{{Short description|American musicologist (1916–2013)}}
thumb|alt=headshot of a young woman with glasses and short wavy dark hair looking straight into the camera|Dena Epstein '''Dena Julia Polacheck Epstein''' (30 November 1916 – 14 November 2013) was an American music librarian, author, and musicologist.<ref>''Chicago Tribune'', November 25, 2013, p. 6</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mozart.radford.edu/amc/?p=879|title=Carolina Chocolate Drops|date=18 November 2013|author=Bennett, Budd|publisher=Radford University|accessdate=19 November 2013}}</ref><ref name="Stranger">{{cite book|title=I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-house Girl|author=Hilda Polacheck|edition=Reprint|publisher=University of Illinois Press|date=30 June 1991|isbn=978-0252062186}}</ref>
==Early life== Epstein was born in Milwaukee to William Polacheck<ref name="Stranger"/> and Hilda Satt. She studied music at the University of Chicago and library science at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1943. She worked as a cataloguer at the latter institution while completing her degree, and upon graduation was appointed the Senior Music Librarian at Newark Public Library. In 1946 she began working as a cataloguer and reviser for the Library of Congress music section.<ref name="uc">{{cite journal |title=Guide to the Dena J. Epstein Collection |journal=CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids |url=https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cmbr_guides/15/ |accessdate= |date=January 2020 |publisher=Center for Black Music Research Collection, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.}}</ref> After spending a period as a homemaker, she returned to the University of Chicago in 1964 as the Assistant Music Librarian, in which position she served for 22 years.<ref name=mla/><ref name=ban/>
==Scholarship== Beginning in 1955, Epstein began researching the historical origins of American slave music.<ref name=uc/> Her 1977 book on the topic, ''Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: black folk music to the Civil War'',<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=Penguin Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/37 37]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/37}}</ref> was awarded the Chicago Folklore Prize and the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association.<ref>{{cite book|title=''Sinful Tunes and Spirituals''|isbn=0252071506|last1=Epstein|first1=Dena J.|year=2003|publisher=University of Illinois Press }}</ref> Among other findings, Epstein demonstrated that the banjo emerged from the African slave tradition rather than rural white culture, a revelation that "shattered myths and sparked a remarkable revival of black string band music".<ref name=ban>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.utk.edu/news/2013/11/the-librarian-and-the-banjo/|accessdate=15 November 2013|publisher=University of Tennessee Knoxville|title=''The Librarian and the Banjo''|date=November 2013 }}</ref> Epstein received two National Endowment for the Humanities grants for her research, which was included in several musicology journals. She also published ''Music Publishing in Chicago Before 1871'' (1969) and ''I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-house Girl'' (1989),<ref name="Stranger"/> an edited autobiography of her mother.<ref name=mla>{{cite web|url=http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/?EpsteinAward|accessdate=15 November 2013|publisher=Music Library Association|title=Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music}}</ref>
==Legacy== Epstein served as president of the Music Library Association (MLA) from 1977 to 1979, and was awarded the association's highest citation in 1986. MLA adjudicates a research award named after Epstein.<ref name=mla/>
Filmmaker Jim Carrier created ''The Librarian and the Banjo'' to document Epstein's contribution to American ethnomusicology. He noted that she "revolutionized our understanding of American music... we take for granted that African-American music is the tap root of popular American music. We owe much of that knowledge to this music librarian who set out to correct history".<ref name=ban/>
Epstein's papers and correspondence are held by Columbia College Chicago's Center for Black Music Research.<ref name=uc/>
Epstein also appeared in the PBS documentary program ''American Experience'', "Chicago, City of the Century."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/filmmore/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023195959/http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/filmmore/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 23, 2018|title=American Experience - Chicago: City of the Century - Film & More|website=Shoppbs.pbs.org|accessdate=3 February 2019}}</ref> Her interview regarding her mother and conditions in the Near West Side Neighborhood at the turn of the 19th century appears on ''Disc 3: Battle for Chicago''. ==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/Epstein.xml Dena Epstein Root & Cady Research Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402132432/http://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/Epstein.xml |date=2015-04-02 }} at the Newberry Library * [https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cmbr_guides/15/ The Dena J. Epstein Collection], Center for Black Music Research Collection, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Dena}} Category:1916 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Writers from Milwaukee Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:University of Illinois School of Information Sciences alumni Category:Writers from Chicago Category:American women musicologists Category:20th-century American women librarians Category:20th-century American librarians Category:20th-century American musicologists Category:20th-century American writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:Music librarians Category:21st-century American women librarians Category:21st-century American librarians