Memorabilia and Ephemera, 1920 - 2022

The James R. and Susan Neumann Collection consists of five record subgroups: I. Sheet Music; II. Record Company Catalogs; III. Concert Programs, IV. Memorabilia and Ephemera, and V. Objects.

Subgroup I (1923-1962) is organized into four series: Lead Sheets, Transcriptions, Educational/Method Books, and Full Orchestra scores/parts. This series contains over 140 works by artists such as Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, W.C. Handy and Stan Kenton. Series 1 and 2 - Lead Sheets and Transcriptions - are further separated by items that are a single piece or contain a compilation of multiple pieces.

Subgroup II (1935-2006) comprises primarily jazz and blues record company catalogs and discographies from 1935-2006 that spans 150 different record companies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, England, Germany, and Italy.

Subgroup III. (1920s-2023) contains approximately 1050 concert, jazz festival and dance event programs from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Sweden, and Germany among others. Many of these concert programs are autographed by the band leaders and/or supporting performers. In this subgroup, there are souvenir program booklets from American jazz musicians' European tours including John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and Art Blakey; programs from lauded jazz festivals such as Newport (RI), Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, and Jazz at the Philharmonic tours in the United States and Europe. There are also a significant number of programs from British artists such as Humphrey Lyttleton, Chris Barber, and Ronnie Scott. Venues locations include Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Royal Albert Hall, DePaul University, The Cotton Club (Harlem, NYC), Jazz at Lincoln Center, Hot Club de Paris, and Birdland (Midtown, NYC).

Subgroup IV. (1920s-2023) is the largest of this collection and consists of over 7,500 paper items in various formats. These include photographs, professional and autographed headshots, paper scraps, contracts, union cards, advertisement fliers, calendars, checks, correspondence, lobby cards, film and concert posters, framed memorabilia, and news clippings. A substantial proportion of these materials are autographed or signed. Jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Gene Krupa, Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Art Blakey, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Dave Brubeck, and many others are represented. The majority of these materials originated within the United States but there are examples from Europe, South America, Germany, Sweden and Japan. A handful of materials from Subgroup III are arranged and inventoried within Subgroup IV to preserve the Collection's original order and to provide further contextual information, while maintaining current institutional and archival best practices.

Subgroup V. (1933-2006) holds three-dimensional objects related to jazz as a cultural phenomenon in the 20th century including textiles (pennants, hats, scarves, t-shirts) drinking glasses, buttons, a cigarette lighter, ash trays, noisemakers, matchbooks, napkins, pennants, and award plaques.

In addition to these archival materials, Neumann gifted his extensive book, periodical, and audio/video recordings collections to Oberlin Conservatory. These items are also housed in the vault of the Bertram and Judith Kohl Building. This donation contains over 100,000 jazz audio recordings - analog LPs - 33 1/3, 78 and 45 RPM records, CDs, cassette tapes, 183 DVDs, and 243 VHS tapes. Neumann also donated approximately 2,000 books and full and limited runs of over 100 titles of jazz and blues periodicals, including the entire Downbeat catalog.

A large portion of the sound and video recordings, as well as the books and periodical titles are discoverable at search.libraries.oberlin.edu.