day (you can read more about that here), June 14 is also Family History Day. This actually makes me think of my dad, who has become quite the budding genealogist. Over the last several months, he has been extensively researching our family tree.

Genealogical Tree. Prints and Photographs Division

Apparently one of my very distant great-grandfathers (I think ninth) on my mother’s side was Col. Richard Henry Esq., “The Immigrant” Lee (1617-1664). Among other things – he was attorney general of the Colony of Virginia, Clerk of the Quarter Court at Jamestown and at the time of his death likely the richest man in Virginia – he was the great-great-great grandfather of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and great grandfather of President Zachary Taylor.

According to my dad, we are also somehow related to Geronimo on his side, although I don’t think he’s found conclusive evidence to the fact thus far in his research.

The Library of Congress can help you grow your family tree with one of the world’s premier collections of U. S. and international genealogical and local historical publications. The Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, located in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, is the hub for such research. More than 50,000 genealogies and 100,000 local histories comprise its collections, which are especially strong in North American, British Isles and German sources. These international strengths are further supported and enriched by the Library’s royalty, nobility and heraldry collection, making it one of only a few libraries in America that offer such resources. In addition, the vertical files in the reading room contain miscellaneous materials relating to specific family names; to the states, towns, and cities of the U.S.; and to genealogical research in general. The reading room also offers several very large CD-ROM titles produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Library.

Reading room reference librarians also have compiled several bibliographies and guides to the Library’s genealogy collections.

The Library’s genealogy collection began as early as 1815 with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s library, which included such titles as the “Domesday Book,” which was the record of the survey of England made for William the Conqueror; Sir William Dugdale’s “The Baronetage of England,” a genealogical and historical account of the English Baronets up to King Henry III; and “Peerage of Ireland,” another historical and genealogical account of Ireland’s nobility.

 

Literate Critters

2012 National Book Festival Poster by Rafael López

When it comes to priceless art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has quite a bit, including a trove of Raphaels.

But the Library of Congress (on its National Book Festival site, now live at www.loc.gov/bookfest) has a new Rafael López National Book Festival poster for 2012 that’s priceless, too – because you can download it free of charge!

The Festival will take place Sept. 22 and 23 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  It will feature more than 100 authors – appealing to all age groups – many delightful activities for kids, and a bigger, even-more-information-packed Library of Congress Pavilion.

What’s more, you can see how the poster artist took his concept from drawing to finished poster in a slideshow, available here. And you can follow his creative process on his blog.

Our Rafael doesn’t have a title yet; maybe you’d like to propose one with a comment.  My nomination is “The Readers of the Rainforest.”

 

In Retrospect: May Blogging Edition

In addition to the Library of Congress blog that you’re reading right now, the institution has brought several other blogs into the fold. And, let me tell you, they are writing about some great things. From time to time, I hope to give a shout out to these blogs and direct your attention to what they are posting.

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

The Mysterious Disappearance of the First Library of Congress

Nathan Dorn delves into the history of the Library of Congress.

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

What Do You Give for a 200th Anniversary

Ellen Terrell offers a little history on Louisiana.

From the Catbird Seat: Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress

Philip Levine’s Lost Poets

The 18th Poet Laureate delivers his swan song.

The Signal: Digital Preservation

First Year of The Signal Illustrates Value of Broad Digital Preservation Outreach

Bill LeFurgy looks back on the digital preservation blog’s first-year milestones.

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

“The Duke” of the Longboard

Surf’s up! Jeff Bridgers talks about surfer and Olympic record-breaker Duke Kahanamoku.

In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog

Remembering Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, 1925-2012

German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is memorialized.

A Southern Stanza

( The following is a guest article about the Library’s new Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey, written by my colleague Mark Hartsell, which appears in the Library’s staff newsletter, the Gazette.)

Natasha Trethewey. Photo by Nancy Crampton. 2012.

