Louisiana Music collection

The Louisiana Music Collection consists principally of photocopies of nineteenth century sheet music, both printed and in manuscript. The music is divided into two groups: 1) works and related materials by or about African American composers, principally Creoles of color who were free during the antebellum period; 2) work of and related materials about arrangers, both White and Black, and non-African American composers, especially white Creoles and persons of Italian or Mexican decent. Of note in the collection is a copy of Camille Nickerson's master’s thesis from Oberlin College on Creole folk songs, as well as a bibliography of such music by Irma Louise Henry. Also of note are nine reel-to-reel tape recordings of the Louis Moreau Gottschalk piano competition held at Dillard University in 1970. Gottschalk was the first United States composer of classical music to have an international career and the first of any nationality to use African American and Caribbean thematic materials in such compositions.