Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Melissa Wertheimer
Archive: 2026 (46 Posts)
A Commitment to Trustworthy and Authentic Information: Technological Transformation Over the Centuries September 15, 2026 Posted by: Leah Weinryb-Grohsgal Artificial intelligence is transforming society and institutions worldwide. The Library of Congress, founded in 1800, has been through numerous major technological revolutions since then. In some ways, the implementation of AI is similar to previous technological and digital transformations. In others, it is unlike anything that has come before.
Archive: September 2026 (10 Posts)
Machine Capabilities at a Human Scale: Get to Know the Revolution Crossroads Initiative September 4, 2026 Posted by: Leah Weinryb-Grohsgal For the 2026 American Semiquincentennial year, the Library of Congress is working with the Smithsonian Institution to look at how artificial intelligence technologies can help make new discoveries about history. Dubbed “Revolution Crossroads,” the initiative aims to demonstrate what AI could do to enable new insights and explorations with collections.
Web Archiving | The Signal
Results: 1 - 9 of 138 Web Archive Collections in Online Reference Resources September 30, 2026 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer Archived websites are born-digital primary sources of our current age that offer a plethora of information literacy opportunities for educators and students alike. Explore a sample of guides created by the Library’s subject experts that feature web archive collections alongside digitized historical documents, e-books, databases, and more.
Category: Publications and Resources
New Resources from FADGI on Content Authenticity and Provenance for AI-impacted Content September 17, 2026 Posted by: Liz Tencer The Federal Agencies Digital Guideline Initiative has two new resources now open for public comment: "TCR4CAP: Tiered Community Recommendations for Content Authenticity and Provenance, with a focus on LAM collections content impacted by artificial intelligence" and the supporting technical assessment report, "Content Authenticity and Provenance for Audiovisual...
Category: Education and Training
Web Archive Collections in Online Reference Resources September 30, 2026 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer Archived websites are born-digital primary sources of our current age that offer a plethora of information literacy opportunities for educators and students alike. Explore a sample of guides created by the Library’s subject experts that feature web archive collections alongside digitized historical documents, e-books, databases, and more.
Web Archives | In The Muse
Jazz Archiving Panel at Jazz Congress 2026 February 23, 2026 Posted by: Claudia Morales In January of this year, concert producer Claudia Morales served as a panelist at Jazz Congress, a multi-day gathering produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Archive: January 2026 (3 Posts)
Anywhere Adventures is Hitting the Road! January 15, 2026 Posted by: Isabel Brador We’re on the hunt for two U.S. communities to include in Vivian Li’s Innovator in Residence Project, Anywhere Adventures! Visitors to the mobile experience are currently able to explore three American communities, Seattle, Chicago, and Southeastern Wyoming, through items from the Library’s digital collections and learn about the stories, people, and events that shaped everyday life in these places.
Web Archiving at the Library After 25 Years
This post is co-written by Abbie Grotke (Section Head), Amanda Lehman (Digital Collections Specialist), and Melissa Wertheimer (Senior Digital Collections Specialist) of the Web Archiving Section to close our 25th-anniversary celebration year with some highlights of the program. In 2025 we wrapped up our 25th year of web archiving at the Library of Congress! We also ended the year with over 100 web archive collections available online.
In Memoriam | In The Muse
Ned Rorem and the Library of Congress: An Appreciation November 30, 2022 Posted by: Morgen Stevens-Garmon The following is a guest post by Music Division Specialist Loras John Schissel who has compiled letters and diary entries from Ned Rorem illuminating the composer’s relationship with the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Look not to things that are seen, but to that which is unseen; for things that are seen pass … Posted in: Composers, In Memoriam
Archive: June 2024 (4 Posts)
A Summer Music Odyssey June 24, 2024 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer The following is a guest post by 2024 Junior Fellow Jacob LaBarge. I am Jacob’s project mentor for the project Mind the Gap: Taking Stock of Contemporary Composer Voices with the assistance of Music Specialist David Plylar. Jacob’s objective this summer is to inventory the Music Division’s holdings of select published contemporary music scores through … Posted in: Guest bloggers, New Music
Louis Eilshemius: American Beethoven?
