Scope and Content Note
The George H. Moss Collection of Sheet Music primarily contains printed piano-vocal scores that span from 1885 to 1935, with the bulk of the materials dating between 1900 and 1925. Many of the titles are for American popular songs produced in Tin Pan Alley in New York City, which was the center for commercial production of American popular song during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some songwriters and music publishers represented in the collection include Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Fred Fisher, George Gershwin, Charles K. Harris, Victor Herbert, Louis A. Hirsch, Frank Loesser, George William Mayer, Cole Porter, John Stromberg, and Egbert van Alstyne. It also contains a significant number of songs for musical theater, including the work of Gus Edwards, Sheldon Harnick, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, Arthur Sullivan, Harry Tierney, and Gus Williams.
Please note that some words typically used in song titles of this era do not match the lanugage preferred by members of the communities to which they refer.