Library of Congress - August 2025

 Gather four people together; discuss dates for travel to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC - August 4, 5 and 6; plan for our individual research projects with our collective interest in the archives of publisher Arthur P. Schmidt of Boston; alert the Library of Congress we will be there on said dates – all this planning created a memorable three days in our nation’s library.

(John Adams Building - Library of Congress)

 Who were these four people?  Dr. Derek Strykowski who is authoring a book about Arthur P. Schmidt, his life and his impact on music publishing in America; Linda Johnson, great granddaughter of Arthur P. Schmidt with her interest in reviewing all the business records and letters from which she would learn more about her great grandfather; Dr. Regan Russell who wrote her dissertation on Gena Branscombe’s 150 art songs was reading women composers' letters written to Schmidt and then, well, me who you know has an interest in Gena Branscombe and whose publisher was Mr. Schmidt! 

 

Paul Sommerfeld, Senior Music Reference Specialist, knowing we were descending upon the Music Reading room assembled a display of items from the Arthur P. Schmidt Publishing Company archives.  Business ledger books, a photo of Schmidt’s home in Boston, an Amy Beach manuscript score and much more.  Joining us that first day was Robin Rausch, former Head of Reader Services, Music Division who is now retired.  Robin and I have known one another for nearly 17 years.  

 

Now it was on to our research.  We filled out our request slips for various items from the Schmidt archives, once the boxes arrived we settled into our individual research.  Stopping for lunch we were joined by Melissa Wertheimer, former Music Reference Specialist and now Senior Digital Collections Specialist for Web Archiving. 

 A few years ago Melissa presented a lecture on the first women composers who joined the National League of American Pen Women in 1924.  There we were over lunch -  Paul, Robin, Melissa, Regan, Derek, Linda and myself sharing our lives and music interests. 

(from left to right - Linda Johnson, Kathleen, Melissa Wertheimer, Regan Russell, Robin Rausch, Derek Strykowski)

Back to researching, then, dinner where once again lively conversation abounded despite our exhaustion from all we had read and photographed.  Sleep was, oh so, welcome that evening.

More of the same research on Tuesday and Wednesday - Schmidt boxes being called to our reading tables, sharing those boxes with one another, sharing our special finds.

(left to right - Kathleen, Paul Sommerfeld, Linda Johnson, Derek Strykowski)

From those three days spent at the Library of Congress we came away having made new friends with like-minded interests.  We are thankful for the experienced, helpful and kind group of Music Specialists at the Library. Their knowledge of the collections in the Library is unbeatable.   They have the ability to move from reading table to reading table offering advice to one person working on an 18^th century subject or another person researching a music theater collection and there we were working on Arthur P. Schmidt. I use this word honestly, these Music Specialists are amazing. 

(Note the picture behind Mr. Schmidt, top row, second from the left - Gena Branscombe - the very picture that was in her file in the Schmidt archive - see below)
 

Frequently I will say that using the internet for research is great, yet, when you befriend a librarian, their knowledge of your subject matter opens up a wide super highway of research materials which they happily share with you. Human contact….never forget the importance of human contact in our technology driven society.

#BringingBackBranscombe