This blog post was written by Baylor Libraries intern Will Overton. Will is a senior professional writing major from Dickinson, TX working in the Office of Marketing Communication for the Libraries and ITS. Music has been a part of American culture since the Colonies were founded hundreds of years ago. Many examples of American sheet…
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Evangeline’s Windy City Pilgrimage
Sometimes a project comes together after a long, thought-out process. Sometimes it’s serendipity – something you couldn’t plan for just happens and the right things come together. Sometimes it spins organically out of an existing situation, a related set of materials nestled together under a broader umbrella. And sometimes, it’s all of those things ……
A St. Patrick’s Day Tradition: Classic Post – “Confuse Me, I’m Irish”
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’re re-posting this classic post on the strange kinds of Irish-themed sheet music to be found in our Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music. Taitneamh a bhaint as tú féin! (That’s Irish for “Enjoy yourself!”) “Confuse Me, I’m Irish”: Evaluating Unusual Irish-Centric Sheet Music From The…
The Other February Music Award That Matters: Celebrating a Big Win for the BGMRP
It’s one thing to be excited about recognition from big names like the Smithsonian Institution, but it’s just as rewarding to get a pat on the back from your home institution – to, as we say in Texas, “dance with the one that brung us.” That’s why we were honored as a team to receive…
The Missing
We knew them only by their numbers. The spreadsheet listing them seemed endless, although that could have been a trick the mind plays on itself after scrolling through column after column of data for untold hours. The names were missing. I began to wonder if they’d even had names to begin with. Numbers on a…
Before There Was A “Lariat,” There Was The “Literary”
The daily documentation of life at Baylor University began in earnest with the first issue of The ‘Varsity Lariat, the campus newspaper of record since 1900. But almost a decade earlier, Baylor students in the waning decade of the 19th century found their means of expression on the pages of the Baylor Literary. And now,…
Classic Post: “Confuse Me, I’m Irish”: Evaluating Unusual Irish-Centric Sheet Music From The Early 1900s
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’re re-posting this classic post on the strange kinds of Irish-themed sheet music to be found in our Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music. Taitneamh a bhaint as tú féin! (That’s Irish for “Enjoy yourself!”) “Confuse Me, I’m Irish”: Evaluating Unusual Irish-Centric Sheet Music From The…
It’s Your Turn: What Should We Blog About?
After three years of weekly content, we’re more than 150 posts into this whole “blogging about digital collections” thing, and we’ve been uniformly pleased with the response we get from you, our dedicated readers. But sometimes we forget that blogging is a two-way street, and as a result, we don’t always do enough to…
Hat Ladies, Miss Gospel Queens and All-You-Can-Eat Dinners for $? – Gospel Concert Posters of the Late 1970s
We focus a lot – for obvious reasons – on the audio found in the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, but sometimes the associated ephemera can sing a song that’s just as evocative of black gospel culture as any cover of “Old Ship of Zion.” This week, we added eight new posters advertising gospel concerts…
Feliz Diadeloso!
Today, Baylor Bears celebrate a campus tradition that dates back (in some form or other) to the 1930s: a day off during the Spring semester to frolic, play, take a break from classes and in general enjoy the beauty of springtime in Waco. It’s been called many things throughout the years, but today it is…
“Unquestionably the Most Elaborate and Complete, of Any Which I Have Seen” – An Update on the Browning Letters Project
If it’s Valentine’s Day, it must be time for another update on our most love-centric undertaking, the Browning Letters Project! Two years ago, we announced the unveiling of the first phase of the project, wherein 1,400 letters digitized from the collections of Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library and Wellesley College were placed online for the…
On A (Little Blue Bird’s) Wing and a Prayer: Announcing the @GWTruettSermons Twitter Account!
This is the third and final installment in a special three-part blog series on the project to digitize and present online the final sermons of George W. Truett (1867-1944), noted pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas and namesake of Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Read Part I here and Part II here….