The writing of Natasha Trethewey explores a past that often is unsettling – growing up biracial in 1960s Mississippi, the lives of forgotten African-American soldiers during the Civil War, the murder of her mother, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“When you begin to think about the past, you realize how much of it is lost to us,” says Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Native Guard.”

On Thursday, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the selection of Trethewey as the Library’s 19th poet laureate consultant in poetry.

Trethewey will open her one-year term and the Library’s annual literary season on Sept. 13 with a reading in the Coolidge Auditorium.

Trethewey succeeds Philip Levine in a position previously held by some of the most prominent American poets of the past 75 years: Robert Penn Warren, Robert Frost, Allen Tate, Robert Lowell, William Carlos Williams, Rita Dove and Gwendolyn Brooks, among many others who have served as consultant in poetry or poet laureate at the Library since 1937.

“I’m truly humbled by it. I want to be the best advocate and promoter for poetry that I can be,” says Trethewey, the author of four books of poetry – “Domestic Work,” “Bellocq’s Ophelia,” “Native Guard” and the upcoming “Thrall” – and one work of nonfiction, “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”

Trethewey, a professor of English and creative writing at Emory University, is no stranger to the Library of Congress – she researched and wrote part of “Native Guard” at the Library.

She first began conducting research at the Library in 2001 and spent all of the summer of 2004 studying Civil War letters in the reading room of the Manuscript Division.

That summer, she also worked frequently in the Main Reading Room – “a beautiful place,” she says – where she wrote many of her poems of that period.

Growing Up Down South

Trethewey was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Miss., the child of a social worker mother, Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, and a Canadian poet and professor father, Eric Trethewey.

The marriage of Gwendolyn and Eric was illegal under Mississippi law at the time – she was African-American, he was white – and they left the state to get married before going back home.

“In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi; they went to Ohio to marry, returned to Mississippi,” Trethewey wrote in “Miscegenation,” one of the poems in “Native Guard.”

Trethewey grew up biracial in the Deep South – the Gulf Coast and, later, Atlanta – in the years immediately following the civil rights movement.

“I knew at a young age that the irony of my own existence was connected to the fact that I was born 100 years to the day that Mississippi first celebrated Confederate day,” she says. “So growing up, my birthday was always Confederate Memorial Day. It helped to create this profound sense of awareness about the Civil War and the 100 years between the Civil War and the civil rights movement and my parents’ then-illegal and interracial marriage.”

She often explores that confluence of personal and cultural history in her work.

“Writers, particularly poets, always feel exiled in some way – people who don’t exactly feel at home, so they try to find a home in language. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do,” she says. “It’s important for me to assert just how much I love my native state, even as I have that kind of love-hate relationship with it.”

An ‘Unthinkable’ Event

Trethewey’s parents divorced when she was 6.

Gwendolyn moved to Atlanta, remarried and divorced again.

After that divorce, in 1985, Gwendolyn was shot and killed by her second husband – Natasha’s stepfather.

Natasha, at the time, was a student at the University of Georgia. She wasn’t really a practicing poet, just a 19-year-old trying to put her grief into words.

“I wrote a couple of poems right then to try to say the unthinkable, to deal with that tragedy – much like all the people who wrote poems after 9-11, who only turned to poetry because it seemed the only place to make sense of what happened,” she says.

But Trethewey didn’t think those poems were any good, and she hid them away.

She went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English from Georgia, and, with the encouragement of her father, to write poetry seriously. She earned a master’s in poetry from Hollins University and a master’s in fine arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Trethewey eventually – reluctantly – found herself back in Atlanta to take the job at Emory.

“I had sworn to myself that I’d never return to this place – to Atlanta, to Decatur – where I had grown up and where the tragedy happened,” she says.

But, she ultimately figured, a good job is a good job. She found a nice home that, coincidentally, was  near the courthouse in which her stepfather had been tried for, and found guilty of, the murder of her mother.

The place – and a few other things – “began to work on me a little bit,” Trethewey says.

