Re: [ARSCLIST] unknown artists and archives

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinematheque Francais, was offered a print of
a Theda Bara feature in the 1950s, which he declined, figuring it wouldn't
be very interesting. He would later kick himself repeatedly about this, as
only three of Ms. Bara's 42 features exist even today. Some of us may have
seen the PBS piece on the Vinland map last night, where Yale poured
considerable resources into something that's, in all intents and purposes, a
phony, although admittedly a very good one.

You can't know what future generations are going to find important. It's all
part of the game of running an archive - you take everything you possibly
can, and you run out of room. You pick too cautiously, and you run the risk
of having to ruminate on "the one that got away." By virtue of working with
or establishing an archive you are accepting this condition that you can't
know everything about everything and some good things will get away. And
others which may seem attractive will only serve to deceive you. 

I think its wrong to deduce, as Steve does below, that "archivists think in
terms of what is already viewed as 'worthy'." Some things, such as E.J.
Bellocq's Storyville Portraits, we only know about at all, because the
archive (in this case, MoMA) took a chance on something that wouldn't have
looked like it was worth preserving. Photographs of prostitutes, anyone?  

David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide

"Music expresses what one cannot say, but about which one cannot remain
silent." - Victor Hugo

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew Snyder
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 8:33 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ARSCLIST] unknown artists and archives

Steven C. Barr wrote:

>The problem is that many...possibly most...archivists think in terms
>of what is already viewed as "worthy"...fine art, fine literature
>and so forth. Whit is more likely to be of interest to future folks
>(assuming there are such?) are the "facts of everyday life" of
>their previous generations...
>Or at least that is how it seems to me...

I can only speak with authority about NYPL. It's not the fault of the 
Music Division if nobody points them to unknown people and their archives. 
Nobody there had heard of Joe Reisman (arranger for Patti Page and Henry 
Mancini, among others) until his widow called up to say she wanted to 
donate his scores, and the library took them gladly.  Most of that 
collection was actually fairly pedestrian, middle-of-the-road pop 
arrangements from the 1940s to 60s, which I'm glad the library has. 
Collections of lesser-known or unknown artists are and should be 
collected, but people should be proactive and actively contact libraries 
and archivists and TELL THEM about unknown artists and their collections. 

Matt Snyder
Music Archivist
Wilson Processing Project
The New York Public Library