The Northwestern University Laboratory of Comparative Musicology

Abstract

The Northwestern University Laboratory of Comparative Musicology grew out of the long standing interest of Melville J. Herskovits in the interrelationship between the humanities and anthropology. During his work in Dutch Guiana in 1928 and 1929, Professor Herskovits recorded among the Bush Negroes using the Edison-type cylinder machine, and in his subsequent work in Dahomey (1 931 ), Haiti (1934), Trinidad (1939), and Brazil (1941-42), he continued to make substantial collections of music which have formed the nucleus for the present holdings. The Laboratory itself was established in 1944 under the direction of Richard A. Waterman, who remained at Northwestern until 1956 when he was followed by Alan P. Merriam.