Ishmael Reed, African-American novelist, poet, and publisher, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 22, 1938. Reed moved with his mother to Buffalo, New York in 1942. His mother worked in various wartime industries and Reed attended public schools, graduating in 1956. He also played violin and trombone and began writing a newspaper column on jazz for the Empire Star Weekly when he was thirteen. He enrolled as an evening student at Millard Fillmore College, the night school division of the University of Buffalo, and worked as a clerk at the Buffalo public library during the day. His writing ability was quickly recognized, and he moved into the bachelor of arts program at the University of Buffalo. He withdrew in 1960 because of a "dire shortage of funds" (Gates) and a "wide gap between social classes" (Gates). To escape "the artificial social and class distinctions that he associated with American university education," (Gates) he moved to Buffalo's Talbert Mall Project. Daily exposure to systematic poverty cycles in the projects led him to political activism in the civil rights and Black Power movements.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Two-dimensional moving image, Text, and Still image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, LaserDisc, Open reel tape (unknown material), Analog audiocassette, VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), Betamax, Text document, Photographic print, and Microfilm
Extent:
Approximately 20 recordings, microfilm, 65 feet
Repository/Collector:
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
With over 300,000 recordings on tape, disc, cylinder, and piano roll, the Historical Music Recordings Collection is both the depository for University of Texas at Austin recordings and those of select orchestras, radio stations, national and international arts organizations. Named collections within the HMRC include: Irving Feld Radio Dramas; UT Radio House Transcription Discs; Mary Henrietta Chase Collection of Bing Crosby Lacquer Discs; KUT open-reel tape; Longhorn Radio Network open-reel tape; KMFA "20th century Romantics"; Austin Symphony Orchestra; Houston Symphony Orchestra; HMRC-CDs; 16-inch transcription discs (general collection).
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), and Spoken word
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Lacquer disc, Optical disc (including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Metal disc, LaserDisc, Cylinder, Analog audiocassette, Digital compact cassette, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Polyester open reel tape, Acetate open reel tape, Motion picture film, VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), Betamax, U-matic (including U-matic S), Text document, and Piano rolls
Extent:
300,000 items
Repository/Collector:
The University of Texas at Austin, Fine Arts Library
The Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection contains multiple episodes of The Brush Creek Follies featuring the Rhythm Riders, Oklahoma Wranglers, and Midland Minstrels. Most of the collection is related to the events of WWII, FDR, and Harry Truman, D-Day invasion coverage, reports on the signing of treaties, the dropping of the atomic bomb, coverage of the activities of President Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Other highlights include broadcast about the Cold War, Harry Truman's speeches to a multitude of different groups, events at the White House, some of Roosevelt's fireside chats, national news coverage, film footage of KMBC's dedication as well as a segment of the Microphone Personalities, recordings of Pun and Punishment (9/22/60), coverage of Truman and Churchill at Fulton, MO, Churchill's famed "Iron Curtain" speech, recordings of the Texas Rangers. Also included are W.S. Hedge interviews Arthur B. Clarke (6/22/66), KMBC's 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (3/24//48), Church's last KMBC broadcast (1/15/51).
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), Spoken word, and Two-dimensional moving image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Lacquer disc, Metal disc, and Motion picture film
The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) was established by the War Department on May 26, 1942 to entertain, inform and connect troops to back home. The broadcast were also intended to counter propaganda broadcasts by Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally and other radio personalities supported by the Axis alliance. The AFRS network was launched with a five hour broadcast on July 4, 1943. The network quickly grew and by the end of World War II included 300 stations, broadcasting to troops around the world. Programs were distributed to stations on 16" polyvinyl discs that contained fifteen minutes of information. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and other major stars of the day performed on the network free of charge as their contribution to the war effort. Radio networks and record labels provided free access their programming and recordings to help develop programming for the network. In addition to bringing the troops programming from networks and the record labels, the service also created original programs like Jubilee which featured African American bands and entertainers. The AFRS network continued broadcasting through Korea, Vietnam and other subsequent wars and conflicts. Now known as the Armed Forces Network, the service continues to entertain servicemen and servicewomen stationed around the world.
The J. David Goldin Collection includes nearly 10,000 radio programs on 16" discs broadcast from the 1930s through the 1950s. The programs include variety shows, radio plays, political speeches, news programs, documentary programs, advertisements, and music programs.
We have a massive collection of about 50,000 recordings on CD and vinyl, in addition to both digital and tape airchecks spanning several decades. We also have program guides, advertisements, and station produced publications.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Open reel tape (unknown material), Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Photographic print, Digital audio file (including MP3, WAV, AIFF, etc.), Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc (Including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Analog audiocassette, MiniDisc, Text document, Printed brochure, and Printed magazine
The Packard collection includes approximately 2,500 discs created, produced, commissioned, or collected by Frederick C. Packard, Jr., during the years 1933-1963. The collection forms part of the Woodberry Poetry Room. While it does not contain a complete inventory of his work, the collection features substantial numbers of discs from all stages of the recording and production process, and constitutes the single-largest aggregate of his recordings of spoken literature. In addition to the discs he created for publication, the materials include rare outtakes; original recordings never reproduced or intended for commercial release; Harvard-related language lessons, lectures, sermons, theatrical, radio, and musical performances; and the voices of Harvard students and professors recorded in his role as Professor of Public Speaking. The collection also features listening copies that Packard (and Woodberry Poetry Room curator John Lincoln Sweeney) created based on exchanges he arranged with the Library of Congress, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Radio Éireann.
Content types:
Performed music and Spoken word
Formats:
Lacquer disc, Pressed LP disc, and Metal disc
Extent:
30 linear feet (90 boxes of discs, 17 boxes of original sleeves, and additional ephemera)
The WTJU recorded music collections highlight a wide variety of rock, jazz, folk, world, and and classical music, with a focus on music not typically heard on commercial broadcast stations. WTJU also houses a largely haphazard variety of station documents, playlists, communications, flyers and other ephemera, and houses a good number of paintings by Steve Keene, a WTJU alum.
Content types:
Performed music, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc, Analog audiocassette, Photographic print, Text document, and Other