Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress: Our biggest campaign yet (it's a musical one!) and a transcription box update
Library of Congress sent this bulletin at 09/27/2023 12:35 PM EDTYou are subscribed to Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress from the Library of Congress.
By the People Bulletin
NEW: Sheet music of the musical theater
Today, we're thrilled to launch our biggest campaign ever: Sheet Music of the Musical Theater! Explore more than 106,000 pages from 16,000 pieces of sheet music published between 1880 and 1922 from the Music Division of the Library of Congress. These piano-vocal selections come from musicals, revues, and operettas primarily of the American and British stage. Transcribing the lyrics and names associated with these songs will make them keyword searchable and provide insight into culture and history at the turn of the 20th century.
In the song titles and lyrics you'll encounter attitudes towards relationships, new inventions (such as automobiles), places around the world, leisure activities, and popular topics of the day. The collection includes some of the best-known composers and lyricists in American popular music history: Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Cole Power, and more. Women composers and lyricists such as Anne Caldwell, Rida Johnson Young, and Mabel Daniels are represented, as well as trailblazing creative artists who shaped black musical theater like Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Will Marion Cook. American Yiddish Theater is also showcased with selections by notable composers Isidore Lillian, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Sholom Secunda.
Before you jump in, make sure to review our special sheet music instructions on the campaign landing page. For this campaign, we aim to transcribe nearly all text found in the sheet music selections, including lyrics, advertisements, and cover text, but NOT musical notation. Learn more and explore the campaign here.
Try our new layout option!
We're so excited that last week we finally added a new feature that volunteers have requested for many years - the ability to stack the image viewer and transcription box horizontally. Change the orientation from vertical to horizontal and back again using the = and || buttons on the top left of the image viewer (circled in red below). Try it out and let us know what you think.
Thanks for subscribing and, as always, you can reach out to us directly with any questions or comments at crowd@loc.gov. Happy transcribing!
In solidarity,
Carlyn & the By the People team