She was approaching her 40th birthday – the age of her mother when she was murdered. She was nearing the moment when she had lived as many years without her mother as with her.

She began to write about the loss of her mother again.

“It rained the whole time we were laying her down; Rained from church to grave when we put her down,” Trethewey wrote in her poem “Graveyard Blues” from “Native Guard.”

Once more, she put away the finished poems – this time because they were so personal, not because she didn’t think they were good.

But, when editors asked her for more of her work, she reluctantly sent in these.

They ultimately ended up in “Native Guard” – and winning a Pulitzer Prize.

Trethewey plans to work in the Poetry and Literature Offices in the Jefferson Building during the second half of her term – the first time a laureate has done so since an act of Congress changed the consultant-in-poetry to poet laureate in 1986.

“It’s a place that’s close to my heart both as a poet and an academic researcher,” she says. “I want to be there because it’s a place that I felt nurtured me and my craft. I’m hoping that being there – at the seat of it all, the hub of it all – will give me a way to give back and to honor poetry.”

You can read her poem, “Domestic Work, 1937″ here.

Ray Bradbury and Pogo

Ray Bradbury, the towering writer of science fiction, died today at age 91. Talk about an author who will be missed …

In the United States, our lives been steeped in science fiction, from the days of “Buck Rogers” and the cheesy B-movies of the 1950s to the phenomena of “Star Trek,” “The Matrix” and more recent films based on a variety of sci-fi and fantasy works.  Yet, for many decades, the genre was sneered at.

Ray Bradbury turned that around.

He elevated the form to literature.  He packed it with humanity, and he pointed out – to paraphrase the cartoon character Pogo – that we humans had “met the enemy, and he is us.”

An uncomfortable portion of the world Bradbury created, in novels such as “Fahrenheit 451,” has come to pass.  Every time I see someone shambling down the street, staring blankly into a hand-held device, I visualize those two telescreen figures from the movie version of “Fahrenheit 451” looking down at Julie Christie and saying, “Linda, you’re absolutely fantastic!”

And I visualize her, staring back, vacuously.

My favorite piece by Bradbury is the short story “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains,” from the collection “The Martian Chronicles.”  It’s about an automated house that lives on, pointlessly, after its occupants have been vaporized in a nuclear war.

It was published in 1950, proposing such far-out concepts as machines that audibly tell you to wake up, monitor the weather, activate the kitchen equipment to make breakfast. (All that exists today and is taken for granted). His house of seven decades into the future was cleaned by a small army of mechanical mice that rolled across the floor, picking up debris. (Do you own a Roomba?)

The house offers to recite a favorite poem by Sara Teasdale for its missing owner, since, being no longer in existence, he has declined to specify one.

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

if mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

 

Do I hear the voice of Siri?

Library in the News: May Recap Edition

May was a musical month with the Library of Congress recognizing song and sounds in a major way. The Library honored Burt Bacharach and Hal David with the 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. You can read more about it here. The two were celebrated with concerts at both the Library and the White House.

“Music can take you a lot of places you’d never imagine, and I try to never forget the power of what musicians, songwriters and singers do – and how it changes the way people look at their lives,” country crooner Lee Ann Womack, featured performer at the White House event, told AOL Music .

Chris Richards of The Washington Post spoke  with Bacharach and David prior to their receiving the award.

“David, 90, is recovering from a stroke and will not be able to travel to Washington, but he calls the recognition ‘the pinnacle’ of his career.”

“Stunning, stunning,” said Bacharach of the honor. “Winning three Academy Awards was pretty spectacular, but I think this might be the absolute peak.”

Other major outlets running stories about the award included The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Associated Press, Playbill and Huffington Post.

Closing out the month was one of the Library’s biggest annual announcements, the inductees into the National Recording Registry. You can see the list here.

The Post’s Richards wrote  about the registry, saying:

“The registry, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, focuses on preservation, but recognition plays a huge role too.”

