St. Louis Blues: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the song St. Louis Blues by W. C. Handy. The cover is orange with black text. Written in the center of the page is: [featured in Lew Leslie's Black birds of 1928.] An image of three birds on a branch is below this. Written at the bottom of the page is: [Published by / HANDY BORS MUSIC CO. Inc / “Home of the Blues” / 1545 Broadway New York.]

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1928
• Composed by: W. C. Handy, American, 1873 - 1958
• Published by: Handy Brother's Music Co., Inc., American, founded 1918
• Subject of: Lew Leslie, 1888 - 1963
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 12 x 9 1/2 in. (30.5 x 24.1 cm)
• Place made: 1545 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blues (Music)
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Object number: 2012.77
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Dwandalyn R. Reece
• 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: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.