San Diego Thanksgiving Dixieland Jazz Festival Button: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This button is from the San Diego Thanksgiving Dixieland Jazz Festival in San Diego, in 1992. It is a made of gold paper with blue and red ink covered with a clear film, on a round two-piece metal button with a pin back. There is an image of clarinet and trumpet players on the front. The button is printed:

SAN DIEGO THANKSGIVING 1992 [stylized image of clarinet and horn players] DIXIELAND JAZZ FESTIVAL

The non-profit organization, America’s Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society (AFCDJS) in San Diego, California, held its first Great American Dixieland Jazz Festival, in 1979. The festival now known as The San Diego Jazz Fest & Swing Extravaganza is held every Thanksgiving weekend. The organization supports the San Diego traditional jazz community with monthly concerts, education programs, publication of a newsletter, an adult traditional Jazz camp, and a lending library of small band music.

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 1/8 in; x 7.9375 cm
• place made: United States: California, San Diego
• ID Number: 2011.3086.087
• nonaccession number: 2011.3086
• catalog number: 2011.3086.087
• 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.