Sam DeVincent loved music and art and began collecting sheet music with lithographs at an early age.
Series 11: Entertainment contains more than 12,500 pieces of sheet music and other materials documenting the development of and popular attitudes towards entertainers and entertainment in the United States.
An overview to the entire DeVincent collection is available here: Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music.
Scope and Contents note:
Series 11, Entertainment, 1841-1986, undated, contains more than 12,500 pieces of sheet music and other materials documenting the development of and popular attitudes towards entertainers and entertainment in the United States. Note that movies and some musical entertainment are also covered in Series 6, Moving Pictures and Movie Stars, and in Series 16, Country, Western, and Folk Music. Blind musicians and performers are in Series 17. The materials are arranged by subject, with ephemera arranged in the same subseries as the sheet music and described following the container list. The ephemera has been placed in eighteen document boxes. News articles about Elvis Presley form a large part of this section.
Material related to this series within the DeVincent Collection may be found in Series 4, Songwriters; Series 6, Moving Pictures and Movie Stars; Series 16, Country, Western, and Folk Music; and in the as yet unprocessed Musical Instruments section.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 18 subseries.
11.1: Early Troupes & Bandmasters
11.2: Dance Bands and Orchestras
11.3: Novelty Bands
11.4: Male Singers (Individual)
11.5: Female Singers (Individual)
11.6: Duos and Groups (Male and Mixed)
11.7: Female Duos and Groups
11.8: Child Entertainers
11.9: Male and Female Impersonators
11.10: Actors and Comedians
11.11: Theater
11.12: Jukebox, Nickelodeon
11.13: Phonographs and Sound Recordings
11.14: Radio, Transistor, Wireless
11.15: Television
11.16: Circus, Fair, Zoo
11.17: Rock and Roll
11.18: Ephemera
Materials in Other Organizations:
Sam DeVincent Collection of American Sheet Music, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
This collection contains duplicates of materials in the Smithsonian collection, as well as materials acquired by Mr. DeVincent after the donation to the Smithsonian. The phonograph records described above were transferred to the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History:
Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Musical Theater and Motion Picture Sheet Music and Reference Material, 1843-2010 (AC1211)
Forms Part Of:
Series 11: Entertainment forms part of the
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music
.
An ongoing, updated list of DeVincent topical series is available via the Smithsonian finding aid portal.
Provenance:
This collection was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution in 1988 from Sam and Nancy Lee DeVincent.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Citation:
The Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
