There Will Be Time for Jazz

Abstract

In this piece, I consider concepts of time, the history of archives and provenance, how time is considered in archival arrangement and description, and how these speak to my experiences completing the processing of three interrelated record groups at the Institute of Jazz Studies that center on the great Mary Lou Williams: the Mary Lou Williams Collection, the Mary Lou Williams Foundation Collection, and the Peter O’Brien papers. It is hoped that the piece will provide insight into the perspectives I find retrospectively meaningful when reflecting on the work of processing those materials and preparing the related finding aids, perspectives which draw from literature, philosophy, science, film, and music. I am indebted to my colleagues, including one I never had the pleasure to meet, Annie Kuebler, who preceded me in working on the collections.