Composer. Teacher. Lyricist. Pianist. Painter. “The American Beethoven, Chopin, etc.!” Yes, dear In the Muse readers, you read that correctly. Who was Louis Eilshemius that he dared to make such a claim? An event took place at the Library on Friday, January 12, in collaboration with the Embassy of Switzerland and the Phillips Collection, to examine that very question. I was lucky enough to participate with other Library colleagues in a display for the event.
Archive: January 2024 (4 Posts)
Annegret Fauser and Tim Carter Fellowship at the Library of Congress Music Division January 19, 2024 Posted by: Cait Miller In 2024, the Music Division will launch a new fellowship, the Annegret Fauser and Tim Carter Research Fellowship, to ensure support for post-doctoral (or equivalent) researchers of any nationality engaging in projects centered on collections held within the Library’s Music Division.
Archive: July 2023 (4 Posts)
Performing Arts Reading Room Website gets a Makeover! July 31, 2023 Posted by: Heather Darnell Hey, everyone! The Performing Arts Reading Room website has undergone a makeover. Our streamlined design is more accessible, mobile-friendly, and responsive — making it easy for researchers to find the information they need while discovering new resources.
You’ve Got [Hate] Mail
The following is a guest post by Music Reference Specialist Heather Darnell. Haters, am I right? No matter how well you do something, there’s always someone waiting to take you down a notch. But you’re not alone! Even the greats had their fair share of detractors. For today’s post, we are taking a look at hate mail to some of the best in the business: musicians Henry Mancini, Jascha Heifetz, and Leonard Bernstein.
Archive: April 2022 (2 Posts)
Neil Simon Papers at the Library of Congress April 28, 2022 Posted by: Cait Miller The Library of Congress celebrated the acquisition of the Neil Simon Papers by hosting a conversation with actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker who currently star in the Broadway revival of Simon's comedy Plaza Suite. Watch a recording of their conversation with Plaza Suite director John Benjamin Hickey, as well as a video overview of the Simon Papers featuring Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz.
Performing Arts in the Coronavirus Web Archive: Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I walked readers through Coronavirus Web Archive items within the theme of financial relief efforts in the performing arts. This second post focuses on medical and public health initiatives specific to the performing arts. From the beginning of the pandemic, a major question swept through the performing arts community: how and when can we perform together safely?
Archive: March 2022 (6 Posts)
Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre No. 1 March 1, 2022 Posted by: Library of Congress On March 1, 2022, In the Muse published a blog post announcing a finding aid to the Music Division’s Florence B. Price Music Manuscripts. Although we are proud to enhance discoverability of the Library’s Florence Price manuscripts with the finding aid, the blog post contained some inaccurate information and lacked appropriate citations.
Archive: February 2022 (5 Posts)
Performing Arts in the Coronavirus Web Archive: Part 1 February 22, 2022 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer The Coronavirus Web Archive official landing page and press release came out on #WebArchiveWednesday, February 2, 2022. My first post in this series provides an overview of one of the major thematic areas within the Coronavirus Web Archive: financial relief efforts in the performing arts. Performing arts content is a significant part of the Coronavirus Web Archive numbering over 180 items.
Archive: January 2022 (3 Posts)
Who Was Maia Bang Hohn? January 21, 2022 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer Back in October 2021, my dear colleagues in the Music Division Concert Office asked me to film a short curator talk about our world famous Nicolò Paganini holdings. As I learned more about Maia Bang Hohn, whose widower Charles sold the materials to the Library, I realized that she is more than just a collector in a footnote.
Who Was Maia Bang Hohn?
