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MUM00682

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Sheldon Harris was raised and educated in New York City. His interest in jazz and blues began as a record collector in the 1930s. As an after-hours interest, he attended extended jazz and blues history and appreciation classes during the late 1940s at New York University and the New School for Social Research, New York, under the direction of the late Dr. Marshall W. Stearns, noted jazz authority. In 1954, he joined Dr. Stearns at New York Institute of Jazz Studies, serving as a volunteer secretary until its transfer to Rutgers University in 1966. From 1963 to 1971, he was blues editor of Jazz & Pop Magazine, a national publication, writing feature stories, critiques, record and book reviews. Mr. Harris had lectured on blues and related music at Rutgers University, Alfred University, Jersey City State, Brooklyn College and Queens College, among other schools and universities as well as community and student centers, clubs and private social groups. He also organized and presented live concerts at the International Center in New York.

After almost 20 years of research, his book Blues Who’s Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers was published in 1979. The 775-page work listed detailed biographical facts on 571 of the most noted singers in the history of the blues and is now considered the prime reference source in the field. It won the Memphis Blues Foundation’s “National Blues Music W.C. Handy Award” in 1981 as the outstanding blues book of the year and in 1983 won its “Blues Hall of Fame Award” in the classics of blues literature category. An emendated soft-cover edition was published in 1981 and is presently in its seventh printing. In 1945, he began a 30-year professional career in the advertising business, eventually serving as a longtime account executive at Doyle Dane Bernbach Advertising Agency of New York City, handling many local and national accounts, including Ohrbach’s specialty stores. He also had a three-year war service record, serving in the U.S. Air Force in England and Germany. His wife of 47 years, Gladys, died in 1994.

The 589 pieces of sheet music in this collection consists of minstrel songs, coon songs, blues, jazz, ragtime, and general popular music from 1834 through 1954, with the bulk of the music primarily from the decades immediately surrounding the turn of the twentieth-century. The collection is arranged in the order it was organized by Sheldon Harris.

The sheet music is arranged according to the method used by Sheldon Harris prior to donating the materials to the University of Mississippi. The music is arranged alphabetically, first by large sheet music and then alphabetically by smaller sized sheet music.

There are no restrictions on who can and cannot use the materials in this collection. However, many of the items are quite old and brittle. Unless a researcher must view the originals, they should view the digital surrogates of all the music in the collection.

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use”, that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use”, that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

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