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AAM Electronic Newsletter
Published by An Adventure of the American Mind at Mars Hill College
Vol. 8 Issue 28 - April 20, 2007
Amazing Grace: A New Collection
The Library of Congress announces the launch of a new Web site devoted to the history of the hymn "Amazing Grace" and the Library's Chasanoff/Elozua Amazing Grace Collection, which is comprised of
3,049 published recordings of the hymn by different individual musicians or musical ensembles. This site is a joint venture of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, the Music Division, and the American Folklife Center.
Since its creation in 1779 in England, Amazing Grace has grown in popularity to become one of the best-known musical works in the world. This Web site explores its history through items from the collections of the Library of Congress, from the earliest printing of the song to various performances of it on sound recordings.
The audio collection and database, compiled by Allan Chasanoff and Ramon Elozua, and given to the Library in 2004, is in the Guinness Book of World's Records as the largest collection of recordings of a single musical work. The Web site includes a number of selections from the collection, from gospel renditions by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Mighty Clouds of Joy, an Elvis Presley recording, country versions by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to rock versions by the Byrds and the Lemonheads. A database for the entire collection can be searched on the site, and the complete audio collection is available for listening in the Library of
Congress Recorded Sound Reference Center.
The Web site also contains early and unpublished recorded versions of Amazing Grace, and the very first printing of Amazing Grace in Olney Hymns in Three Books, by Englishman John Newton, published in 1779. The hymn describes the joy and peace of a soul uplifted from despair to salvation through the gift of grace. Although Newton worked as a slave trader early in his life, he later became rector of a parish in Olney and fought for the abolition of slavery.
Although Newton first wrote the words to Amazing Grace in 1772, it was not for another 60 years that the text was wed to the tune to which it is sung today. The Web site contains several examples of early printed versions of Amazing Grace, which use a variety of tunes and arrangements. The Virginia Harmony, an early shape note tune book printed in 1831, first used the melody that we have now come to associate with Amazing Grace, but did not match the tune to the words of Amazing Grace Another shape note tune book, The Southern Harmony, printed in 1831, contains the earliest pairing of the words for Amazing Grace with the tune that we have now come to associate with the hymn, then called New Britain. Subsequent hymnals from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, also featured on the Web site, show how the arrangements for the tune evolved over the years.
The site contains additional educational resources such as an illustrated timeline, essays on the history of Amazing Grace, a discography, and a selected bibliography. Sing along at http://memory.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/grace/grace-home.html.
Thanks to Laura Gottesman at the Library of Congress
Orphans Get Help From Copyright Database
Books published before 1923 live in the public domain and those published after 1963 reside in the house of copyright, thanks to their status being renewed by a 1976 act. If you're a librarian wanting to digitize or use such works, working within the copyright can be frustrating enough. What to do about those published in the four decades between, especially with unknown ownership and expired copyright (orphans)? Help is on the way!
Stanford University has opened up the Copyright Renewal Database.
The database lets visitors search "copyright renewal records received by the U.S. Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1963. Note that the database includes ONLY US Class A (book) renewals."
Visitors can browse published works by year, title and author, or do simple and advanced searches. Click on this link to access the site.
http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/page?forward=home
Turn-of-the-Century Treasures
Supplement your school's literature collection with online access to LOC's digitized collection of rare children's books, featuring beautiful color engravings and illustrations by hand. You'll find classics and rare titles such as:
- "The Arabian Nights: Their Best-Known Tales," edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, with illustrations by Maxfield Parish (1909)
- "The Twelve Magic Changelings" by M.A. Glen (c. 1907), a cut-out book that can be printed and used
Baseball ABC (1885)
- "The Cheerful Cricket and Others" by Jeannette Marks, illus. by Edith Brown (1907)
- "Mother Goose Finger Plays," selected and adapted by Irene Margaret Cullison. (1893)
- "A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, with designs by Walter Crane (1893)
There are many more delights as well. The books are available online in PDF format, including high-resolution versions. Dive in by clicking on the link below.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/digitalcoll/digitalcoll-children.html
Armchair Travel (LOC Literary Style)
Journey to exotic lands from afar when you visit the LOC's South
Asian Literary Recordings Project page. Listen to voices of "prominent South Asian poets, novelists, and playwrights" in their native tongues. The authors recorded so far represent more than fifteen of the languages of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
However, you can also hear excerpts from works in English, such as "Against Eternity and Darkness" by Anne Ranasinghe, internationally renowned poet from Sri Lanka, (1925- ), "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy (1959 - ), one of the best known contemporary Indian writers who composes in English, or "Untouchable. A Novel" by Mulk Raj Anand (1905 - ), a pioneer of Indian writing in English.
To find these and more simply click on the English link on the homepage, near the bottom of the language list.
http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/
Around the World Library
Experience other cultures through free access to digitized materials from libraries around the world!
The World Library is an international joint effort of libraries, spearheaded by the Library of Congress, to make "available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials."
Partner libraries include the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, National Library of Brazil, National Library and Archives of Egypt, the National Library of Russia, and others. The project was created to increase interest in and understanding other cultures as well as "expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet."
Clicking on the link below will take you access the libraries and their online content.
http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/partners/
Shadow of a Martian Robot
Need a daily fix of astronomical proportions? Check out NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" archive. Many of the pictures here are really beautiful and otherworldly (literally). You 'll find treasures like "'Bullet Pillars in Orion," "Three Galaxies and a Comet," and "Shadow of a Martian Robot." Great for science class or just a quick relief from pages filled with Arial and Times New Roman.
Click on the link below to see today's picture. Click on any of the links on the bottom of the page to access the archives. For many of the photos, once you've clicked on the archive link, you can click on the photo it leads to for a larger, higher resolution version.
A new shot is added each day, so be sure to bookmark this site! You can also have students search on their birthday or other special
day.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
Pictures of World War II
The National Archives has an exhibit of more than 100 photos from battlefronts around the world. Every activity of the war was depicted -- training, combat, support services, and much more. On the home front, the many federal war agencies produced and collected pictures, posters, and cartoons on such subjects as war production, rationing, and civilian relocation. You'll find pictures from Britain, France, Germany, the Holocaust, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japan, naval battles, Philippine Islands, prisoners, the homefront and victory.
Unfortunately, the pictures are listed by title and text with a link to the actual item -- no thumbnails. Find them at http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/#top.
Spread the Word!
If the teachers in your school or AAM program are not receiving this newsletter, please send me their names and e-mail addresses. Also, feel free to share this newsletter with a colleague. And we encourage new readers to get their own subscription.
More input + greater diversity = better newsletter. Be part of the equation! Thanks to everyone who has sent submissions to me. Please continue to send your favorite resources and successes to your either of your editors, Liz Lang at elang@mhc.edu, or AnneMarie Walter at awalter@mhc.edu. I will feature them in coming newsletters and on the AAM program Web site.
Don't forget to contribute your favorite links to the Useful Links section!
Contact aam-teachers@aweber.com to be added to the mailing list.
AnneMarie Walter
AAM Associate Director
Mars Hill College
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