When The War Breaks Out In Mexico I'm Going To Go to Montreal: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the song When The War Breaks Out In Mexico I'm Going To Go To Montreal. The front cover features an illustration of a caricatured African American man running and following a sign for Montreal. To the left of the illustration there is a black and white photograph of Sophie Tucker. Blue type on top portion of front cover reads: [Written for laughing purposes only! / WHEN THE WAR BREAKS OUT IN MEXICO / I'M GOING TO GO TO MONTREAL / WORDS BY / J. BRANDON WALSH / MUSIC BY / ERNEST BREUER / WRITERS OF / "MOTHER GOOSE'S TANGO BALL" / "THE IRISH TANGO." ETC / Published for / BAND and ORCHESTRA]. The publisher’s logo in the bottom right of the cover reads: [Will Rossiter / The Chicago Publisher / 136 W. Lake St. Chicago, Ill. / Copyright MCMXIV By Will Rossiter]. There is a signature in the bottom left hidden in the illustration that reads [STARMER]. The interior of the sheet music consist of four pages of music bars and notes, in black print, for the song. The back cover features advertisements for additional songs in blue print.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1914
• Composed by: Ernest Breuer, 1886 - 1981
• Written by: J. Brandon Walsh, American, 1882 - 1955
• Subject of: Sophie Tucker, American, 1887 - 1966
• Published by: Will Rossiter Publisher, American
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 7/8 × 10 7/16 in. (35.2 × 26.5 cm)
• Place collected: Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place printed: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Caricature and cartoons
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2014.275.20
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Sylvia Alden Roberts
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.