An attorney a book on copyright issues. Use to navigate how the art ted in connects to or parts of history and culture and that is very what we will see today. Im looking forward to it so i offer y no more and libby. Thanks. I really am thrilled to see all f you here on this extremely muggy day and giving up your time to come to this presentation. Want to thank the staff for inviting me to come and talk really care that i about dearly. Am looking forward to you offering comments and at the end. Because one thing especially at that we ry of kofpfof congress can celebrate as the other Worlds Largest library, once you start opening turning over a mushroom or a stone you find so much more need to ask. Ly nd you find more pieces of the puzzle. I hope you will feel that way with my talk today. I will be learning from you at end of this and i hope you can take away some thoughts that for your ere valuable time spent with us today. Choice of topic today came from two interests. First one is that i love the dance as a ing at collaborative and creative process. So often the dancers or that was often my experience would be in classroom and they would be given sets of steps but we know where essarily they came from, why they were chosen and sometimes that even you go to a dance concert. For i have been finding dance at the Music Division is hat you cant tell any story with just one piece of nformation or one persons papers or special collection. Told fall river legend is one of my goto people when i have coming in and do show and tell displays. American ballet theater archive that is one of est existing american and we have ies their papers. We have the morton gould papers name may not be 21st century known across country but at the time in the 1930s, 940s, 1950s he was doing marvelo marvelous marvelous compositions and his ork may have helping aness demille make some choices about the he was going to handle story. We have the only srr smith oliver smith papers. He was the cofounder of america theater and a lot dont realize he was architecturely trained. I hope when you see some designs you will go that is why what he is so masterful. The peggy clark papers are also interesting. She was notably a breakthrough Lighting Designer and she didnt actually do the Lighting Design for the premiere in 1948 but she do the sebgcond year lighting and worked with the existing set. I hope you will see that it is a lighting plots in her repertoire. White a couple of miles we have some correspondence that said they had to be tweaked, because his was more suitable for a theatrical rather than a dance type production. They had to make adjustments. We have some of those too. If you are at the music just you sick division, i would pull things from various collections, setting them up on stands, and you would see the scores marked. Early sketches in the final versions. I find it really exciting. There is still an awful lot of gaps to fill, especially if i will talk to you for 20 or 30 minutes. Usually i just let the visuals do all of the talking for me. What am i going to be doing to actually connect to the topic , which is theoday theme of the theories, which is congress and the arts. The first thing is, you are seeing your tax dollars at work. There is a connection right there. We have a Music Division. But, you probably were not old the first version of the Music Division. It was in the jefferson building. The storydont know of why the library of Congress Even collects music. In 1812, thethat, british burned on the library, so they had nothing. Thomas jefferson was in financial straits so he sold his personal library to the congress. There happened to be 13 music books in the collection, which gave people the idea, oh, we should continue to collect music books. So they began to get in some music theory books. Here we have the music collection at the time. This is part of it. At the other end there is a room. You see that stack of stuff . Scores, sheet music, stuff that came in for copyright deposits. As you know, the library of Congress Also is the place where , that areworks printed in the United States, are deposited into two copies. All of this stuff came in at great cost. Who feltir of oscar, that an awful lot of that stuff was just popular music, and he wrote in his annual report in 1902 that the Music Division reports that it was collecting, effectively, both the treasures as well as the trash. That was his word of american music. And of european music forms as well. You can find us not in the jefferson building, we are in the madison building. Get Library Cards and, and ask me to show all the stuff in person that you might want to see closeup. I invite you to do that. Given that i have already given you a little bit about the Music Division, but what can we say borden mythzzie or legend and how agnes de mille adopted it. What kind of thing did she know or assume . I i look at this i realized had to go much deeper and earlier than the actual existing materials that document the fall river the fall river legend ballet. The one i am most familiar with music reading room. We have a prince and photographs division. , andcollect major american other photographers and posters. I found a lot of documents there of the fall river legend. As i begin to look further out ito the library, i found that was not the first one by a longshot to be interested in borden at theizzie library of congress. Or is a website that gives