News Release

Music Man: The Lester S. Levy Exhibit
at Peabody Library

In 1976, Levy donated his collection of more than 29,000 pieces of vintage sheet music to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the Homewood campus of The Johns Hopkins University. Today, scholars, researchers and members of the general public with an interest in vintage popular music frequently use the collection, housed in the library's department of special collections, for study and performances. The collection is also accessible through the World Wide Web.

Public accessability to the sheet music was Levy's greatest wish for his collection. The principal fun of a collection is to share it and to meet the people whose interests dovetail with one's own, Levy once wrote. My collection today has many of the aspects of a public library.

Also included in the exhibit are highlights of the achievements of the Levy family, beginning with the establishment of the family's straw-hat manufacturing business. An original M.S. Levy and Sons Co. straw hat, dating from the early part of the century, will be on display.

The exhibit will also look at Levy's contacts with some of the great musical figures of our century. Featured in the exhibit will be correspondences and autographed copies of music from Arthur Fiedler, Irving Berlin, Beverly Sills, Richard Rodgers and Ira Gershwin. The exhibit will offer a glimpse into the fascinating world of sheet music collecting. For example, it documents the unusual story behind Levy's acquisition of the most valuable item in his collection, a first edition of the Star-Spangled Banner. The Levy copy, one of only 10 known copies of this edition to exist, will be displayed.

The George Peabody Library, located at 17 East Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore, is open Mondays through Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.