Purpose

Greetings! My name is Esther, and I am a musicologist. I specialize in American popular music of the first half of the 20th century. I am particularly interested in participatory music making, especially sing-alongs. This project, however, arose out of opportunity and will be somewhat different from any I have pursued before.

Graham W. Jackson was a versatile African American entertainer whose career spanned the middle of the 20th century. He played piano, organ, and accordion. He fronted a dance band, taught music in the schools, played on the airwaves, toured extensively as a Navy recruiter during WWII, and was greatly admired by several U.S. presidents. He was also involved in the music appreciation movement, which is a special interest of mine.

I recently discovered that the Graham W. Jackson papers are held by the Atlanta History Center, located about an hour from the institution where I teach. I came across the listing when I was there performing research for another project, and was fascinated by the description of Jackson’s career and the extent of the holdings. Last week I returned to have a look. The papers are indeed amazing—I only got eight folders in to the first of many boxes. I have also begun to peruse the extensive repository of articles concerning Jackson in the Atlanta Constitution.

I don’t yet know what form this project will take. I want to use this blog as a forum to explore the many interesting themes that have already arisen in my research and to organize my ideas. I also want to create a public record of this extraordinary figure in American music history, on whom very little information is widely available. I will be posting all of the photos I come across and documenting the first few decades of his career in as much detail as possible.