you a timeline and ports points you down to certain resources. I did see there was not much about fall river about fall will have to and i remedy that. Newspapers and periodicals divisions. We have all sorts of small papers and large ones across the United States, especially in the 19th century. They were come out daily, sometimes twice a day. , i had only been up the library for four years, there is always lots to discover , that the National Endowment for the humanities has been diligently digitizing historic newspapers and making them available online. Borden murders, 1892, and the trial, 1893, filled with articles digitized from across the country and abroad. Then, there is the main reading room in general collection. We have lots and lots of books, lizzie has been covered in many of them. Sometimes not effectively, but we have a lot. Lizzieshe is, the young is on the left. She is about to see where that trial happened there on the right. What facts do we know . We know she was not a worldly woman. She was sheltered. Was because her father seemed to not want to spend much money on his two daughters. She had an older sister. Her mom died when she was two years old. She did not really know her mother very well. Agnesl talk about what de mille does with that fact in a little bit. Her family was wealthy. Other bordens who lived in fall river, massachusetts, which is where this was set, was even even morehy were wealthy. When her father was murdered and atd, his estate was valued , people putich estimates that 8 million today. He was certainly wealthy. He had taken one trip abroad she was active in her church, which was appropriate for an unmarried young woman in a small town in massachusetts. Thewhat about the rest of cast of characters . We have emma, her older sister on the left. There is evidence they did not really get along. They were not that close. And known have died their natural mother more. Then we have the stepmother in the middle. By. T was ab it was really rumored, or assumed that this unmarried woman who is approaching middle age was marrying for the stability and the moneys that Andrew Borden had. Probably true. The trial lets us know from the transcripts dad lizzie continued to call her stepmother mrs. Borden, which suggests there was no real love lost in their relationship. The house still stands in fall river, massachusetts. This is the house and 92 2nd street. You can see the barn behind era little bit. Clock board very typical of new england. Not particularly adorned. Not in the clean and style of the late 19th century. Many of the wealthy people in fall river had moved up on the hill as it was called in fall river, and had gotten himself electricity, it lectures electricity, plumbing and a telephone. Andrew borden was a womanizer and they did not have internal heat. They were using chamber pots and germs. Or best they no telephone were using chamber pots and pales. They had no telephone. On the right you would see part of his real estate development. This was a building a process in 1982 at the time of the murders. He was making quite a bit of money in terms of being on bank boards, and in his real estate and mercantile dealings. Thats what we know. We also have the evidence from the crime. Im assuming you all know what the crime is, that you probably have heard the childhood rhyme. Here it is, i will go right there. Ax, gaverden took an her mother 40 whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. I remember doing jump rope to this. Is anyone have memories of that exercise . Interestingly, and i will have to talk to more of my music colleagues about this, but i did talk to a couple. A lot of the sources say this was chanted in the 1890s to a popular burlesque the article tune. My colleagues in music are much more adapt at musical singing and rhythm than i. This tnnot do it to une. Was interestedie in the articles. Maybe that was somehow part of what how that arose. I cannot really say. The other thing is, i think we can all guess that this is just a frivolous little rhyme, its not to be considered factual. At that i would give you a few corrections. The murder weapon was a hatchet. By doing my research i learned what the differences between an ax and a hatchet. Looks a lot better in a ballet. It has a longer handle and looks much more dramatic. An ax would have been more indling size. K the murder weapon is incorrect. Its not her mom, its her stepmother, and she did not even get close to 40, not even half that, 18. We have the autopsy results and the photos. Societyer historical and others, i am not putting them up there, but, if you do enjoy that kind of research, perhaps you are working on a degree to be a medical examiner, you might find it of historical interest. Her father received 10 blows. We do know that she was acquitted by a jury of 12 men. That is called a jury of her peers. Interesting historical perspective. Anyway, they did a quick her. The question is, well, then, why . Are in the circumstances fact really odd. Even wikipedia has errors in there. Every 10 to 20 years, a special collection or a new piece of evidence seems to come up. A lot of the people who were the 18921893, who were involved in the trial, were very much concerned about locking down the information. They did not really want to create a lot of rumors. The doctor, he was very careful about not giving away anything about lizi that would have zzie that would have been considered