May 30, 2003
Magical History Tour With the Beatles
EVANSTON, Ill.
--- Rare original lyric manuscripts by John Lennon and Paul McCartney,
an unused ticket for the Beatles’ 1964
American tour, personal letters from Lennon and Yoko Ono and hand-colored
lyrics by McCartney are but a few of the items on view in a free,
public multimedia exhibit about the legendary Beatles and their
music at Northwestern University.
“The Beatles: A Musical History Tour” is
on display in the Music Library on the second floor of Deering
Library and
runs through Aug. 31. Deering Library is entered through Northwestern
University Library, 1970 Campus Drive, Evanston.
Visitors can
listen to the music that made the Fab Four famous and watch video
clips of their concerts, films and media events.
A multimedia display featuring audio and video clips that track
the Beatles’ career from Liverpool to Apple Records includes
the group’s American debut performance on the Ed Sullivan
Show.
Viewed by
an audience of more than 73 million people, that performance
resulted in media frenzy and is considered one of rock and roll
history’s most significant events.
“Multimedia clips capture the excitement of the music and
irresistible personalities of the performers,” says Birdi
Dawson, the exhibit’s curator and a reference librarian in
Northwestern’s Music Library. “They allow visitors
to experience the songs and hear the Beatles talk about their music
and the pleasures and challenges of working together for almost
a decade.”
The idea for
a Beatles exhibit began taking shape when Dawson discovered that
the University Library owns several original Lennon
and McCartney lyric manuscripts. The exhibit coincides with a class
on the Beatles that will be taught by Gary Kendall this summer. “The
Beatles, an Interdisciplinary Mystery Tour” is taught yearly
by Kendall, Northwestern associate professor of music , and is
one of the University’s most popular classes.
The exhibit
also includes original American and British album covers, songbooks,
sheet music, magazine covers, photos, facsimilies
of manuscripts from the renowned British Library and an autographed
brochure of Astrid Kirchherr’s famous Hamburg photos of the
young Beatles. An envelope with the signatures of all four Beatles
is prominently displayed among the memorabilia.
The Lennon/McCartney
manuscripts, watercolor lyrics by McCartney, and Lennon/Ono letters
to composer John Cage are part of Northwestern
University Library’s John Cage Notations Collection. The
collection includes approximately 400 samples of music notation
gathered from composers during the 1960s.
Many other
materials in the exhibit are on loan from curator Dawson’s personal collection. “Like millions of fans,
I have been passionate about the Beatles and their music since
they came into our world back in 1964,” says Dawson.
For exhibit information, contact Dawson at (847) 491-3297. For
Music Library hours, call (847) 491-3434. |