Collections News | January 2020

Here are some new and updated finding aids, reflecting work by archivists in archival processing, collections management, and university archives. – KWS

embroidered flowers and birds

Arthur Mitchell Papers

“Arthur Mitchell (1934-2018) was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and founder and director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. This collection contains materials related to his career as a dancer with the New York City Ballet, and his later professional work with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and others. The collection includes administrative records, appointment books, correspondence, invitations, notes, notebooks, photographs, programs, and audio and video recordings.”

Goodie Publications Archive, 1999-2009

“Goodie Publications featured interviews with subjects who played a major role in shaping NYC’s cultural underground from the 1960s and earlier through the 1990s to the present day.
From Judith Malina and Lionel Ziprin to Debbie Harry, Gregory Corso, Edgar Oliver and Penny Arcade to lesser known but equally important luminaries, these interviews and related materials are a treasure trove for students, historians, researchers and authors interested in the art, music, literature, politics and everyday life of the period.”

Gail Mary Killian and Stephen Desroches sound recordings, 1970-2003

“The majority of the collection’s interviews were taken by Gail Mary Killian and document her life in the 1970s-1980s as a woman living with Down syndrome in Eastern Massachusetts.”

* This fascinating oral history collection will shortly be sent to our external vendor for digitization.

Harriman Institute oral history collection

This collections document the history of the Institute, the changes in its intellectual currents over seventy years, and the state of academic study and policy around Russia.

* All interview-level records are now in CLIO and the Oral History Portal. Digital audio is available in the reading room with two business days notice.

Yiddish Theater Collection, 1899-1962

“The Yiddish Theater collection includes material arranged in three series on the Yiddish theater group “The Vilna Troupe” (Di Vilner Trupe), the Bergen Belsen photo albums, and Yiddish sheet music.”

Home Study records, 1919-1951

“This collection consists of correspondence and administrative records of the Home Study division of the University Extension.”

Significant additions, updated / enhanced finding aids

Over a hundred digitized Ulysses Kay recordings are now linked via the finding aid.

Nearly two hundred links to previously digitized items have been added to the Amiri Baraka papers finding aid.

The Armenian oral history collection has a finding aid with links to digitized interviews:

Hunt Berol Sheet Music Collection

25,000+ pieces of sheet music (223 boxes) from the 18th-20th centuries, primarily 19th century American. New to the finding aid is a list that provides the first piece of sheet music in a given box. This list can be used in conjunction with the paper card catalogs in RBML to request the correct box from off-site storage.

Russian Expeditionary Forces in France and Macedonia Records, 1914-1930

This collection now has finding aid, replacing an old PDF.

Lyle Stuart Papers

A recent addition to this collection is Stuart’s 1971 interview with Artie Shaw.  In it Shaw talks in great detail about his marriages to Lana Turner and Ava Gardner.

William Bronk papers

Books added in Series X.

Harvard Russian Research Center Manuscripts, 1950-1951

Box list added.