MIAMI BEACH, FLA.- On the heels of renewed American-Cuban relations, The Wolfsonian–FIU has received a major gift of sheet music related to the Spanish-American War, the infamous late 19th-century conflict that resulted in Cuban independence from Spain. Filling an important gap in the museum’s extensive holdings of vintage sheet music covers, the hundreds of rare works—enough to fill 8 bankers boxes—were amassed over the course of decades by Key West native and music aficionado Joseph K. Albertson, and donated to The Wolfsonian by the Monroe County Public Library in Key West, FL.

In the era before radio, sheet music entertained the masses at the parlor piano and in the dancehall, with patriotic marches and sentimentalized songs inspiring Americans to support the troops during wartime. This gift of music titles features illustrated covers celebrating U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence, including depictions of the pivotal sinking of the USS Maine in Havana and several heroes of the American forces such as Commodore George Dewey and Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders.” True to their time, the sheet music covers also reflect racist and sexist stereotypes, offering important insight into the historical biases that shaped our culture and propaganda at the turn of the 20th century. As The Wolfsonian–FIU Library staff unbox and catalog the sheet music covers, each work will be carefully digitized and made available online to the FIU community, scholars, and general public for further research and commentary.

The Wolfsonian's collections comprise approximately 150,000 objects from the period of 1885 to 1945—the height of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals. Opened to the public in 1995, The Wolfsonian has received wide recognition among scholars, collectors, educators, the media, museum professionals, and visitors for its unrivaled collection of modern material culture and its multidisciplinary approach to looking at objects as both agents and expressions of change. While these objects can best be understood in the context in which they were created, they illuminate as much about our times as they reveal about their own. The museum supports scholarship and develops and disseminates critically acclaimed exhibitions, publications, and educational programs that highlight the impact of design in shaping the modern world.