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Nels Nelson clippings files on jazz
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Held at: Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts [Contact Us]738 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Nels R. Nelson (1923-1996) was a writer at the newspaper Philadelphia Daily News for over 40 years. He was a jazz columnist and theater critic.
Nelson was born in North Philadelphia in 1923. He attended public schools and Temple University, then served in the Army during World War II. After working for newspapers in West Chester and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he joined the Philadelphia Daily News staff in 1955. Nelson won numerous journalism awards, and was honored with a local jazz tribute in 1988 for 25 years of his columns.
Nelson retired from the Daily News in 1995 and passed away the following year.
Bibliography:
Loyd, Linda. "Nels Nelson, 73, Ex-Daily News Jazz Writer." July 28, 1996. Accessed June 6, 2013. http://articles.philly.com/1996-07-28/news/25621110_1_jazz-writer-nels-nelson-column
The bulk of this collection is organized into an alphabetical file on jazz artists, with some folders on related topics such as jazz clubs and music schools. These files contain newspaper clippings, photocopies of magazine and journal articles, and some proofs for Nelson's articles. There is also a separate chronological series of clippings of Nelson's articles that were featured in the Philadelphia Daily News, 1983-1995.
Nelson also donated some published books about music and jazz, as well as framed photographs of jazz performances and other related images.
Gift of Esther Altmann.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts directly for more information.
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- Publisher
- Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts for information about accessing this collection.