Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival Button: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This button is from the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa, in 1995. It is made of black paper with black, red, blue, and yellow ink covered with a clear film, on a two-piece metal button with a pin back. The button is printed:

BIX BEIDERBECKE Bix: The Chicago Years 19 [image of stamp with Beiderbecke] 95 MEMORIAL JAZZ FESTIVAL

The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is a three-day music festival held on the first weekend of August in Davenport, Iowa, to commemorate home-town jazz musician and composer Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) .

Floyd Levin (1922-2007) was a Los Angeles textile manufacturer who turned his passion for jazz into a second career as an influential jazz journalist and historian. His numerous reviews, profiles, and articles were published in magazines such as Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Metronome, and American Rag. He also authored Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians. Items in this collection (2011.3086) were acquired from Levin’s attendance at Jazz Festivals, conferences, and other music events.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1995
• depicted (sitter): Beiderbecke, Bix
• user: Levin, Floyd
• Object Name: button
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 3 in; x 7.62 cm
• place made: United States: Iowa, Davenport
• ID Number: 2011.3086.074
• nonaccession number: 2011.3086
• catalog number: 2011.3086.075
• Credit Line: Gift of Lucille Levin
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.