“The Last Time I Saw Paris”: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This sheet music is for the song “The Last Time I Saw Paris.” The lyrics were written by Oscar Hammerstein and the music was composed by Jerome Kern. The sheet music was published by the T.B. Harms Company of New York, New York in 1940. The cover features an illustration of a silhouetted woman as well as images of Paris floating across the cover. There is an inset photograph of Hildegarde sitting at a piano, which notes that the song was “introduced and featured by Hildegarde,” meaning that she had been performing the tune at shows and clubs, and now her image was being used to sell the sheet music.

Materials, dates and provenance

• composer: Kern, Jerome
• lyricist: Hammerstein II, Oscar
• publisher: T. B. Harms Company
• 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: 1983.0070.04
• accession number: 1983.0070
• catalog number: 1983.0070.04
• Credit Line: Gift of Don Dellair and Tommy Wonder 123
• 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.