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Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Accession 17-064

National Museum of American History. Division of Culture and the Arts

Program Records, 1976-2004, 2012

Repository:Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C. Contact us at osiaref@si.edu.
Creator:National Museum of American History. Division of Culture and the Arts
Title:Program Records
Dates:1976-2004, 2012
Quantity:1.5 cu. ft. (1 record storage box) (1 document box)
Collection:Accession 17-064
Language of Materials:English
Summary:

This accession consists of the records of Dwight Blocker Bowers, Curator, which document his activities in producing public programs for the National Museum of American History (NMAH). Earlier records date from when Bowers was public programs specialist, 1995-1997, and historian of theater and film, 1997-2012, in the Division of Cultural History; director of the Division of Museum Program, 1989-1995; research specialist in the Department of Public Programs, 1984-1989; and research assistant in the Division of Performing Arts, 1982-1983. A majority of the records pertain to the "Palm Court Cameos" series that initially presented informal concerts of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century salon and parlor music to correspond with the era of the furnishings and artifacts in the Palm Court at NMAH. The program, which eventually was renamed "American Song" and moved to the Museum's Carmichael Auditorium, expanded to include the works of major American musicians of twentieth-century popular song, full-scale concert reconstructions of musicals, and onstage conversations with noted songwriters. Also documented are the "Jazz in the Palm Court" series that featured regionally based jazz artists performing classic jazz repertoire; the "America on Film" series, in which motion pictures reflecting cultural and musical diversity in American society were shown; and various other programs. Bowers inherited some of the records in this accession, which he used in his research, from Sharyn Huriaux Reitz, a research contractor in the Division of Performing Arts. Materials include correspondence, brochures, scripts, press releases, clippings, drawings, and supporting documentation.

Descriptive Entry

This accession consists of the records of Dwight Blocker Bowers, Curator, which document his activities in producing public programs for the National Museum of American History (NMAH). Earlier records date from when Bowers was public programs specialist, 1995-1997, and historian of theater and film, 1997-2012, in the Division of Cultural History; director of the Division of Museum Program, 1989-1995; research specialist in the Department of Public Programs, 1984-1989; and research assistant in the Division of Performing Arts, 1982-1983. A majority of the records pertain to the "Palm Court Cameos" series that initially presented informal concerts of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century salon and parlor music to correspond with the era of the furnishings and artifacts in the Palm Court at NMAH. The program, which eventually was renamed "American Song" and moved to the Museum's Carmichael Auditorium, expanded to include the works of major American musicians of twentieth-century popular song, full-scale concert reconstructions of musicals, and onstage conversations with noted songwriters. Also documented are the "Jazz in the Palm Court" series that featured regionally based jazz artists performing classic jazz repertoire; the "America on Film" series, in which motion pictures reflecting cultural and musical diversity in American society were shown; and various other programs. Bowers inherited some of the records in this accession, which he used in his research, from Sharyn Huriaux Reitz, a research contractor in the Division of Performing Arts. Materials include correspondence, brochures, scripts, press releases, clippings, drawings, and supporting documentation.

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Preferred Citation

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 17-064, National Museum of American History. Division of Culture and the Arts, Program Records

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Container List

Box 1

Music in the Palm Court, 1986-1990

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: Selections from Stephen Foster's "The Social Orchestra," 1984-1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: Syncopated Piano Stylings, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "All the Sounds of the Earth are Like Music": The Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Songs from the Vaudeville Stage," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "The Streets of New York: American Musical Theater, 1866-1911," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Holiday Music around the World," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "The Mistletoe Bough": Turn-of-the-Century Holiday Music, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Music of Tin Pan Alley," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "...But Nevertheless It's Love": The Lyrics of Lorenz Hart, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: Price, Serkin, and Holt, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Kiss Me Again": The Music of Victor Herbert, 1985-1986

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Sing Me a Song with Social Significance": Theater Songs about Working Americans, 1986

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Hollywood Party": Music from American Films, 1986

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Music for Madame": Songs by American Women, 1986

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "The Land Where the Good Songs Go: American Musical Theater, 1911-1930," 1986

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Three Cornered Tune": Words and Music by Frank Loesser

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "I Hear Music": The Songs of Burton Lane

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Follow the Crowd": Irving Berlin in a New World

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "There's No Business Like Show Business": Irving Berlin and the American Musical Comedy

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Tell Me with a Melody": Irving Berlin and the Broadway Revue

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "For Your Country and My Country": Irving Berlin and the American Way

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Let's Face the Music and Dance": Irving Berlin in Hollywood

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "All the Sounds of the Earth are Like Music": Rogers and Hammerstein, 1989

