This web presentation includes a wide range of Ballets Russes objects, including photographs, scrapbooks, writings, costume and set designs, choreographic notes, music scores, diaries, and programs. Selections for this presentation were drawn from the rich collections of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, including the Adolph Bolm Collection; Alexandra Danilova Collection; Bronislava Nijinska Collection; Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Fund Collection; Serge Diaghilev/Serge Lifar Collection; Serge Grigoriev/Ballets Russes Collection; and the Spivacke Fund Collection.

The Library of Congress is the preeminent repository for manuscripts by American composer Samuel Barber (1910-1981), one of the most frequently performed and recorded American composers of the twentieth century. Numerous music manuscripts and printed scores by Barber, as well as correspondence, videos, and sound recordings of his works can be found throughout the library’s collections. Many of his music manuscripts, letters, and performances of his works have been digitized and made available for this presentation. In addition, several contextual essays are available which describe what items are available at the Library, his biography, and historical information about particular songs.

The Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress is as exceptional as its name would suggest. Bernstein, arguably the most prominent figure in American classical music of the second half of the twentieth century, made his impact as a conductor, as a composer of classical and theater music, and as an educator through books, conducting students at Tanglewood, and especially through various televised lecture series that helped define the potentials of that medium. The online Leonard Bernstein collection makes available a significant selection of correspondence both to and from Bernstein, musical sketches for several of his major works, writings, including the scripts for his Young People's Concerts, Thursday Evening Previews, Omnibus, and Ford Presents, his scrapbooks, photographs, and audio-visual materials.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich held the first Carnegie Hall Composer’s Chair from 1995 to 1999. One of her many initiatives as chair was to build a video archive of interviews with composers whose works were premiered at Carnegie Hall and whose careers were influenced by that venerable cultural institution. These rich and often remarkably candid conversations feature composers Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, David Diamond, Lukas Foss, Morton Gould, Ned Rorem, Gunther Schuller, and Zwilich herself, interviewed by Ara Guzelimian, discussing their musical experiences in New York and at Carnegie Hall. Through a cooperative agreement between the Library of Congress and Carnegie Hall, these videos are available here. The Library of Congress Music Division holds the papers of many of these composers.

Celebrating the centennial of the birth of the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the multi-format Aaron Copland Collection, from which the online collection derives, spans the years 1910 to 1990 and includes approximately 400,000 items documenting the multifaceted life of an extraordinary person who was composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor, commentator, and administrator. It comprises both manuscript and printed music, personal and business correspondence, diaries, writings, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, awards, books, sound recordings, and motion pictures. The first release of the online collection contains approximately 1,000 items that yield a total of about 5,000 images. These items date from 1899 to 1981, with most from the 1920s through the 1950s, and were selected from Copland's music sketches, correspondence, writings, and photographs.

Dancer, choreographer, and company director Martha Graham (1894-1991) is considered one of the pioneering founders of American modern dance. In a career spanning over seven decades, Graham developed her own innovative technique and produced an impressive legacy of 181 choreographic works. In this Web presentation, we follow Martha Graham's work between 1918 and 1949, and offer a selection of materials related to them – concert programs, clippings (including press announcements and reviews), libretti, scripts and photographs.