414 stories from The New York Public Library
It is still possible to discover amazing things in the New York Public Library in 2013, its 108th year of existence. What's even more amazing about this story is that the discovered items ha…
An oral history interview is a lot more than just any old conversation or sound recording. Although the definition of oral history is dynamic, it usually refers to the collecting of individu…
The Collection and Exhibit
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Library for the Performing Arts currently houses a collection of more than 3,000 wax and …
In honor of President Obama's upcoming inauguration, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound would like to present a compilation of historic presidential speeches selected fro…
I've blogged before about my joy in finding something I never knew existed in the richly varied archival holdings of the New York Public Library, but while processing the James Barton Papers…
Maybe you've got the Nordic noir bug from reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium series (we've all seen those ubiquitous neon paperbacks on the subway) or were enthralled earlier by Peter H&osla…
Our markets, our democracy, our science, our traditions of free speech, and our art all depend more heavily on a Public Domain of freely available material than they do on the informational …
A guest post by Maya Cantu
"America at the close of the Great War was a Cinderella magically clothed in the most stunning dress at the ball... immense gains with no visible price tag s…
I dreamed a dream in time gone by that someday I would be sitting in a cinema watching the film version of Les Misérables. In 1993 I had recently convinced my mother to take me to a …
I'm happy to present a review of how the Music Division contributed to knowledge for 2011-2012. Although my information is based on the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, December seems like…
In the Research Guide, Part I, I advised that the easiest way to find information at LPA is by name or title. I advised that the research can benefit by compiling a list of every person in o…
I listen to many interesting things in my job, and I love it. As an AV cataloger at NYPL (Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound), I have listened to many archival recordings at …
The Brant Mewborn collection of interviews was recently processed, preserved, and cataloged. This collection is a treasure trove of original interviews — conducted by Mewborn for…
My professional adventures, rooted in my own fascination with and questions about who we are as humans (how we identify ourselves, how we are layers of each version of our selves over time, …
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is pleased to announce the release of the Dorothy Loudon Digital Exhibition.
Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003) was a Tony Award-winning Br…
A guest post by Brian D. Valencia
Evangeline, or The Bell of Acadia rounds out the Musical of the Month blog's consideration of the four most popular American-devised musicals of the l…
Dorothy Loudon wasn't working. Neither was Annie.
Loudon, by the mid-1970s, had gone into a semi-voluntary semi-retirement. The Women, in 1973, was the last of a half-dozen promising Broad…
Musicals are often most associated with women, or at least with divas: the larger than life stars that musicals are built around. To get a show produced you want to have a decent score and …
Visitors to the exhibition and blog channel The Great American Revue have peppered me with questions that can be summarized as: "where do you find that stuff?" Substitute artifacts…
Legendary Broadway composer and lyricist Richard Adler passed away this year on June 21st. His seamless partnership with friend and composer Jerry Ross in the 1950s led to the hit musical sc…
A guest post by Tracy C. Davis, Barber Professor of Performing Arts — Northwestern University.
Extracted from the preface to Dorothy in Tracy C. Davis, ed., The Broadview Anthology of …
The idea of late blooming was essential to Dorothy Loudon's mythology.
Although she admitted to being 44 at the time of Annie (a fiction that many internet sites, including the Internet Movi…
Next week (on October 24, 26 and 27, 2012) I have the honor of performing at the Museum of Modern Art's Marron Atrium in Voluntaries by choreographer Dean Moss and visual artist, Laylah Ali.…
Nothing is more strange to man than his own image. —Dr. Alquist, sole survivor of the robot rebellion.
It's standard sci-fi melodrama now: The robots evolve and become indistinguishab…
“Costumes have to tell you in a moment what that person is feeling, what they’re going through, what changes are happening.”
—Martin Pakledinaz
Martin Pakledinaz was…
