Glenn Miller Collections

A NATIONAL TREASURE

The Glenn Miller collections (GMC) are a part of the American Music Research Center’s archival collections, stewarded in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries’ Rare & Distinctive Collections. These collections document the legacy of Alton Glenn Miller (1904-1944), American popular music icon and alum of the University of Colorado Boulder. The GMC encompasses many thousands of audio recordings, documents, photographs, and memorabilia from the "Big Band Era" of American popular music and is a leading resource for scholars, students, researchers, and collectors.

For information about accessing the Glenn Miller collections through the Libraries’ Rare & Distinctive Collections, please visit our Inside the GMC page.

The objective of the GMC is to preserve, enhance, and make accessible the history of the Big Band Era and Glenn Miller for scholars, students, historians, and the public.

RICH LEGACY

In 1969, curator Alan Cass started the Glenn Miller Archives with one display case in the University Memorial Center at CU Boulder.  As a result of Alan’s vision and dedication, the exhibit grew into one of the world’s leading big band and popular music collections.  In 2004, the Glenn Miller Archives (now the Glenn Miller collections) joined forces with CU Boulder’s American Music Research Center.  Since 2016, the CU Boulder Libraries’ Rare & Distinctive Collections has stored, preserved, and made accessible both the GMC and the AMRC’s other archival collections.  In 2024, the Libraries began a two-year project to process and make accessible all materials within the GMC.

For all inquiries regarding the Glenn Miller collections, please contact rad@colorado.edu.

Additionally, Glenn Miller biographer and AMRC Advisory Board member Dennis M. Spragg hosts several helpful resources that engage the public with materials in the GMC: