Join curator Sam Bessen for an exploration of music, literature, and thievery through the lens of historic bound volumes of sheet music. These 18th and 19th-century compilations, artfully leather-bound with colorful and custom designs, preserved the favorite songs of amateur musicians. While many such volumes were later dismantled so individual songs could be sold, the surviving books offer remarkable insight into the lives and tastes of their original owners.
Bessen will showcase several rare examples from the collection, including an early publication by Baltimore’s own Benjamin Carr; a volume once owned by H.L. Mencken; and an exceptional first edition of The Star-Spangled Banner—stolen from one of these volumes and miraculously recovered
Sam Bessen is the Eleanor and Lester Levy Family Curator of Sheet Music and Popular Culture at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, and director of the In the Stacks Concert Series based at George Peabody Library. He is a key resource for those who study popular music history, the history of jazz and Broadway, and the history of racism in popular culture.
Sam holds a MM degree in Horn Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Event DateFriday, August 22, 2025Start Time: 12:00pm EDTEnd Time: 1:00pm EDT
Hopkins at HomeLivestream
ContactOffice of Alumni RelationsJoe LetourneauLifelong Learning(800) JHU-JHU1hopkinsathome@jhu.edu
Signing in with your Johns Hopkins Events (or Ecommerce, Alumni) account will automatically fill in your name and address information in the next step of event registration. If facing issues while logged in, try submitting the form without login. Selecting Continue as Guest will allow you to register for an event without signing in to an existing Johns Hopkins account.
