Chronicle the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music. Contains full text from major reference works, biographies, and personal narratives from oral histories. Manuscripts, song-sheets, lyrics, discography data, and other text sources cover jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrels, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.

A collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements.

Primary source collections of the “long” nineteenth century. Collections are sourced through partnerships with major world libraries and specialist libraries. Content includes monographs, newspapers, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, and more.