confidential. Even before the trial they sat on papers. Some of those are getting to collections now. Not the library, but they have been republished in some books, which the library has. It was part of my research. There you have a. It was the stepmother of stairs then the guest room, father who came back after or went downtown to do some business and came back, and thats how he was found. That is up above actually a photo of the exhibited evidence. Byt piece was actually found the household made when the police came. Thatdid find later although that was offered as evidence, there were certain situations about that metal and the autopsy results. It was discredited. It could not have been the murder weapon. Hat did have axes and chets in the house, but they could not match one with what happened here. So, where did we go . Here is some of what the sources would be. If you go to the main collection at the library of congress. The oldest one was published in 1893, almost immediately after the trial. R wasedwin h. Porte reporting on the trial all long in the area, and had a predisposition towards lizzies guilt. He pretty much selected what he wanted to give in the book you see in the center. It is available in the library. I think its available on google books because of the Lizzie Borden of session has published it. You can find it online at this point of session has published it. You can find it online at this point. A large portion of it was pieced together and selected that pointed to the trial of lizzies guilt. It did not question some of the questionable heart, where it seemed as though she could not have done it. That was the book that agnes de mille used most in researching just researching the Lizzie Borden research in the Lizzie Borden story. We can find it in her own book. She is a great storyteller. It is a good read even though you have to be careful and note that she is a storyteller first and a fact give her second. Second. T giver the delightful book about the Lizzie Borden story one of the things that i read, and i cannot confirm, but it was published in the biography of her was that she took this book on her honeymoon to read. Interesting choice. Her book was published in the 1960s. Recently in my life, 40 wacks was published in 1992. About 100 years after the murders. To find a lot of evidence that cast even more doubt on the whole trial and the validity of some of the evidence that was put forward. Agne had no ways to access what he was able to see later. I will share a little bit of this with you. There is one of the things i think is critical. This is a letter from the to theting attorney state attorney general who was really quite interested in how this trial was going to go. See that i have 1993, i just want you to know that is a typo, its 1893 if you look up there. Sorry about that. Like 1993 as already ancient history some days. He writes this letter and i have done a quote there so that you can see he is getting a report and basically, lizzie, after her arrest has been in prison for the better part of a year awaiting trial. He is reporting on it. Says the last sentence in i think it may well be that the jury might disagree. Pon the case but even in my most sanguine moments, i have scarcely accepted a verdict of guilty. So, even the people who were investigating, and would have wanted to give the strongest case that they could, had a lot of doubt. In this letter and other correspondence, it becomes clear that they do feel lizzie knows more than she is saying. But there is not the preponderance of evidence that is going to clear reasonable doubt. That was a letter that agnes when i have had access to because it came to Fall River Historical Society much later. In time for david kent to write his reexamination book. What she did have access to. Ould be things like this sketches that happened in all publications and newspapers during the trial. Lizzie was front and center in an awful lot of cases. This leads me to the that the Resource Library of congress has done what the collaboration of the National Endowment for the humanities, which is chronicling america, Digital Access to the historic american newspaper. I did a screenshot of a search. I used Lizzie Borden, put it in quotes and i got almost 2000 hits. Which would be the year of the murder and year of the verdict. Lizzie bordenthe name occurs in those papers. Thatesting thing to me was there would be a german newspaper. Sometimes the were just republishing things that were shared through other newspapers. This was something that was being covered really seriously. Found thatexamples i was most interesting to me was a case where a newspaper called the prison mirror, and i have not gone any farther to figure out exactly what this 19th century publication was, but it was based in minnesota and reprinted a st. Paul minnesota article st. Paul, minnesota article that showed what was coming out of fall river, and the errors that were in the initial article. Thought, isnt that interesting, because here we are and we are having the same questions about News Coverage and people looking at whether or not we are getting true facts. I think we have had this problem all along. Anyone who really wants to go and look up Lizzie Borden, now youve got at your fingertips sources that will keep you busy for a long time. Popular coverage has not stopped. Did a lovelye feature on the american ballet theater premiere upcoming for fall