| The Marc Blitzstein Archive |
| The Marc Blitzstein
Archive is housed at The State Historical Society of Wisconsin in
Madison, Wisconsin. It is not, however, necessary to take a trip to
the capital of the Badger State in order to access the archive, as it has been microfilmed,
and can be obtained (worldwide) through the international Inter-Library
Loan scheme. (Those within reach of New York City can also view a
copy at Brooklyn College, CUNY).
A few words
of warning, however. As you would expect, the collection contains
all the papers, manuscripts, documents etc., from the entire period
of Blitzstein's life. It is, therefore of substantial size, and
is contained on 71 rolls of microfilm. In the descriptions
of each work in the music section, I have detailed on which reels each work may be found. Sometimes, they are spread across more than
one. The archive also contains personal effects, papers and letters,
and you can contact me if you want to know more about these. However,
for any serious research you will need to obtain the archive register,
which Madison will supply for a nominal charge to cover photocopying
(xeroxing, for US readers), and postage. Contact the Archives Division
at the following address for further details. The archive also contains extensive and rare recordings of Blitzstein's music, including many items which appear to have been made available only to the archive. These are available on reel-to-reel tape. Some of the recordings do not appear to be of the highest quality. Some diligence is required when leafing through the register. Certain items appear to have been wrongly attributed and labelled, but anyone with a reasonable knowledge of Blitzstein's work should be able to locate the items they are seeking. Again, you can contact me if you have any queries. Although it is necessary to obtain permission from the Blitzstein Estate to access the archive in person, permission is not required to view the microfilm. There is a limit of six reels per loan application, with the loan period being four weeks. |