Hidden Histories: Uncovering Women in Music and Art in the Twentieth Century

Hidden Histories: Uncovering Women in Music and Art in the Twentieth Century

The collections address two different realms of women's artistic expression; which taken together will tell a broad story of the experience of female artists working in a variety of media and from a diverse range of backgrounds in 20th century America. The first group includes the collections of women jazz artists held by the Libraries' Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS): Ella Fitzgerald, known as America's First Lady of Song; Abbey Lincoln, a singular vocal stylist, composer, and civil rights activist; Annie Ross, vocalese pioneer recently named an NEA Jazz Master; Victoria Spivey, blues singer whose career extended from 1920s recordings with Louis Armstrong to a 1960s association with Bob Dylan; Wilma Dobie, pioneering promoter, journalist, and jazz activist. The second focuses on the archives of women visual artists and organizations held by the Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA):Lucy Lippard Women's Art Registry: documentation of many women artists in the 1970s; Heresies, inc. Records: one of the key collectives in the feminist art movement; National Association of Women Artists: oldest professional organization of women artists; Elsa Honig Fine Papers: covers the publication of the Woman's Art Journal; Women's Caucus for Art: an advocacy organization for women artists. Materials include music manuscripts; personal papers; exhibition announcements; photographs; exhibit catalogs; business records; press releases; and audio and video performances.

Cataloging Hidden Collections

2010

1927 - 2010

Primarily United States with limited coverage of women artists from Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Asia.

364 cubic feet

Rutgers University Libraries

637

Fernanda Perrone

False