Back in October 2021, my dear colleagues in the Music Division Concert Office asked me to film a short curator talk about our world famous Nicolò Paganini holdings to coincide with Augustin Hadelich’s virtual violin recital. I felt both daunted and excited by this task. As a flutist, my main contact with Paganini is performing transcriptions of the Violin Caprices in concert and etude study settings.
Archive: August 2021 (3 Posts)
Two New Research Guides about Latin American Composers August 31, 2021 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer I am thrilled to announce the online publication of two new Music Division research guides: Latin American Composers in Music Division Collections and Primary Sources for Latin American Composers at the Library of Congress. These guides complement each other, and you can also use one or the other depending on your own research needs and interests. Posted in: Latin American History, Research Guides
Two New Research Guides about Latin American Composers
I am thrilled to announce the online publication of two new Music Division research guides: Latin American Composers: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress and Primary Sources for Latin American Composers at the Library of Congress. These guides complement each other, and you can also use one or the other depending on your own research needs and interests.
Archive: July 2021 (4 Posts)
July 28, 2021 Posted by: Morgen Stevens-Garmon Howard University intern Cienna Benn shares her experience work with the papers of distinguished African American opera and concert soprano Jessye Norman Posted in: African American History, Guest bloggers, Musicians, Women in Music July 26, 2021 Posted by: Morgen Stevens-Garmon Rachel McNellis looks at music theory in the Middle Ages and the development of the solfege system.
In Memoriam Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen, composer. Handwritten title page with dedication for Zilver, 1994. ML30.3c.A56 no. 1 (Case), Koussevitzky Music Foundation Collection, Music Division. Dutch composer, pianist, and teacher Louis Andriessen (1939-2021) passed away on July 1, 2021. He is connected to the Music Division through his 1993 Koussevitzky Music Foundation commission.
Performing Arts in the Coronavirus Web Archive: Part 4
In Part 1 of this series, I walked readers through Coronavirus Web Archive items within the theme of financial relief efforts in the performing arts. Part 2 of this series highlighted collection items related to medical and public health initiatives specific to performing arts communities. Part 3 of the series featured archived performance directories, calendars, and listings from the pandemic.
Performing Arts in the Coronavirus Web Archive: Part 3
In Part 1 of this series, I walked readers through Coronavirus Web Archive items within the theme of financial relief efforts in the performing arts. Part 2 of this series highlighted collection items related to medical and public health initiatives specific to performing arts communities. This post features archived performance directories, calendars, and listings from the pandemic.
Archive: May 2021 (8 Posts)
Announcing the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive May 3, 2021 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer The Music Division’s latest web archive collection, the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive, is ready for you to explore in our digital collections! This collection contains websites and select social media to document professional networks in the performing arts over time.
Commissioned Composers of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage
I’m excited to share this blog post about commissioned composers in honor of Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, May 2021. You may recall that for Women’s History Month 2019, I had compiled a list of the first women composers commissioned by each Music Division Fund. For National Hispanic Heritage Month 2019, I shared commission firsts by composers’ countries of origin.
Announcing the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive
I am excited to share the Music Division’s latest web archive collection, the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive! This collection contains websites and select social media to document professional networks in the performing arts over time. The collection items are those of professional, labor, and advocacy organizations at regional, national, and international levels. Its initial batch of 85 archived websites is ready for you to explore in our digital collections.
A Guided Dance Research Tour for National Dance Week
National Dance Week 2021 is upon us! Let’s take a guided tour from the safety of our homes through a recently published research guide, Dance Research at the Library of Congress. Pay close attention to all of the digital resources available online! Vorenberg & Co. “En Tour,” 1904. Color lithograph of three women and a man riding in an automobile in the country. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. An exhibit item featured in Politics and the Dancing Body.
Dance in Our Web Archives
National Dance Week 2021 begins April 19th, but the Music Division loves dance throughout the month and entire year! We often promote our dance special collections and stories of dancers and choreographers within them on this blog, and you can explore those past posts with the blog category tags “Dance” and “Women in Dance.” Today’s post, though, gives an early launch to National Dance Week by featuring dance, dancers, and choreographers within archived websites at the Library of Congress!...
