“Swim the Channel”: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The sheet music for the song “Swim the Channel,” was written and composed by C. Dalziel. It was published by Dix Lt. of London, England, in 1926.

This song commemorates Mille Gade Corson's historic swim across the English Channel. Mille Gade Corson, the second woman to swim the English Channel, three weeks after Gertrude Ederle's record-breaking Channel swim, emigrated to the United States from Denmark. In 1919 Corson became a Life Saving Instructor and Lifeguard at the Harlem branch of the YWCA. Two years later she became the second woman to swim around Manhattan Island and attempted to swim the English Channel in 1923, but was forced to abandon the effort 2 miles from the French coast. After her successful 1926 swim, Corson returned to the United States to many accolades and performed on the vaudeville circuit as the first mother to swim the English Channel.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1926
• composer; lyricist: Dalziel, C.
• created for: Corson, Amelia Gade
• publisher: Dix Ltd.
• Object Name: sheet music
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 12 1/8 in x 9 7/8 in; 30.7975 cm x 25.0825 cm
• place made: United Kingdom: England, London
• web subject: Sports
• name of sport: Swimming
• level of sport: Amateur
• web subject: Women
• ID Number: 1981.0729.05
• accession number: 1981.0729
• catalog number: 1981.0729.05
• Credit Line: Gift of Esther Stoyanoff
• 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.