In January of this year, we published a remarkable article by a Duke Ellington scholar that revealed Hirschfeld’s important contribution to Ellington’s early career, and how Al helped Duke deal with racism in his first national tours. We are regularly discovering new aspects of Hirschfeld’s art, as well as discovering works that we had never seen before. Just recently, a researcher has shared with us heretofore unknown Hirschfeld images of the film of West Side Story, Angela Lansbury, and Sammy Davis, Jr. At present we have approximately 7,000 images online, so hopefully you are seeing less an less “Image Coming Soon” notifcations.

We have been sharing Hirschfeld stories and new research through our Hirschfeld Century podcasts. Hosted by Creative Director David Leopold and Archives Manager Katherine Eastman, these discussions have covered a range of Hirschfeld art and history with episodes this year on Politics, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Old Hollywood Scandals, My Fair Lady (he was against it before he was for it), Al’s long history with CBS, Elizabeth Taylor, Harvard’s extraordinary Hirschfeld collection, Neil Simon, and City Center. Although it is an audio format, we include links to all the drawings mentioned in episode in each show’s notes, so listeners can see the work as we discuss it.