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Custodial History
Judy Gershwin found Hambitzer's manuscripts in a storage room in her Central Park West apartment, which had formerly been the home of her mother-in-law, Rose Gershwin. It is believed that George Gershwin left the manuscripts with his mother, Rose, when he moved to California in 1936. In the same trunk as the Hambitzer materials was a manuscript page of Porgy and Bess, probably dating to 1935 (this page has been retained by the Gershwin family). There is no evidence of just how George Gershwin, who was twenty when Hambitzer died, came to possess the manuscripts, although it is known that he corresponded with members of the Hambitzer family.