Regina Bain testifies on Louis Armstrong House Museum
Regina Bain, director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, testifies about the museum's 60,000-piece Armstrong archive. She emphasizes the importance of preserving and sharing collections for future generations.
Hello, I'm Regina Bain, director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens.
It's a pleasure to be here at the Schomburg.
I grew up in libraries.
We love libraries.
And we are thankful for the partnerships of the public libraries, including Queens Public Library, including Langston Hughes, that have provided in the programs that help serve our shared communities.
The museum is the steward of the 13 collection, 60,000 piece Armstrong archive, the largest of any single jazz musician, for many years housed at Queens College
and now housed at the Armstrong Center on 107th Street, right across the street from the historic landmark house.
The Armstrong personal library of books that were in their home when they died are a prominent part of our collections.
The books from their personal library that are currently featured in our exhibition include Roots by Alex Haley, The Black Book edited by Toni Morrison, and I Speak of Freedom by Kwame Nkrumah.
Our programming in the next months when we open the Armstrong in Ghana exhibition includes a public reading of the book Black Star in the Wind by Robert Raymond, chronicling Armstrong's trip to Ghana in 1956
in the midst of the U.S.
Civil Rights Movement and the Ghanaian independence.
As an organization whose mission is ensuring the Armstrong legacy and the values therein endure,
we know the importance of preserving and sharing collections so those who come after us can look at the information with their own eyes, discover connections with their own experiences, and come to their own conclusions
based on the facts available to them.
Louis Armstrong knew, and we know, that is how stories survive, and that is how legacies continue.
Thank you.