“Embarrassment”: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This sheet music for the song “Embarassment” was written and composed by Franz Abt, and published by R.A. Saalfield. The cover has that word “Perplexity” in quotes at the top, and the quote, “I fain a winning tale would tell thee, but yet I know not what to say” in the middle of the cover. The cover is framed with a simple pattern.

Materials, dates and provenance

• publisher: Richard A. Saalfield
• Object Name: sheet music
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 13 in x 9 1/2 in; 33.02 cm x 24.13 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York
• ID Number: 1982.0441.02
• accession number: 1982.0441
• catalog number: 1982.0441.02
• 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.