river legend but cannot resist republishing the crime photos that circulated so far. There you see it on the left at the bottom. These are from the morton gould scrapbooks. He was really very religious about his programs, articles, reviews. Just as a little side note, i want you all to think about what we lose by not scrapbooking now. By doing everything digitally. Able to wonderful to be go here and find the things that he selected and thought were important. This timmy says, we americans and worldwide as humans have byays been somehow entranced looking at the grizzly. It is that kind of documentation about us asmething a people. What we choose to spend our time thinking about. I will leave you to make conclusions yourselves. For oneust go back second. The article makes clear that Lizzie Borden was in fact acquitted, and that for the purpose of this ballet, agnes de. Ille went with edwin porter but also who wrote that slanted book that came out, but also morton gould goes on record saying that he writes better hanging music than he writes acquittal music. So for a dramatic finale, that is what they decide to go with. Isen that the popular belief that she probably did the deed, there was not a lot of pushback. Did changegh, agnes the name of the protagonist, and its not Lizzie Borden, but it is the accused. We all know it is inspired by but theie borden story, names are all about stepmother, or accused, young lizzie, the young child, not lizzie. Also just want you to see an example. This was of interest to me as a predominantly dancer theater historian. Before i started working in the Music Division, i was not going to music scores to find out a lot of information. This is an example of where composer morton gould, who is collaborating day in day out with agnes de mille on the sections of her ballet, helps us to see the creative process. Is an early sketch and he has listed the sections. A gives us a little bit of information. The prologue, which is section one. We know that was instrumental music that was played for the opening theme, where we all are going to see the gallows and live and here the indictment and the verdict read. It is a framing device that used. De mille we dont always think about words and ballet going together, but that is what happened for this one. We see the elegy. A lyrical dream lizzie andere child the birth mother and their father are dancing together, and the accused joins in. It kind of gives you that sense of belonging, what she missed. For not having her original mother as part of growing up. Lizzies mother died when she was two. This is a dramatic reimagining of something for dramatic purpose. Others, theht and character of the pastor or minister comes in. Church was really important in the 19th century villages. They use that in order to create a motive for lizzie. That was one of the questions that was surrounding the trial. What was it that was precipitating this incredible action, and how do you attribute that to lizzie . So, they created a Love Interest for her. We do know she ended up never marrying and was ostracized. There is some question there with 19th century women and the expectation that they need to marry and create their own home, has played into it. It is much harder if we are looking into a ballet about a murder because of a will or an estate. Its harder to put that into lovethen dancing a interest who is somehow interrupted or unrequited as a dramatic feature. Just say no, just so you know, agnes de mille was not the only one who changed the ending of what actually happened. I have to cite this nine pine street, which may be a bit of a not up to much trauma by john and carlton miles, who did a lot of playwriting. This was based on the Lizzie Borden story. The names were changed, they did names, notharacter just family title names. They said it as a whodunit qaeda set. It reminds in just a whodunit k they said it as a whodunit kind of set. I do have these photos from a federal theater project, a library offrom the congress, that kind of shows this wonderfully overbuilt set. Theres the lizzie character, on the left there, coming down the stairs. See it. Cant really but its a publicity photo that has her sort of hiding the arm. N of choice under her in this case, they did another dramatic change to the story as we know it. Theres no ax in this play. Instead, she bludgeoned her mother with an iron. She has tucked under her arm. If you think about the oldfashioned irons, theyre incredibly heavy. We dont iron anything anymore, we . You probably dont even have one. Have doneit could some pretty serious damage. Interestingan change towards more of a home economic weapon instead of an ax or a hachet. So i want to share with you some the photos that i would be bringing out for you to see, if in the music there division. Of them. Ere some and you can see how the sets are. These are wonderfully developed sets, because they can be shifted around. And im sure youve seen this. Its done oftentimes now on broadway. So it becomes something else. Can sort of see where the gallows would be if you shifted it around. This here, with the plain chairs, this is a basement scene. And you see down on the left that is sort of the parlor or the sitting room. Thats part of the dream ballet. Now, when the premier happened, elisea, you may danceer name if you are aficionados, being the 99yearold head of cuban ballet, National Cuban ballet right now, because she did