Kenneth A. Kanter American Music and Theatre Collection.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Publications,Organized into the following series: I. Sheet Music. II. Theatrical Periodicals. III. Souvenir Programs. IV. Souvenir Brochures. V. Librettos. VI. Record Liner Booklets. VII. Framed Posters. Subseries are specified in finding aid.

Arranged alphabetically by song or production titles.

Recordings,Organized into series as follows: I. Long-Play Albums 12" II. Compact Discs III. 78 RPM 10" IV. 45 RPM 7" V. Long Play Albums 10" VI. Audiocassettes VII. Videocassettes VIII. Album Covers.

Arranged numerically by numbers assigned during processing.

Materials housed in the Special Collections Division of the Main Branch, Nashville Public Library. Long-play albums and compact discs from this collection are individually cataloged, while Rabbi Kanter's book collection (no part of this record) are not only individually cataloged but are housed in Special Collections open shelving.

NOTE! Much of this collection is housed off site and requires at least ONE WEEK'S ADVANCE NOTICE to access. Please call the Special Collections Division, 615-862-5782 for more details.

In library use only.

Scope and content: Materials include recordings, souvenir brochures, show posters, sheet music, books, and periodicals, tracing American popular music and musical theater from the mid-1800s into the twenty-first century. The sheet music collection of approximately 2,500 pieces includes the oldest items (dozens from the 1800s) and is strongest for the era of 1900-1930 popular songs, the heyday of Irving Berlin, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Jerome Kern, Charles K. Harris, Jack Yellen, Andrew B. Sterling, Harry Von Tilzer, Gus Kahn, Edgar Leslie, and many other titans of Tin Pan Alley. Recordings, playbills, souvenir brochures and programs document Broadway musical productions from the 1940s to 2006.

Kenneth A. Kanter, Chicago-born and Harvard-educated Rabbi who has served congregations in Ohio, Texas, Australia, and Tennessee, gathered these publications and recordings out of his lifelong love of the American musical theater and American popular music. Printed programs document Broadway shows, operas, and concerts he attended in Boston, New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, Chattanooga and elsewhere, while the recordings, books, posters, and sheet music were the results of his energetic personal collecting.

Unprocessed accruals are housed at the end of the collection.

Cite as: Kenneth A. Kanter American Music and Theatre Collection, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

Kenneth A. Kanter;,Gift;,2004.,Acc. 2004.031.

Kenneth Aaron Kanter, a native of Chicago, did his undergraduate work at Harvard University, where he majored in Jewish and American history. Upon graduation he received the British Royal Society For the Arts Mediallion "To The Outstanding Student In The Arts at America's Outstanding University." He received rabbinical training at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he received his M.A.H.L. degree in 1979 and was ordained in 1980 after serving student rabbi positions in Texas, Ohio, and Melbourne, Australia. After a term as assistant rabbi at The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, he became senior rabbi of the Mizpah Congregation in Chattanooga. He returned to Nashville to serve the Congregation Micah in 1991 and here as elsewhere he was active in civic and humanitarian organizations. He was a member of the Leadership Nashville class of 1994. He authored the book The Jews On Tin Pan Alley in 1982, and for years presented musical lectures tracing Jewish contributions to American popular music. He moved to Cincinnati in 2005, returning to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to serve as director of recruitment and admissions.

Finding aid available in repository;,item level control,https://catalog.library.nashville.org/Record/CARL0000263429/DownloadSupplementalFile?fileId=172

Collected by Kenneth A. Kanter and in his possession at the time of donation.

Process;,2006;,Ronnie Pugh.

Additional accruals are expected.