Rutgers University Libraries

Highlights of the History
of the Institute of Jazz Studies

• April 30, 1949—IJS founder Marshall Stearns writes NAACP Executive Director Walter White with a proposal for the establishment of an Institute of Modern American Music “devoted to the scholarly study of jazz and related subjects,” based on his famous collection of jazz materials.
• July 1952—Institute of Jazz Studies officially incorporated by Stearns; it is located in his Greenwich Village apartment at 108 Waverly Place.
• 1956—The Story of Jazz by Stearns published by Oxford University Press.
• May 13, 1966—Rutgers University Board of Governors approves agreement with Marshall Stearns, negotiated by Dr. William S. Weinberg of Rutgers, for transfer of Institute of Jazz Studies to the University, with Charles Nanry, a sociologist (and future author of The Jazz Text and American Music: From Storyville to Woodstock), as part-time IJS administrator.
• December 18, 1966—Stearns dies of a sudden heart attack at his winter home in Key West, Florida at the age of 58.
  1967—IJS housed in the John Cotton Dana Library on the Rutgers-Newark campus; first IJS-hosted Conference on Discographical Research; Institute organizes jazz festival for the State Department for U.S.A. Day at Expo ’67 in Montreal.
• February 1972—IJS is now fully open to scholars in its two-room home in lower level of Dana Library.
• April 1972—Chris White, a former bassist with Dizzy Gillespie and music teacher at Rutgers-Newark, named Executive Director of IJS.
• October 1972—First issue of IJS’s Journal of Jazz Studies, co-edited by Charles Nanry and David Cayer is published.
  1973-1976—Richard Seidel, future vice president of Verve Records and J. R. Taylor, to become a noted jazz writer, serve as curators during this period.
• 1975—Vincent Pelote, a music major at Rutgers-Newark, begins work at IJS as work study student.
• August 1976—Ed Berger begins his career at IJS as part-time curator; becomes Assistant Director in 1977; appointed Associate Director in July 1987.
• October 3, 1976—Former Down Beat editor and jazz historian Dan Morgenstern appointed first Director of IJS. (His book, Jazz People, is published in 1976 by Harry N. Abrams.)
• 1978—The Institute receives a grant from NEH for a pilot program in cataloging acoustic 78-rpm recordings. Rutgers librarian Marie Griffin, an expert cataloger, spearheads the project, soon joining IJS staff.
• April 1979—IJS begins still-running Jazz from the Archives radio program on newly-founded WBGO-FM.
• Late 1979—NEA Jazz Oral History Project transferred to IJS with Dan Morgenstern, project director; Ron Welburn, project coordinator; and Phil Schaap, assistant project coordinator.
• 1982—Studies in Jazz, a monograph series in conjunction with Scarecrow Press, begins with Benny Carter: A Life in American Music, by Morroe Berger, Ed Berger, and James Patrick.
• 1984—The Institute awarded grant of $133,807 by NEH for two-year project to preserve, catalog and index approximately 800 rare sound recordings containing 4,000 performances.
• 1984—The Institute, with support from University Librarian Hendrik Edelman, a jazz enthusiast, is integrated into Rutgers University Libraries as a branch of Dana Library.
• October 1986—The Institute acquires one of the largest collections of vintage jazz periodicals in the world from Harold Flakser, who began collecting in the late 1930s.
• Fall 1987—Lynn S. Mullins becomes director of the Dana Library and takes an active interest in the Institute, increasing its acquisitions budget and including IJS in the planning process for an addition to Dana Library. She later spearheads strategic planning for IJS, focusing on preservation and access.
• December 1987—In memory of Morroe Berger, Benny Carter and the Berger family establish the Berger-Carter Research Fund to assist jazz scholars to do research at IJS. By 2002, some 30 international jazz researchers have benefited from Berger-Carter grants.
• 1987—Discographer John Clement joins IJS staff as record collection specialist.
• 1990—Computerized shelflist of sound recordings installed. Recordings accessible by artist, issue number, label, title and format. In 2002, the database numbers more than 82,000 entries.
• February 1992—Live recording of Benny Carter’s Harlem Renaissance, commissioned by IJS with NEA support, receives Grammy Award.
• June 1993—After many weeks of preparation and packing, transfer of IJS from Bradley Hall to the new addition to Dana facility begins.
• October 12, 1994—Opening ceremony of the expanded Dana Library, including relocation of IJS to its new 14,000-square-foot space on the fourth floor.
• February 1995—Monthly Jazz Research Roundtable begins.
  1997—A Master’s Degree program in Jazz Research and History, the first of its kind, is offered by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Rutgers-Newark campus under the direction of Prof. Lewis Porter.
• February 1999—Tad Hershorn appointed IJS archivist.
• June 24, 1999—The Mary Lou Williams Foundation signs deed of gift donating extensive collection to the Institute. IJS receives grant of $165,000 to process Mary Lou Williams Collection by NEH in March 2000.
• 1999-2002—Institute begins Jazz Greats series of digital exhibits with Benny Carter, followed by Mary Lou Williams and Fats Waller.
• November 2000—Annie Kuebler, former Ellington archivist with at the Smithsonian’s Archives Center, appointed project archivist for the Mary Lou Williams Collection.
• December 20, 2000— Dan Morgenstern, Ed Berger, Vincent Pelote, and Annie Kuebler attend White House ceremonies for National Medal of Arts presentation as guests of honoree, Benny Carter.
• June 2001—Dan Morgenstern receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Jazz Journalists Association.
• July 2002—The newly-installed exhibit cases at IJS, made possible by a gift from Stanley Roth Jr., debut with display of instruments from the collection, including tenor saxophones of Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Don Byas, and trumpets of Miles Davis and Roy Eldridge.
• October 23, 2002—Institute celebrates 50th anniversary at the Newark Club.
• November 16, 2002—Kool Knowledge: A Conference on the Life, Music, and Impact of
  Mary Lou Williams celebrates unveiling of Mary Lou Williams Collection.

Compiled by Tad Hershorn

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Institute of Jazz Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
John Cotton Dana Library
185 University Ave.
Newark NJ USA 07102
Tel: (973) 353-5595
Fax: (973) 353-5944