cuba. To themt any rate, the two of were extraordinarily capable of interpretive angst and passion. Wellsuited for embodying the Lizzie Borden accused figure. And this i thought gives you a little sense ive put the dream ballet part up above what the set the version. Thats Oliver Smiths set design there. The lower side. You see the artistry of that. Did individualn specifications and the instructions of how to fit it all together. Up on the right side, we peggy clark giving shertistic drawings of how wants her lights to look on the set, which i think is brilliant. A lighting plot. But when you see that, you definitely know, if youve hung light, whether youve got it or not. But thats the gallows scene that i wanted to also show you, going from the somber to the, you know, strong red look that younale scene so had a sense of just when we at black and white pictures, we do know that theyre period, but its good to something with some color so that you can see what was stage. Ned for the so in a few of the actresses is nora who really was agnes de milles first choice. Noted in pillar of fire. Really was considered one of the ballet dancersve of her time. And, you know, these are three different sets. There she is, with the ax. And with her mourning outfit. Dress whener the she was being courted. Notable dancers role, youaken on the fratchi, alexandria ferri, some of the most abroadul dancers from who were able to take on this role. Restagedater has also this. But they dont use the set. American ballet theater wants to lock down the oliver being theirs as version. And also, its such a large that setn in terms of that some of the, you know, budget touringr Companies Might not want to be of that set and hardware for it. But here again, i just wanted to research guide. This is what then led me to the chronicling america. Just we are just getting ready to publish a library guide specifically for dance. So fall river legend is well represented in that. Its coming soon. And we also have an interface aere you can send us question. So there we all are. Anyway. Of us that was the moment when we got librarian, who came and we had a group picture, group hug. Am. Ow where i and so thats it. Been helpful to think about adapting real the stage and the choices that are made and maybe about our arts or about the event itself. Thanks [applause] so i think we have a little or comments. Tions i hope i havent disappointmented anyone who to know where the feet were, because i was doing cultural type of than an actual how to. What kind of support can a de mills look forward to, if they proposed a historybased really interesting question. So the question was, what kind a choreographer or artist might get if they had a factbased, eventbased adaptation . I would look to i mean, thats a great thing, because withctually didnt come up the idea. It was someone in american ballet theater who thought it might be good for her. Had just finished choreographing rodeo to great success, so they thought she was ballets andory pa characterdriven story ballets especially. They fit that idea to her. Basically there isnt a lot of support generally, especially not for dance that i can see. Storydriven for dance is not as encouraged as i think it be. Ld now you know about my aesthetic. Dancing asee dancers people. Other people like watching abstractions. G thats fine. But, you know, i have a preference. Story interesting stories. I would, however, look at the 9 11 based come from away, which is on thedway now, which is about actual event and it involves a lot is developed from interviews of the people who were stranded in the airlines couldnt land in the United States after 9 11, and in, of all places, new newfoundland. Done a wonderful job of doing a lot of factbased investigations. It to a changing names butt using real creating characters from the interviews. Theres the bands visit, which is based on fact. Just came to the kennedy center. Of you see that . Id love to know how that came being. We better found out how. Ha ha me someust given assignments. Ha ha have any examples of factbased . Are the agnes de mille papers . Arehe agnes de mille papers at new york public library. The dance division, which is located in the Lincoln Center building theres one next door. A billy rose theater, a there. Music division they have a lot of especially new yorkbased artists have put their papers there. Im hoping that, you know, as we go digitally, that more and more were going to help each other by sharing. Did you use those papers, and go to fall river and use the no. Do that well, besides the fact that its been summer ha ha i decided that really, given that its congress and the arts, i wanted to show you what you could find in the library. The number of people ive have no idea we have anything related to the performing arts at the library of Congress Makes me sad. Astonishingsome things, you know. We are the only place for martha scholarship on graham. Who knew . But its not in new york. Not at the graham company. Weve got it. Similarly, with certain broadway, gershwin, i mean, theres a lot that really if youre going to work on it, you need to come here. Am intrigued i about going up to fall river, i have to say. Anyone else . Great question. Question. Yes . Mentioned that [inaudible] do we have any material on the idea of finding her the was this musically driven or was it choreographically driven . I think a bit of both. Have that 9, we do