Scope and Content Note
The materials in the George and Ira Gershwin Collection document many aspects of the lives and careers of composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) and his lyricist brother, Ira Gershwin (1896-1983). They span the years 1895-2008, with the bulk of the material dating from 1920 to 1960.
The music materials consist of manuscript and printed scores, sketches, and instrumental parts, as well as manuscript and typescript lyric sheets. These range from George's first hit, Swanee (1919), through the end of George and Ira’s career and form the centerpiece of the collection. The first and largest series of music materials is that relating to stage and screen musical shows: revues, book musicals, operettas, Porgy and Bess, film musicals, and films with musical numbers. The compositional and production processes are documented with musical sketches, lyric sheets, short scores, piano-vocal scores, full scores, and orchestral parts. Many of the music manuscripts are in George's hand, with others in the hand of orchestrators, arrangers, editors, copyists and, in some instances, other composers. Most of the lyric sheets are Ira's work, holograph and/or typescript. Some shows are more extensively documented than others, with the earlier works (particularly those prior to 1923) less well represented. Smaller in quantity, but of great interest nonetheless are the music materials for George's concert works, chiefly sketches, short scores, and full scores. Also present are musical sketchbooks, many of which contain material relating to the musicals and/or concert music, as well as the famous so-called "Song File" and an assortment of miscellaneous musical material.
The correspondence series contains chiefly correspondence of George (much of it written by him), with a lesser quantity to and by Ira, and a small amount with other members of the Gershwin family. Particularly extensive are George's letters to Isaac Goldberg, Mabel Schirmer, and Aileen Pringle, and his letters to and from Rosamond Walling Tirana and Julia Van Norman. In addition, there are important individual items, including the correspondence between George and Ira, and those letters to Max Abramson in 1918 before George's career "took off." Other significant correspondence includes that of George with Walter Damrosch, Zena Hanenfeldt, George Pallay, Albert Sirmay, and Selma Tamber. Of Ira's correspondence, the most extensive is with Merle Armitage, cousins Benjamin and Henry Botkin, Rose Gershwin, and Kurt Weill.
The earliest scrapbooks present information about the pastimes of George and Ira from their teenage years and include clippings, programs, and scattered early publications. From about 1920 on, however, the scrapbooks are devoted almost entirely to press coverage of the Gershwins and their work in the form of clippings and lengthier articles. Iconography includes approximately 180 photographs of George and Ira and their friends, in addition to a self-portrait oil painting of each brother, several drawings by George, and three water colors by Henry Botkin. The remaining series contain posters, printed programs, financial and legal documents (including an extensive file of contracts for stage and screen musicals and other commercial projects), and artifacts: George’s piano, desk, and metronome, Ira’s typing table, typewriter, and fountain pen, and the Congressional Gold Medals struck in honor of the Gershwins.