The more you find, the more you find!

Hidden broadcast collections and the challenge of preservation

Maristella Feustle, Music Special Collections Librarian, University of North TexasFIAT/IFTA, Warsaw

13 October 2016

We can only preserve what we know to existArchives as an “iterative and dynamic process” informing not only known, but previously unknown material

Discoveries in known collections give insights into other places to look

The Willis Conover Collection at UNT as a case study

Collection diasporasWhen materials are accumulated in the course of doing something else

When the subject at hand is different from the reason that materials were aggregated

Non- or quasi-institutional collections

Conover’s status as an independent contractor

Willis Conover (1920-1996)

The Willis Conover Collection at UNT1997 gift of the Willis Conover Jazz Preservation FoundationNearly 300 boxes - our largest music special collection from an individualVery little initial organization: an autobiography in the form of a puzzle!20,000 commercial recordings added to circulating collectionAbout 2100 reel-to-reel sound recordings8 acetate film reels; 41 VHS; 7 other video formats (U-matic, others)

Findings within the collectionFive-hour interview with Louis Armstrong, 1956:

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc790430/ Jazz concert from Willis Conover’s first visit to Poland, 1959:

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc824282/ Willis Conover for American Airlines, with a jazz soundtrack, 1960s:

https://edit.digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849899/ Willis Conover at the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree, early 1980s:

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849910/Polish-language feature on Willis Conover, 1990s:

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849907/

Unusual situations, unusual opportunitiesGrammy Foundation grantContact with:

Voice of AmericaLibrary of Congress U.S. National Archives and Records AdministrationLouis Armstrong House Museum

Treasure map

Thank you! Maristella.Feustle@unt.edu

Twitter: @MFeustle

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