pine street predecessor. That her uncle was so asolved in theater circles well, i cant believe she wouldnt have known about lilian in that play where in fact the Lizzie Borden was found guilty. Shed have probably seen a precedent in some way. The other thing is i this think i think good composers choreographers edit in a way. They have ideas, because and you look at some of his early piece, you can see, they have this idea. Written, you know, and then its pulled back and that section doesnt go. Was very unlike some composers, he really did work well collaboratively. Wants, its like, i dont you to change my graham did not see he sent to school. Oftheres a lot correspondence. Appalachianlled spring. It was like a house of it had of an americann indian speaking. Ans would look not like american iconic piece in the 21st century. The john brown uprising as an episode in it. Like melo drama to me. To write,at he wanted i think. And he kept editing her down. At the coolidge auditorium. Ever been over there to see our space, which is for stick aorchestras, to dance in there, it had better be of a small community. To get thegoing fall river legend set on that stage. But i think its interesting. I think agnes de mille likes to selfpromote a little and take little bit, because in her book, it makes it feel as idea to as her that she was so guilty. Of taped things, it seems as though theres a for theore respect input from morton gould. Know. Dont hes not hear to follow up questions. Another question . Anyone . Thought . Yes . [inaudible] in what ways would you say congress has influenced the arts . Well, for the library of congress, we have a free concert of the coolidg coolidge not related to the president elizabeth coolidges endowment of the make chamberace to music or jazz available for free. I think its something thats incredible. Thats part of our building. Were under the architect of the capitol. Would say i mean, i dont think necessarily its, know and they fund us. Hiring or we just hired more staff in the music we cann, which means accelerate the amount of material we can make available. So much. Dont assume its all cataloged, cant possibly be. I think its over 25 million check, just in the Music Division, which includes dance and theater and design as well. The fact that, you know, we feel like we have a very Good Relationship with congress. From that respect, definitely. Cant speak for National Endowment for the arts. Thats important too. Thats another role. But im not the right person to prognosticate on that. Ha ha mmmhmm . I have a question. Gatheringure material for collections within division, at some point a decision is made about what of somethingevel kind of graphic enough to Community Dance who makes those decisions and whats it based on . We have a recommending for dance. So if it were a dance book, the is its coming in, if its published in the United States, it will come in through copyright. But ive been in touch with, you dance bookres a person in new jersey who works publish. U. K. We kind of have a reciprocal thing. There was a book i thought we in our reference collection. And he donated it to us, because i showed interest. That was lovely. We also have a purchasing budget when we think something is us to go out and get. But, yes, and its not as though can say, oh that group, we must have that should. But its going to have to go through an Acquisitions Committee within our division it has to go through a memorandum of recommendation and chain,s way up the because we do make decisions on resources and staff and space. If were going to take in morton fact a papers, it is in large collection. And we need to know and well that collection will need digitizing or other kinds of preservation. Saw the scrap books. That kind of paper just disintegrates at this point in your hand. Sometimes i feel im wearing it out, because its all crummy, if to handlehaving things. I i love my job ha ha i should say, however, that my two predecessors, vicki and elizabeth, were the people who got in a lot of these collections. The american ballet theater 2009,e came in around which is a few years before i started. Martha graham was around the year 2000. Ailey. These are companies of national or international repute. Gotta havend said we them represented. And im very thankful that they succeeded. [inaudible] it is. 1 00. [applause] on americanend, history tv, today, at 6 p. M. Civil war. The scott mingus talks about the of the Cumberland Valley railroad during the civil war. Lectures in on history, a discussion on playwright August Wilson. So the things that are motivating August Wilson are his desire to move black people from margins to the center. About us . Hats true what matters to us . Lives . Happening in our and sunday, at 4 p. M. Eastern 1919 silentica, the motor convoy. He presidency, on the Herbert Hoover and his world war i relief work. Mostlyer and his team of american volunteers built the crv into a remarkable organization. It had its own flag. It had its own fleet. It negotiated what you might treaties with some of the warring european powers. Enjoyeder, hoover, informal diplomatic immunity and freely through enemy lines. Probably the only american citizen permitted to do so the entire war. Explore our nations past on American History tv, every on cspan 3. This weekend, american our cable is joining partners to showcase the history of lansing, michigan. To watch more video from the on our