11 linear feet (25 boxes)

Papers, dated 1947 to 2005, with the bulk of the materials dated 1955–1998, consisting of files, notes, correspondence and other materials relating to her research on African American folk music before the Civil War.

Dena Julia Polacheck Epstein was born November 30, 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of four children of William S. Polacheck of Wisconsin and Hilda R Satt of Wloclawek, Poland. After the death of her father when Epstein was 11, she and her siblings were raised by their mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. Epstein attended public schools initially in Milwaukee and later in Chicago and attended the University of Chicago, where she received a bachelor of art in music in 1937. Continuing her studies she received the bachelor of science in library science in 1939, graduating with high honors, and later in 1943 a master of arts in library science both from the University of Illinois.

In 1942 she married Morton B. Epstein, with whom she had two children, William and Suzanne. In the beginning of her long career as a music librarian she was the cataloger in art and music at the University of Illinois (1939–1943); Senior Music Librarian at the Newark [NJ] Public Library (1943–1945); Music Cataloger and Reviser, Music Section, Copyright Cataloging division at the Library of Congress (1946–1948). Epstein then took time off to raise her children and in 1964 became the curator of recordings and Assistant Music Librarian at the University of Chicago where she remained until her retirement in 1986.

During the period she was caring for her family she noticed the absence of any historical writing chronicling the origins of black slave music. Epstein embarked on her research from approximately 1955 until the publication of her monumental work Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War published in 1977 by the University of Illinois Press. Prior to the publication of Sinful Tunes and Spirituals (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977) and in the two and a half decades since its publication, Epstein has written numerous articles, made many presentations, served on committees and boards from the local library to the Center for Black Music Research and the National Endowment for Humanities project review committee. She has successfully written several grants which enabled her research and publication to continue and has received several awards for contributions to music librarianship, research and publications including, in 1986, a citation for distinguished service to music librarianship from the Music Library Association, and, most recently in 2005, she received a life-time achievement award from the Society for American Music.

Other works authored by Epstein include: Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858–1871 (Detroit, Mi: Information Coordinators, 1969); “African Music in British and French America” (s.l.: s.n., 1973?); Complete Catalogue of Sheet Music and Musical Works, 1870 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1973); Lucy McKim Garrison, American Musician (New York: New York Public Library, 1963?); The Folk Banjo: A Documentary History (Los Angeles : John Edwards Memorial Foundation at the Folklore & Mythology Center, University of California, 1975); “Works by American Composers performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1891–1942” (Chicago, Il.: s.n., 1991); and Index to Memoirs of Theodore Thomas (Chicago: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1997 in collaboration with Rose Fay Thomas and Morton Epstein).