Programming with Library of Congress Digital Collections : Arts

Most of the sheet music in the LOC's Sheet Music of the Musical Theater Collection includes the complete songs with a cover page as well as interior pages with the music and lyrics. 

Browse through the collection or do a keyword search for a topic that interests you. Find a cover of sheet music that intrigues you. Using only the cover and without looking at the lyrics on the interior pages, write the lyrics for that piece of sheet music. After you have written your lyrics, go back and read the lyrics from the original sheet music.  Are you the next Stephen Sondheim?! Or Jeanine Tesori?!  

Example: Using the sheet music for "A Poor Little Girl Like Me" from Mr. Hamlet of Broadway, you might write: 

"Oh, there's nothing to see!
What's to be done?
What have I become?
A Poor Little Girl Like Me."

Have patrons recite their lyrics for each other.

image: "A Poor Little Girl Like Me," (1908) by Benjamin M. Jerome and Edward Maddern, [score] from Mr. Hamlet of Broadway.

Host a primary source concert at the library! 

Choose some of the sheet music from the Sheet Music of the Musical Theater Collection, and invite patron musicians to play. You can find sheet music that is all about a particular topic or theme.

Libraries could partner with local college and university music programs or with local music schools to take part in the concert.

Song lyrics are poetry. As part of the primary source concert, libraries could also invite a local band or songwriter to lead a songwriting workshop where patrons can write their own music.

  

 

image: "Opening Chorus," (1919) by Ernest Longstaffe from Butterfly Follies, [notated music].

Find a piece of sheet music from the Library's Sheet Music of the Musical Theater Collection. Then, using Chronicling America, search for the title of the show, revue, or operetta that featured that song. 

Can you find an announcement about the performance?  A review?  What kind of publicity did the performance have? If you found a review, what did the critics think? Based on the song lyrics, what do you think?

Example: This is a piece of sheet music for "Walking the Dog" from The Passing Show of 1916.

Walking the Dog, (1916) by Otto Motzan and Harold Atteridge from The Passing Show of 1916, [notated music].

The December 3, 1916 edition of The Washington Herald has a headline that "Woman Dominates Programs at Leading Local Theaters: 'Passing Show of 1916' and 'Cousin Lucy' Force Male Entertainers from Spotlight." 

The Washington Herald, December 03, 1916. 

The Washington Herald talks about The Passing Show of 1916 and has a feature story on 17-year-old Pearl Eaton who was in the cast of The Passing Show of 1916 at the Belasco Theater. 

Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies features 341 motion pictures and 81 recordings as well as photographs and articles about inventor Thomas Alva Edison and his involvement with motion pictures and sound recordings.  

Activity

Host a film night at the library! You can incorporate primary sources from motion picture history. Prior to showing a current or recent film, show some of these first films. It will get patrons thinking about how much film has changed over time.

"There is color!  There is sound!  They are long!"      

You could also create an entire program focusing on Magic Lanterns/Magic Lantern Slides* and then have your patrons make their own lantern slides (by cutting up a sheet protector). You can host a "nickelodeon" night and project patron lantern slides, using a flashlight as the patron tells the story of what is happening. 

image: Hand drawn lantern slides by a 4th grade student (top) and a 2nd grade student (bottom) from a library class about magic lanterns and early films as storytelling.

Then show some of these early films from the LOC collection to show how storytelling has changed over time. 

*Magic lanterns were a type of projector that was developed in the 17th century and that became popular in the 19th century for storytelling. Magic lanterns used painted glass slides that had multiple images on each slide. As the slide was moved through the projector, the sequential pictures told a story.

The idea for a library program or class featuring magic lantern slides came from a post on the Library of Congress' TPS Teachers' Network. To view the link, you will have to register for the TPS Network, but it is free...and there are lots of great programming ideas on the Network. The TPS Network is a social media network for teachers, librarians, and anyone who is interested in history and primary sources. It is a great resource to find primary sources and lesson plans/programming ideas.

Book Pairings:

Barretta, Gene. Starring Steven Spielberg: The Making of a Young Filmmaker. 2022. Little, Brown, and Company. 

Picture book biography of filmmaker Steven Spielberg describes incidents from his childhood and life that inspired him to become a filmmaker and to make particular films. (Grades 2-6)

Rockliff, Mara. Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker. 2018. Chronicle Books, LLC. 

A picture book biography of filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché who made some of the first moving pictures and was one of the first to use films to tell stories. She also experimented with new camera angles and techniques. (Some of her early films are on Youtube and can be paired with the book for programming.)  (Grades K-5).

The Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon contains over 2,000 drawings, caricatures, and comic strips from 1890 to 1970. Of course, these can all be considered art, but they are also another form of storytelling and can provide information about historic events and public sentiments at a particular time in history.  

For a library program, select some of the comic strips and display them on different tables or hung in different areas around the library. Have patrons go on a "gallery walk" to observe the primary sources. Patrons can think about:

• How have comic strips changed?
• Do you see some of the same characters?
• What can you learn about the time period or culture from the comic strip?  

"Mr. Jones is at the door, he wants you to go to the ballgame with him," Knott Wright, c. 1900-1920, by A.C. Hutchison.

Patrons can then create their own comic strip about whatever topic they choose. 

If you can, invite a comic book creator to lead a workshop for patrons. 

As sequential art, comic strips are part of the history of modern-day graphic novels and manga, so libraries can use this as part of a Comic Con or to showcase graphic novel/manga titles.

Note: Several of the primary source comic strips in the Swann Collection are only fully accessible at the Library of Congress.   

Rights and Access: The Library of Congress does not own the rights or copyright to the material in the Swann Collection and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or distribute the materials. It is up to the user to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission for use, as necessary.