Ella Fitzgerald, often called the "First Lady of Song," was one of the 20th century's most important musical performers. The collection reflects her career and personal life through photographs, audio recordings, and manuscript materials.

Ray Brown was an African-American musician, composer, bandleader, manager, music teacher and promoter. He became best known for his collaborative work with Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, the Oscar Peterson Trio and Norman Granz' s Jazz at the Philharmonic. Over the course of his career, Brown received awards and accolades from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jazz Hall of Fame, Down Beat and Playboy. Brown's papers document his professional music career from 1944 to 2002 and include music compositions and notes, publicity materials, photographs and some recordings of his performances.

This accession consists of the records of Cynthia Adams Hoover (CAH), Curator Emeritus at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), and document her involvement in the organization of the exhibitions Piano 300: Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos and Music Machines - American Style during the years she was Associate Cur...

Popular music recorded approximately 1916-1930s: 78 and 45 RPM phonograph discs produced by Edison recordings, Victor, Decca, Columbia, and Silvertone. Boxes 1-4: 53 10" Edison recordings of popular songs by such artists as Freda Hemple, George Hamilton Green, the Metropolitan Quartet, and Frederick Kinsley; also hymns, World War I songs, and some...

This accession consists of the records of Dwight Blocker Bowers, Curator, which document his activities in producing public programs for the National Museum of American History (NMAH). Earlier records date from when Bowers was public programs specialist, 1995-1997, and historian of theater and film, 1997-2012, in the Division of Cultural ...

Sam DeVincent loved music and art and began collecting sheet music with lithographs at an early age. Series 3: African-American Music, contains circa 7,800 pieces of sheet music and folios dating from the 1820s to the 1980s; most of the material dates from after 1890. An overview to the entire DeVincent collection is available here: Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music.

The collection contains approximately 2,500 costume designs in colored pencil and pastels, on tissue paper mounted on mat boards. The designs were created for entertainers such as Liberace, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Dionne Warwick, the Fifth Dimension, Nancy Sinatra, and others. Some were created for the television show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

The collection documents Levy's short career as a musician, his longer career as a manager, and the careers of some of his clients. The client most well represented in the collection is Nancy Wilson, with recordings, photographs, correspondence, financial statements, and contracts included. Papers relating to other clients include business records ...

The Diana Davies photographs consist of images taken by Diana Davies at various stages of her career. Locations include the Festival of American Folklife, the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Poor People's Campaign, various peace and protest marches and outdoor performances, New York City, and the Georgia Sea Islands. The collection includes contact sheets, negatives, photographic prints, and slides. Original photographs, negatives, and color slides taken by Diana Davies. Materials date from 1963-2009. Bulk dates: Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1969, 1987, 1992; Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1967-1968, 1987.

The collection documents Duke Ellington's career primarily through orchestrations (scores and parts), music manuscripts, lead sheets, transcriptions, and sheet music. It also includes concert posters, concert programs, television, radio, motion picture and musical theater scripts, business records, correspondence, awards, as well as audiotapes, audiodiscs, photographs, tour itineraries, newspaper clippings, magazines, caricatures, paintings, and scrapbooks.