Vicomtesse Marie de Grandval: A composer with pen names galore
At the end of my January blog post about 19th-century French composer Louise Angélique Bertin, I promised that a feature was forthcoming about her contemporary Marie Felicie Clémence de Reiset, the Vicomtesse de Grandval (1828/30-1907).
In The Muse: Performing Arts Blog
The following is a guest post from Music Division Archivist Janet McKinney. To celebrate Black History Month and commemorate the centennial of Hazel Scott, the Music Division is pleased to announce a new online finding aid for the Hazel Scott Papers. Unidentified photographer. Hazel Scott, circa 1945. Box 10, folder 2, Hazel Scott Papers, Music Division.
Archive: January 2021 (5 Posts)
“Loudly applauded”: Composer Louise Angélique Bertin January 15, 2021 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer January 15, 2021 is the 216th birthday of Louise Angélique Bertin. She was a French composer, poet, librettist, and painter. She was the only composer to work directly with Victor Hugo, the first French composer to set Goethe’s Faust as an opera, and the first woman of the 19th century to have an opera performed at the Opéra de Paris.
“Loudly applauded”: Composer Louise Angélique Bertin
January 15, 2021 is the 216th birthday of Louise Angélique Bertin (January 15, 1805 – April 26, 1877). She was a French composer, poet, librettist, and painter. She was the only composer to work directly with Victor Hugo (author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame), the first French composer to set Goethe’s Faust as an opera (she wrote the libretto and music), and the first woman of the 19th century to have an opera performed at the Opéra de Paris.
Archive: October 2020 (6 Posts)
Concerts from the Library of Congress to Open its 96th Season October 22, 2020 Posted by: Claudia Morales We cordially invite you to join us in an exhilarating virtual adventure, one that opens a new portal to our extraordinary concerts and conversations, new works commissioned by the Library, and major celebrations, including a very special (Re)Hearing Beethoven festival. This year, we’re adding a captivating and entirely new dimension to the concert experience.
Musical Birthday Wishes to Mrs. Coolidge
On your birthday, I bet you love getting cards in the mail, e-cards in your inbox, texts full of emojis, and Facebook posts from faraway friends. Imagine if you received handwritten musical scores full of birthday wishes, too! On October 30, the Music Division musically celebrates the birthday of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (October 30, 1864-November 4, 1953) as Founder’s Day. Mrs.
Archive: July 2020 (5 Posts)
Music in Time of Pestilence, Part One July 8, 2020 Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld Part one of this two-part survey of musical responses to past pandemics focuses on sacred music from the years that the Black Death ravaged medieval Europe. Texts such as the Stella Celi Extirpavit and Recordare Domine illustrate the penitence and fear of the wrath of God that prevailed until the Enlightenment. Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Sacred music
Archive: June 2020 (6 Posts)
Clifford Hayes, Ben Hunter, Earl McDonald, and the Louisville Jug Bands June 22, 2020 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer The following is a guest post by Reader Services Technician Mary Joy Lamb. While working as a technician in the Library of Congress Music Division I came across Clifford Hayes’s copyright lead sheet for “Bye Bye Blues” from 1928. The yellowed paper, the rushed corrections, and the date caught my eye. I snapped an image …
Performing Arts in the Coronavirus Web Archive: Part 1
In June 2020, I was appointed to the Library’s interdisciplinary Coronavirus Web Archive project team to select social and cultural content. The Coronavirus Web Archive’s official landing page and press release came out on #WebArchiveWednesday, February 2, 2022. I am very proud to say that performing arts content is a major part of the Coronavirus Web Archive numbering over 180 items.
