The Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection consists of 102 pieces of sheet music from approximately 1869 to 1987, primarily for voice and piano, all celebrating or emanating from the borough of Brooklyn. Contents include marches written in honor of a local person or business, pieces celebrating the whole or a part of the borough, songs from shows and movies set in or about Brooklyn, and pieces from Brooklyn's early 20th-century Yiddish-language theater.

In order to provide improved access, a detailed finding aid (PDF) to the collection has been developed.

The collection is housed and managed by the Brooklyn Collection and is accessible by appointment for on-site consultation in the Central Library. For more information or to make an appointment please call 718.230.2762.

Related Brooklyn Resources

• The Brooklyn Theater Playbills and Programs Collection consists of 800 playbills and programs from 1875 to 1972 for motion pictures, musical concerts, high school commencement exercises, lectures, photoplays, vaudeville, and burlesque, as well as the more traditional offerings such as plays and operas, all from Brooklyn theaters.
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online™ : Brooklyn Public Library provides online access to Brooklyn's historic newspaper of record, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1841-1902. Brooklyn's daily newspaper ran for 114 years, from 1841 to 1955. Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, the newspaper printed local, national and international news, keeping offices in Washington, London and Paris.
• Brooklyn Public Library also provides online access to the Fulton Street Trade Card Collection which consists of 245 late 19th and early 20th century illustrated trade cards, all emanating from businesses in Brooklyn's historic commercial thoroughfare.

Some of the sheet music pieces have links to related resources. Articles or trade cards may provide historic information on theaters, performers, composers, or others. Please look for related links in the Sheet Music large view pages.

View the related items in a split screen view.

Other Related Digital Resources

Some of Brooklyn Public Library's most distinctive collections are available online, including manuscripts, rare children's books, and more than 10,000 historic photographs of Brooklyn neighborhoods, residents, buildings, bridges, amusement parks, and more. Digital and print reproductions of historic photographs are available for purchase. View BPL's Digital Collections.

Advisory

Some historic materials may illustrate offensive stereotypes. Such materials should be viewed in the context of their relevant time periods.

The Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection digitization project was supported in part by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.

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