Harvey Sheldon Jewish American Music Video Research Library at UPenn

If you haven’t already noticed, the Unviersity of Pennsylvania has a finding aid for its Harvey Sheldon Jewish American Music Video Research Library. This is “part of the University of Pennsylvania Library’s Judaica collections, which is one of the largest and most distinguished in the world. In particular, the Sheldon collection complements Penn’s reknown Robert and Molly Freedman Jewish Music Archive”. This has VHS and DVD formats which include works by renowned Jewish composers and performances by some of America’s outstanding singers. There is an entire section devoted to Broadway/Hollywood Musicals composed by Jewish Composers and lyricists , or performers and arrangers, ranging from such works as Annie Get Your Gun to Showboat.

http://www.library.upenn.edu/cajs/sheldon.html

Even if you can’t make it to UPenn, your local public library may have many of the same items. It’s an interesting mix and speaks to the increasing recognition of Jewish composers’ contributions to American music in the twentieth century.