“Mickey”: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This sheet music is for the song “Mickey.” The lyrics were written by Harry Williams and the music was composed by Neil Moret. The song was adapted from Mack Sennett’s $500.00 Photoplay “Mickey” and was respectfully dedicated to Mabel Normand. This sheet music was published by the Watterson, Berlin, & Snyder Company of New York City in 1918. The cover features an illustration of Mabel Normand as Mickey astride a horse. The illustration is signed by Barbelle.

The cover art for this sheet music was made by American artist and designer Albert Wilfred Barbelle (1887-1957). With a prolific career spanning over forty years, Barbelle created cover art for sheet music and albums.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1918
• publisher: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co.
• Object Name: sheet music
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 12 in x 9 in; 30.48 cm x 22.86 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York
• ID Number: 1983.0424.030
• accession number: 1983.0424
• catalog number: 1983.0424.030
• 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.