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Library and Archives
The Marine Band Library is one of the nation's largest and oldest peforming music libraries. It houses the Military Music Collection and the Scala and Sousa Collections.

About the Marine Band Library

The Library’s mission is to support the full range of commitments tasked by the White House; the Director of Public Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps; and the Director of “The President’s Own.” It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest performing music libraries, with holdings exceeding 120,000 music titles for band, orchestra, chamber ensembles, dance band, and piano. In addition, reference books, periodicals, and audio/video recordings are available to support basic research needs of members and visitors. Archival holdings include the Military Music Collection, formerly held by the Marine Corps Museum, and items donated by former directors and members.

Though newspaper accounts list titles of music played by the “The President’s Own” from its earliest days, the oldest music in the Library dates from 1860. Research has shown that it was common for the band to use music that was the personal property of the leader. Large portions of the music used by the Marine Band have been found in the personal collections of such former leaders as Francis Maria Scala (now at the Library of Congress), John Philip Sousa (now at the Marine Band, the Library of Congress, and University of Illinois), and Francesco Fanciulli (now at the New York Public Library).

The staff is comprised of six full time music librarians with experience in performance, research, and archival techniques.

The Library is open to researchers by appointment. For further information, email marineband.publicaffairs@usmc.mil.