MUS 112: African-American Traditions in American Music

Included is a developing list of research centers and collections featuring or including a significant portion of material by or about African American musicians.

At the AAAMC, you will find materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions primarily from the post-World War II era. Our collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of black radio.

The Library of Congress Music Division is the nation's music library of record for American creativity. African American composers, songwriters, and arrangers comprise a rich part of these music collections, as well as international composers of the Black diaspora. This research guide features resources and search methods to find music by Black composers in the Library of Congress Music Division. Online resources, such as videos and digitized musical scores, are also highlighted in this guide.

This is a living collection of books, articles, documentaries, series, podcasts and more about the Black origins of traditional and popular music dating from the 18th century to present day. Resources are organized chronologically and by genre for ease of browsing. For more information about that decision and the curation process, please visit the about page.

The Blockson Afro-American Sheet Music Collection represents popular musical forms, including minstrel compositions, march and parade tunes, ragtime, jazz, and blues. The digitized collection dates from 1800 to 1935. Notable composers and performers found include Francis Johnson, W.C. Handy, Blind Tom, H.T. Burleigh, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Harry Von Tilzer, Will Marion Cook, Eubie Blake, Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, Duke Ellington, James Reese Europe, Bert Williams, Ernest Hogan, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Carbica, the Caribbean Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives is part of a bigger network, the International Council on Archives (ICA) which works closely with UNESCO. ICA has more than 1700 members in over 180 countries, which makes it truly international.

The Center for Black Music Research Collection contains materials reflecting many areas of black music including composers, ethnomusicologists, music researchers, music journalists, scores, published music, and audiovisual collections across all genres. These collection guides, or finding aids, provide access to information about held archival special collections. Each guide describes the organization and scope of a collection and offers content information, allowing researchers to discover relevant information.

This series includes the correspondence and records of the Black Patti Foundation. Most of the material dates from the early 1980s to present day, though the organization was founded in 1975. The correspondence relates directly to the production of Black Patti events and performances, as well as requests for funding and other people's responses to Black Patti's work. The series also contains Delilah Jackson's personal notes related to programming, news articles about Black Patti, and legal and financial paperwork. There are a large number of flyers from many years of Black Patti events, showcases, lectures, and film series.

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries house the papers of the famed American singer Marian Anderson. As part of a CLIR hidden collections digitization grant the University of Pennsylvania Libraries digitized over 2,500 items from the Anderson collection including several of her handwritten diaries, journals, and notebooks. These notebooks are presented here for transcription for the first time.

This guide introduces performers, conductors, and researchers to resources from the Music Division of the Library Congress to help them discover concert music by Black composers.

The expanded 2024 edition of From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music documents the many ways Black Americans have created, contributed to, and been influenced by country music. From Where I Stand: The Online Experience  is a free resource containing all of the music, essays, photographs, and historical track notes featured in the physical box set, plus educator tools and additional content culled from the Museum’s digital archives.

Primary Source Set: Black Voices and Activism: primary source sets highlight personal stories and diverse activism within the LGBTQ community. They explore topics including the intersections of race and sexuality, building solidarity within queer community, the need to preserve and teach LGBTQ history related to people of color, and moments of joy and love. The sources selected here document the lives of Black queer people.

The Institute of Jazz Studies is the world's foremost jazz archives and research library. Founded in 1952 by pioneer jazz scholar Marshall Stearns (1908-1966), the Institute has been a pioneering institution in the preservation and access of jazz heritage. IJS relocated from Stearns' apartment to Rutgers University–Newark in 1966, and is part of the Rutgers University Libraries. In 1994, IJS moved to spacious new quarters on the fourth floor of the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers–Newark. The Institute serves a broad clientele, including teachers, scholars, musicians, the media, record companies, filmmakers, and arts agencies.

A guide to the extensive jazz holdings in the Music Division at the Library of Congress, which includes scores, manuscript material, sheet music, books, serials, and copyright deposit lead sheets.

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings. At launch, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will be increased regularly, with additional Victor recordings and acoustically recorded titles made by other Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia, OKeh, and others.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by an Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 40,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts center open to all. We are dedicated to the celebration of the African American journey and presenting its unique and extraordinary role in the creation of popular culture in America and beyond.

The Black American Music Association is a 501 (c)(6) Trade Association organized for upward mobility in the Music Industry by providing charitable, educational and advancement opportunities in general and BAM Membership in particular.

An interactive exhibit celebrating, promoting, and preserving the idea that the history of Black American music is the story of America.

Advocating for women in music around the globe and promoting their music through concerts, competitions, conferences, and grants.

For almost a century, the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. has been a champion for African and African-American music and musicians. Our organization is concerned with the performance and preservation of uniquely African-American music, while acknowledging and providing opportunity to the Black composer and performer.

Since 1968, The National Center for Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) has stood as New England’s most revered institution celebrating the arts heritage of the African-American and African diasporan cultures in the visual and performing arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

As Philadelphia’s music authority, The Philadelphia Music Alliance promotes the vast contributions of Philadelphians to all music genres, and encourages emerging artists and students toward achieving musical excellence. In addition, The Alliance creates, supports and sponsors programs and events that enrich and strengthen Philadelphia’s musical community. Our best-known creation is the Walk of Fame, a must-see tourist attraction on Philadelphia’s dazzling Avenue of the Arts.

Sphinx Organization is a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. Our four program areas – Education & Access, Artist Development, Performing Artists, and Arts Leadership – form a pipeline that develops and supports diversity and inclusion in classical music at every level: creative youth development, artist empowerment, and career advancement, administrative leadership, as well as service to the field.

Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic site and cultural center in Central Brooklyn that uses education, arts and a social justice lens to preserve, document and inspire engagement with the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America, and the Historic Hunterfly Road Houses.