The Jerome Kern Collection consists primarily of Show Music. The music in the collection includes a number of holograph sketches and scores, but the majority of the music is not in Kern's hand; however, much of this music does contain annotations by Kern. Many of the music manuscripts are by Kern's orchestrators and arrangers. The full scores of Frank Saddler and Robert Russell Bennett are particularly well represented. More than fifty of Kern's shows are represented in the collection, from the 1906 shows The Spring Chicken and Fluffy Ruffles, to Kern's last Broadway musical Very Warm for May from 1939.

In a 1940 letter to Harold Spivacke, then Chief of the Music Division, Jerome Kern wrote of his plan to give a manuscript to the Library: "I shall be glad to send [the manuscript] on with no small amount of pride, not in the composition, but in its destination." The Library of Congress, in turn, is proud to count the Jerome Kern Collection among its holdings. The Library is particularly fortunate in the quantities of full scores and parts for what are considered Kern's most significant scores: The Cat and the Fiddle, Music in the Air, Roberta, Sally, Show Boat, Sitting Pretty, Sunny, Sweet Adeline, Very Good Eddie and Very Warm For May.

In addition, the Miscellaneous Music is mostly comprised of copies of late songs by Kern. Many of these were songs that were cut from films, or written for unproduced projects. In some cases, lyrics were added to previously unused works after Kern's death. Apparently, most of this material came from the files of T. B. Harms, Inc. (Kern's publisher) and some appear to have been transcribed from recordings made by Kern. There are indications that these materials had been compiled to create a Jerome Kern revue in the 1960s that Cheryl Crawford had considered producing.

All annotations in Kern's hand are not listed in this document. For instance, among the unacknowledged holographic annotations are a number of music manuscripts in the hand of a copyist or arranger, but on which Kern wrote the title. In cases where notes by Kern were particularly interesting or revealing, they have been transcribed as notes in this finding aid. It may be helpful to know that Kern used the term "melos" to refer to underscoring, and the term "burthen" to refer to a chorus or refrain.

Songs preceded by an asterisk "*" were not composed by Kern. When a song title is followed by "#" and a number or combination of numbers and letters, that designation appears on all or most of the items listed below that title, indicating its position in the running order of the stage work. These numbers are supplied here for purposes of differentiating multiple versions of the same song title, or to indicate songs that at least appear to have made it into the rehearsal process for a production of the show. These numbers may also be helpful in differentiating between music used in various productions of the same show.

Gerald Bordman's book Jerome Kern: His Life and Music (Oxford University Press, 1980), has been a significant resource.