Valley Dixieland Jazz Club Button: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This button is from the Valley Dixieland Jazz Club in the San Fernando Valley, California. It is a round button made of white paper with blue, red, and yellow ink covered with a clear film, on a two-piece metal button with a pin back. The button is printed:

The Valley Jazz Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Traditional Jazz in the San Fernando Valley. The organization holds monthly meetings featuring performances of amateur and professional musicians. The organization supports programs, community outreach, master classes, and students attending the Sacramento Jazz Camp.

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

• user: Levin, Floyd
• Object Name: button
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 2 1/4 in; x 5.715 cm
• place made: United States: California, San Fernando Valley
• ID Number: 2011.3086.196
• nonaccession number: 2011.3086
• catalog number: 2011.3086.196
• 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.