The list not only includes rarities such as an Edison Talking Doll cylinder and a series of interviews with former slaves but also popular, recognizable recordings like Prince’s “Purple Rain” and “I Feel Love,” by Donna Summer.

Major broadcast news outlets NBC and CBS ran stories, as well as entertainment outlets like E!, CMT and BET. In addition to the Post, print coverage included USA Today, Associated Press, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Receiving accolades of a different kind was Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, who received the Library’s 2012 John W. Kluge Prize.

Larry Rohter interviewed Cardoso for a piece in The New York Times.

“I was always preparing myself to understand society and macroeconomics, so of course when I had the chance to become president, I tried to apply that knowledge,” Cardoso said. “I didn’t plan it that way, but the concern, the preoccupation with how to construct a decent society was always there.”

The Washington Post and Associated Press also ran stories.

And speaking of politics, the Library has published a book featuring presidential campaign posters about politicians from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama.

“While the names and faces may have changed and artistic styles evolved, the nature of American politicking, issues and mudslinging have remained constant throughout our country’s history,” wrote Liesl Bradner of the Los Angeles Times.

“One of the beauties of this book is that it doesn’t restrict itself to posters of the winners,” said Tish Wells for the Miami Herald.

Brooke Gladstone, who wrote the introduction to the book, wrote in a blog post for the huffingtonpost.com:

“The most effective campaign posters of every era leave as much as possible to the voter’s imagination. What perhaps is so striking about this collection of posters from the Library of Congress is what it reveals about the unchanging nature of American politicking.”

Like a Phoenix, From the Ashes

Two hundred years ago today, President James Madison set pen to paper to write .  His intent was to talk them into making the nation’s first formal declaration of war – on Great Britain, which was squashing U.S. exports as a side effect of a British naval blockade against Napoleon’s France.

But that flow of ink had many unintended consequences – among them, the eventual conversion of a Library of Congress that consisted of a few hundred law books tucked into the recesses of the U.S. Capitol to the multifaceted house of knowledge it is today – with 151.8 million items on some 838 miles of bookshelves, offering more than 34.5 million books and other printed materials, 3.3 million recordings, 13.4 million photographs, 5.4 million maps, 66.6 million manuscripts and of course the website where you probably found this blog among its 31.4 million files.

Madison got his war – we know it as the War of 1812.  Hostilities ensued.  The British torched several public buildings in Washington in August of 1814, including Congress and its library.

Within a month, retired President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement. He had spent 50 years accumulating books, “putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science.” There were 6,487 books in the collection; their subject matter was much broader than law and many were in languages other than English.

Congress debated whether to take Jefferson up on his offer.   But Jefferson replied, “There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.”  They agreed to buy his library for $23,950, and a whole new Library of Congress was born – one with a comprehensive collections policy that has become the largest library in the world.

You can still see Thomas Jefferson’s library, including thousands of books he personally purchased and then made available to the nation, in an exhibition in the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building. You can also learn more about them here.

Postscript: Madison not only got his war, but he, too, eventually got his own building – the James Madison Building of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, which is his official memorial. This blog post comes to you from inside its walls.

Jewish Heritage

For the third consecutive year, special items from the Library of Congress’ Jewish American collections have been put on display at the White House. In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, President Barack Obama hosted a reception at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Wednesday evening.

“Generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life,” he said in his official proclamation. “Our country is stronger for their contributions, and this month, we commemorate the myriad ways they have enriched the American experience.”

During his speech at the reception, President Obama focused in large part on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s order in 1862 to expel Jews “as a class” from the military department of Tennessee. American Jews protested and, with the help of President Abraham Lincoln, the order was revoked.

“And to General Grant’s credit he later realized he had made a serious mistake,” the president said in his speech. “So later in his life he apologized for this order and as president went out of his way to appoint Jews to public office and to condemn the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe.”

