Archives of Women Musicians: a hidden collections cataloguing project at the British Library

Journal article

‘Archives of Women Musicians’ was an 18-month cataloguing project at the British Library running from April 2023 to September 2024. It was part of a larger ongoing project at the British Library, the Hidden Collections initiative, which aims to unlock collections of uncatalogued or otherwise ‘hidden’ collections at the Library. This paper introduces the project within the context of the Hidden Collections initiative, and then provides content summaries and contextual overviews for the collections catalogued: music manuscripts of composers Elizabeth Poston and Phyllis Tate, archives of pianist Harriet Cohen and contralto Astra Desmond, and a small collection of papers and postcards of Beatrice and May Harrison and their family. The paper both provides information about cataloguing decisions taken, and situates the newly-catalogued material within existing research landscapes relating to the collections’ subjects specifically, and to women and music in the twentieth-century more broadly.

Authors: Perry, F; Drosopoulou, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres - UK & Ireland Branch
• Journal: Brio
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 39-57
• Publication date: 2024-07-01
• Acceptance date: 2024-11-01
• ISSN: 0007-0173
• Language: English