Archive: March 2020 (6 Posts)
Spring-Themed Online Music Challenge March 26, 2020 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer An undeniable musical trend during social distancing right now is the wealth of online music making. In the spirit of music keeping us together while we’re apart, I propose a Spring-Themed Online Music Challenge! Use the sheet music I recommend in this blog post about spring and flowers from the Music Division’s digital collections, make videos, and tag us on social media. Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Archive: January 2020 (5 Posts)
Happy Birthday Chris Potter January 2, 2020 Posted by: Larry Appelbaum Every generation has its saxophone heroes in jazz: Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane all continue to inspire players in every style on just about every instrument. One of the great saxophonists and multi-instrumentalists of this generation is the Chicago-born, Columbia, South Carolina-raised Chris Potter. For the past three decades he’s been drawing … Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians
“A Plan and a Hope:” Woody Guthrie, Sophie Maslow, and the Many Gifts of Modern Dance
The following is a guest post from Hallie Chametzky, one of the Music Division’s Fellows from this past summer. Dance Archivist Libby Smigel introduces her. Meet Hallie Chametzky, a senior in dance at Virginia Commonwealth University. Selected this past summer as a Junior Fellow working on the Martha Graham Legacy Project, Hallie chose to work on the papers of distinguished choreographer, Graham company dancer, and social activist Sophie Maslow.
Archive: 2019 (76 Posts)
Tania León: The Uncommon Woman November 18, 2019 Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer This is a guest post by Melinda Gonzalez, a full-time intern working with me through December on an inventory of the Music Division’s primary sources related to Latin American composers. Melinda is here in the Music Division through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities National Internship Program (HNIP). Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Latin American History, New Music, Women in Music
Archive: December 2019 (4 Posts)
The Andre Kostelanetz Sound – Now Online December 18, 2019 Posted by: Cait Miller Andre Kostelanetz was a conductor, arranger, and pianist known for juxtaposing popular and classical repertoire in radio broadcasts and concert performances with some of the world's leading orchestras.
Archive: November 2019 (7 Posts)
This Week: José André Montaño in Coolidge Auditorium November 4, 2019 Posted by: Cait Miller The following post was written by Music Reader Services Librarian Katie Rodda and published on October 24, 2019 on NLS Music Notes, a Library of Congress blog for and about those who want, need or provide the special format music of braille, audio, and large print offered by the NLS Music Section. This week, on Thursday, November … Posted in: Concerts and Events, Guest bloggers, Jazz, Musicians
Archive: September 2019 (4 Posts)
Allen Toussaint’s Treasures Found in L.A. Swapmeet September 4, 2019 Posted by: Larry Appelbaum In 2007, the Library presented back-to-back concerts with two quintessential New Orleans pianists Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint. Mr. Toussaint was in the news recently because his legacy studio recordings, long thought lost in the flood from Hurricane Katrina, turned up at a swap meet in Torrance, California.
Archive: August 2019 (6 Posts)
Musical Treasure Lost and Found August 8, 2019 Posted by: Larry Appelbaum In June of 1996, the Library of Congress presented a “Big Band Bash” at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington DC. Over the course of a weekend, it offered a rare opportunity to present concerts by three important L.A.-based jazz composers and their orchestras: Buddy Collette, Gerald Wilson and Benny Carter. Each composer was offered a … Posted in: Commissions, Composers, Jazz
Archive: July 2019 (5 Posts)
The Bride’s Dilemma: Wedding Music July 12, 2019 Posted by: Cait Miller With my own wedding approaching later this month, I join the ranks of summer brides with visions of flower arrangements dancing in my head. If there’s one aspect of the occasion that I took most seriously when I began planning the ceremony, it was definitely the music (naturally!). There are the traditional selections, of course: … Posted in: Sheet Music
Archive: May 2019 (7 Posts)
Celebrating Walt Whitman’s 200th Birthday May 8, 2019 Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld Since publishing Leaves of Grass in June 1855, Walt Whitman and his poetry have captured the American imagination. Not until the early twentieth century, however, did composers begin to draw from and set to music Whitman’s work in earnest. Today, 200 years after Whitman’s birth, his settings have inspired over 500 composers to write over … Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Exhibitions
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Melissa
Contact Melissa, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack