Carol Lems-Dworkin Papers

Biographical Note

Carol Lems-Dworkin was born in Chicago but lived most of her life in Evanston. She received her bachelor’s degree in botany from Northwestern University in 1947. She returned to Northwestern and in 1960 earned a master’s degree in music and piano performance. She taught at Kendall College, Northwestern University, Barat and Chicago State University.

She performed all over the United States and started a nonprofit organization called World Music Center, which brought artists from around the world to play the traditional music of their heritage. Lems-Dworkin taught and composed music. She is the author of Africa in Scott Joplin’s Music and African Music: A Pan-African Annotated Bibliography. She died in 2019.

Scope and Content

Carol Lems-Dworkin performed at the Woodson Regional Library and later donated photographs of African American blues and jazz artists.

Arrangement

Most of the items are 3.5” x 5” photographic reproductions, listed in alphabetical order by subject’s last name; larger photographs (numbers 60-64) appear at the end.

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