The small display of items contributed by the Library’s Manuscript Division included a set of to Lincoln from the Board of Delegates of American Israelites; a letter to Lincoln from The Missouri Lodge of “Bné B’rith,” the first Jewish organization to formally protest against Order No. 11; Lincoln’s note rescinding Order No. 11; and a receipt for President Grant’s contribution to Washington Synagogue Adas Israel, the first synagogue building built in DC.

In 2004, the Library mounted a major exhibition titled “From Haven to Home” to commemorate 350 years of Jewish life in America.

Ten Years of Touchstones

"A Charlie Brown Christmas," the record album

One of the sad facts about the commercialization of the holiday season – for me, anyway — is that many Christmas carols I related to as a child have become so much sonic wallpaper.

On a positive note, though, my inner ear has anointed some tunes as “ex officio” holiday music – the entire Beatles album “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” for example, because my brother brought it home during holiday break from college the year it came out.  Similar status has been achieved by those wonderful jazz piano riffs by the Vince Guaraldi Trio – the ones that backed the Charlie Brown TV specials.

So I’m pleased that the soundtrack album to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by the trio is among this year’s 10th-anniversary additions to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Considering that the registry is chosen, each year, based on nominations, apparently Guaraldi and the Peanuts gang have leaked into other people’s collective subconscious as well.

This year’s list of 25 recordings deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and therefore worthy of preservation range from the rare or singular to touchstones that form the soundtrack to people’s lives. Next year’s list is now being nominated – if you have suggestions, you can make them here.

You’ve got everything from the Thomas Edison company’s 1888 attempt to put a voice recording inside a doll (it didn’t work out very well — two other firms succeeded at this before the famous “Chatty Cathy” of the 1960s) and the Hawaiian slack-key guitar music of Gabby Pahinui (said to have influenced guitarists Ry Cooder, Leo Kottke and John Fahey) to the late Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” an anthem from the Disco era, and “Purple Rain” by Prince and the Revolution.

You’ve got interviews with U.S. citizens who were freed from slavery; a live performance by the Grateful Dead; Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors”; two signature tunes by the great Bo Diddley; and the New York Philharmonic conducting debut of one of the most famous classical-music conductors of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein.

The 2012 list:

1.    Edison Talking Doll cylinder (1888)

2.    “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star,” Lillian Russell (1912)

3.    “Ten Cents a Dance,” Ruth Etting (1930)

4.    “Voices from the Days of Slavery,” Various speakers (1932-1941 interviews; 2002 compilation)

5.    “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” Patsy Montana (1935)

6.    “Fascinating Rhythm,” Sol Hoopii and his Novelty Five (1938)

7.    “Artistry in Rhythm,” Stan Kenton & and his Orchestra (1943)

8.    Debut performance with the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (Nov. 14, 1943)

9.    International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Hottest Women’s Band of the 1940s (1944-1946)

10.                  “The Indians for Indians Hour” (March 25, 1947)

11.                  “Hula Medley,” Gabby Pahinui (1947)

12.                  “I Can Hear It Now,” Fred W. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow (1948)

13.                  “Let’s Go Out to the Programs,” The Dixie Hummingbirds (1953)

14.                  “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1954, 1958)

15.                  “Bo Diddley” and “I’m a Man,” Bo Diddley (1955)

16.                  “Green Onions,” Booker T. & the M.G.’s (1962)

17.                  “Forever Changes,” Love (1967)

18.                  “The Continental Harmony: Music of William Billings,” Gregg Smith Singers (1969)

19.                  “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Vince Guaraldi Trio (1970)

20.                  “Coat of Many Colors,” Dolly Parton (1971)

21.                  “Mothership Connection,” Parliament (1975)

22.                  Barton Hall concert by the Grateful Dead (May 8, 1977)

23.                  “I Feel Love,” Donna Summer (1977)

24.                  “Rapper’s Delight,” Sugarhill Gang (1979)

25.                  “Purple Rain,” Prince and the Revolution (1984)