William Ransom Hogan Archive (Tulane University)
Bio
The William 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. 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, and records of the American Federation of Musicians local 174-496, ephemera, and regalia.
The archive was established in 1958 with Ford Foundation funding to initiate an oral history fieldwork project gathering the stories of the men and women who contributed to the development of jazz in New Orleans. The principal interviewers were Bill Russell (the Archive’s first Curator) and Richard B. Allen (his successor), but over time they were assisted by others, including Paul Crawford, Ralph Collins, Marjorie Zander, Barry Martyn, and Lars Edegran.
Through collaboration with Music Rising at Tulane University, many Hogan Jazz Archive Oral Histories are now available streaming online. For the first time, one can hear the voices and the stories of early Jazz men and women from anywhere in the world.
With jazz historian William Russell as its first curator, Tulane University administered the Archive of New Orleans Jazz through its early collecting and cataloging phase. In that period, it held space in the History Department where Dr. Hogan then served as chairman. In 1965, the Archive moved to the library where it began operation as a research center. Cofounder and oral historian Richard Allen became curator under the administrative supervision of the Director of Tulane University Libraries and the Archive changed its name to the Hogan Jazz Archive in 1974 after the death of William Ransom Hogan.
Residing on the third floor of Joseph Merrick Jones Hall at Tulane University in New Orleans, the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive serves the public from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. Among its holdings are recorded music, photographs, sheet music, orchestrations, scrapbooks, documents, research notes, ephemera and memorabilia, the records of the American Federation of Musicians local 174-496, as well as books, magazines and journals. The collection is non-circulating, on strict reserve in closed stacks. Students and researchers from around the world visit the Archive every year to use its holdings.
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