Archives Spotlight: The Mancini Collection
January 16, 2025
By: Elisabeth Hedges, Processing Archivist
One of the fun things about working at the Songbook Library & Archives is that none of our collections are the same. Some contain mostly song drafts and notes, some are very correspondence-heavy, and others are mostly photographs. Of course, most of our archival collections are a combination of all three!
One collection that is currently being worked on right now is the Henry Mancini collection. While this collection does contain music, awards, and some other documentation, the bulk of what we have is photographs. And what cool photographs we have!
Henry Mancini was a composer, arranger, and conductor, and is perhaps best known for composing the song “Moon River,” along with the soundtrack to the “Pink Panther” films. His wife, Ginny, was a singer and philanthropist, and his three children also have careers in entertainment. Our photograph collection includes thousands of pictures covering his life, both personal and professional. We have photos of family vacations, pictures of young Henry and Ginny, photos of Henry at work, and photos of the Mancinis at parties and film premieres.
Because the Mancinis were so prolific, we also have photos of them with Songbook luminaries, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Gene Kelly, and Audrey Hepburn. For anyone who remembers “It’s Henry Mancini’s Birthday!” from the classic television show All in the family, we even have photos commemorating that!
What sets this collection apart even more from a processing standpoint, is that we received both digital and physical copies of each photograph. Most photos also contained notes explaining the people and things in each photo - this kind of information is extraordinarily rare in the archives world! This means that we do not have to individually scan each item, or do a tremendous amount of research in order to label them properly. Because of this, we are able to upload and organize the photos to our Digital Asset Management System at a much quicker rate. While our system is currently only available to staff, getting these items online quickly will make it easier to share them with researchers and anyone interested in the Songbook.
