 While his interests were wide-ranging, a constant in his own scholarly work and in his teaching was attention to detail, both stylistic and substantive.In 1976 he established Harvard's first formal collection of audio material relating to non-Western music.Initially consisting entirely of commercial and field recordings Ward had acquired in his travels, the Archive of World Music moved to the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library in 1992 and continues to develop in support of ethnomusicological research at Harvard.