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "Isn't it Romantic?": Richard Rodgers on Film, 1989

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "A College on Broadway": Richard Rogers Early Years, 1989

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "The Sweetest Sounds: Richard Rogers, 1962-1979," 1989

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: "The Heart is Quicker than the Eye: Rogers and Hart, 1935-1942," 1989

Box 1 of 2

Palm Court Cameos: Richard Rogers Script, 1989

Box 1 of 2

Jazz in the Palm Court: "Sidney Bechet, 1897-1959," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Jazz in the Palm Court: "The Singers of Swing," 1985

Box 1 of 2

Jazz in the Palm Court: Classic Gospel Song, 1988

Box 1 of 2

America on Film: Brochures, circa 1989-1997

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Poets of Popular Song: Alan Jay Lerner," 1991

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Poets of Popular Song: Langston Hughes," 1991

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Look What I Found: The Rediscovered Cole Porter," 1991

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Poets of Popular Song: Lyrics by Dorothy Fields," 1992

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Songs from Beggar's Holiday," 1992

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Songs from Pousse-Cafe," 1993

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Beautiful Morning and Enchanted Evenings: Fifty Years of Rogers and Hammerstein," 1993

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "What I Found in the (Tin Pan) Alley": An Afternoon with Gerald Marks, 1993

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "I Get Carried Away": A Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Tribute to Leonard Bernstein, 1994

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Shooting the Works for Uncle Sam: The Songs of the World War II G. I.," 1994

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "The Song is You: The Oscar Hammerstein II Centennial," 1995

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "Hooray for Hollywood: Songs from the American Movie Musical"

Box 1 of 2

American Song: "The Streets of New York"

Box 1 of 2

American Song: A Conversation with Alan and Marilyn Bergman

Box 1 of 2

American Song: A Conversation with Jon Hendricks

Box 1 of 2

American Song: A Conversation with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Box 1 of 2

American Song Scripts (3 folders)

Box 1 of 2

All-American Music: Brochures, 1989-1990

Box 1 of 2

Smithsonian Week in Long Beach, 2002

Box 1 of 2

Kern Centennial Musicale: "Can't Help Singing: Jerome Kern, 1935-1945," 1985

Box 1 of 2

An Evening with Frank Loesser, 1986

Box 1 of 2

The Jacksonville Bandstand, 1984-1986

Box 1 of 2

Rainbow around My Shoulder: A Centennial Celebration of Al Jolson, 1985

Box 1 of 2

A Centennial Celebration of Cole Porter, 1991

Box 1 of 2

Reggie Workman: The New School Jazz Ensemble, 1991

Box 1 of 2

God Bless America: Patriotic Music in American Life, 2002

Box 1 of 2

A Tribute to the Artistry of Bob Clampett, 1991

Box 1 of 2

Hoagy: Heart and Soul, 1987

Box 1 of 2

The United States Patent Model Foundation's Commencement of its "Rekindle the Spirit" Campaign, 1986

Box 1 of 2

A Centennial Tribute to Oscar Hammerstein II, 1995

Box 1 of 2

Inventing Spirits: A Musical Toast to American Technology, 1990

Box 1 of 2

Symposium: "Another Op'nin, Another Show: The People Who Created the American Musical," 2002

Box 1 of 2

American Musical Theater Series, 1979-1981

Box 1 of 2

World Explorer Series, 1979

Box 1 of 2

El Teatro Campesino: Theater as a Forum for Social Change, 1990

Box 1 of 2

Smithsonian Performing Arts: A Unique Cultural Resource, 1981

Box 1 of 2

Smithsonian Music at the Museum, 1976-1978

Box 1 of 2

Broadway in Wartime: Let Freedom Sing! 2004

Box 1 of 2

Music of the White House, 2001

Box 1 of 2

Conference on Music in America, 1985

Box 1 of 2

Black American Culture Programs, 1981-1993

Box 1 of 2

Dwight Blocker Bowers: "Can't Help Singing: Jerome Kern, 1935-1945, A Musicale for the Kern Centennial," 1984

Box 1 of 2

Pousse-Cafe in Concert: Narrative Treatment

Box 1 of 2

Victor Herbert Program Series: Production, Promotion, Staging Information, and Scripts, 1978

Box 1 of 2

Sharyn Huriaux Reitz: Victor Herbert Resources, 1978 (3 folders)

Box 1 of 2

Box 2

Sharyn Huriaux Reitz: Vaudeville Production, 1979 (3 folders)

Box 2 of 2

Warner Brothers Theater Film Festivals, 2012

Box 2 of 2

Beggar's Holiday Script (2 folders)

Box 2 of 2

Rendezvous with the '30s Script

Box 2 of 2

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