School Life Two Step March by Charles L. Johnson in 1912: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This colorfully illustrated sheet music is for a two-step march entitled “School Life,” composed by Charles L. Johnson. The cover sheet depicts idyllic college-age boys and girls playing sports, studying, and walking arm-in-arm. The back cover contains sheet music for six popular instrumental songs by various composers. In addition, the inside front cover contains an ad for a Dance Folio by the same publisher, along with the scores for three waltzes.

Charles L. Johnson was born on December 3, 1876 in Kansas City, KA and died on December 28, 1950 in Kansas City, MO. He was an accomplished American composer of ragtime and popular music, publishing over 300 songs in his lifetime. His best-selling composition was a ballad called “Sweet and Low.” The sheet music for “School Life” was published by Sam Fox Publishing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, copyrighted in 1912.

Materials, dates and provenance

• maker: Johnson, Charles
• maker: Sam Fox Pub. Co.
• Object Name: sheet music
• Object Name: delete line
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: paste (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 34.9 cm x 7.3 cm x 0 cm; 13 3/4 in x 2 7/8 in x 0 in
• place made: United States: Ohio, Cleveland
• used: Education
• ID Number: 2014.0244.215
• accession number: 2014.0244
• catalog number: 2014.0244.215
• Credit Line: Gift of Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
• 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.