Hogan Jazz Archive Collection Development

The Hogan Jazz Archive is the leading research center for the study of New Orleans jazz and related musical genres, including New Orleans ragtime, gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, and Creole songs. The Archive was established by Tulane University in 1958 under the auspices of a Ford Foundation grant administered by William Ransom Hogan, Chairman of the Department of History. Among its holdings are 2,000 reels of oral history interviews with musicians, family members, and observers that document the stories surrounding the emergence of jazz in New Orleans from the late 19th century forward. Other holdings include sound recordings, film, photography, sheet music, personal papers, records of the American Federation of Musicians local 174-496, ephemera, and realia.

The Hogan Jazz Archive supports research and learning in various disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences. It also supports the university's teaching and research mission at every level, including undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral.

The Hogan Jazz Archive supports Tulane's mission by acquiring, preserving, organizing, and rendering accessible research materials on the history of New Orleans jazz and related musical genres. The department acquires materials relating to the cultural context that made the music possible, with special emphasis on Creole language and customs, social and professional associations and businesses pertinent to the musical life of the city, jazz pedagogy, ethnic and racial diversity, women's studies, and festival traditions, such as Carnival and
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

The Archive holds the papers of many musicians, including those of Nick LaRocca, Ray Bauduc, Knocky Parker, Max Kaminsky, and Phil Zito, as well as the sheet music collection of bandleader
John Robichaux, the New Orleans Jazz photography collection by Ralston Crawford, and the papers of jazz record producers/collectors/writers Al Rose, Oren Blackstone, and Harry Souchon.

The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is one of 14 members of a cooperative consortium of southern research libraries called KUDZU, which includes a shared online catalog. Loan requests through this system receive priority processing and expedited two-day delivery. The library is also a member of the cooperative Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in Chicago, through which we may borrow a wide range of rare materials for our users. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty may borrow materials directly from the main library nearby at Loyola University of New Orleans through a reciprocal agreement called TU/LU. Graduate students and faculty may borrow materials at other New Orleans area academic libraries, and at other academic libraries throughout the state, through the LALINC consortium. For more information about cooperative borrowing privileges inquire at the library's Circulation Desk.

The Hogan Jazz Archive participates in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Blackwell North America book plan, a supplement to its JAZZ 1 monographs acquisitions budget; Current serials subscriptions are maintained through the Serials budget, but the Archive also receives vintage serials relevant to its collection development policy through donation. Among the current titles is a representative sampling of trade and scholarly publications, including Down Beat, The Mississippi Rag, Annual Review of Jazz Studies, Black Music Research Journal, The Second Line, Jazz Journal International (UK), Jazz Magazine (France), Bulletin du Hot Club de France, Jazz Podium (Germany), Musica Jazz (Italy), Orkester Journalen (Sweden), and Roaring Jazz Crooner Chronicle (Netherlands).

Most of the collection of the Hogan Jazz Archive has been acquired through donations from musicians, collectors, writers, scholars, and other interested parties. In addition, the Archive participates in cooperative agreements with corporations, government agencies, and non-profit corporations to develop potential enhancements, most notably in the donation of the Music City, Louisiana Jukebox, and LTV videos series by Cox Communications, by serving as the repository for the New Orleans Jazz Video Oral History Project undertaken by the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park/National Park Service, and in the oral history fieldwork collaboration with The Oral History Project, Inc., a 501 C3 non-profit corporation.