Mid America Jazz Festival Button: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This button is from the Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1992. It is a made of green paper with white printing covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. The button is printed:

MID AMERICA JAZZ FESTIVAL ELEVENTH ANNUAL [man playing saxophone] PATRON 1992 ST. LOUIS, MO. MARCH 20-21-22

The Mid-America Jazz Festival was founded by St. Louis businessman Charlie Wells, in 1981. The annual weekend event featured Dixieland and swing performances. The festival ran for 18 years.

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: 1992
• user: Levin, Floyd
• Object Name: button
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 3 1/2 in; x 8.89 cm
• place made: United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
• ID Number: 2011.3086.073
• nonaccession number: 2011.3086
• catalog number: 2011.3086.073
• 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.