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Newly Digitized Sheet Music from the National Air and Space Museum Library Collection

April 2017
Cloud kisser: rag, two step, by Johnson, Chas. L. (Charles Leslie), 1876-1950. cmp; Inland-Walton Engraving Co. egr; Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries) DSI
The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum library collection of Bella C. Landauer Aeronautical Sheet Music is now freely available online. As part of the Smithsonian's partnership with Gale, this collection was digitized and made available to the public on the Internet Archive. The digitized collection includes over 300 sheets of aeronautically-themed sheet music and covers. The collection is well worth exploring, and I've highlighted a few pieces below. 
 

"You'll Have to Get Off and Walk"

By David Reed, music and lyrics, 1872-1946, Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries).
A silly tune about a man's traveling difficulties, resulting in a chorus of, "Hey, Bill, say, Bill, you'll have to get off and walk!"

 

"Our Fussy Buzzy Aeroplane"

By Charles William Caldwell, music and lyrics; E. H. Pfeiffer, illustrator; Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries).
A song from WWI about triumphing through air power, with a "Fussy, Buzzy, Aeroplane."

 

"Cloud Kisser: Rag, Two-Step"

By Chas L. (Charles Leslie) Johnson, composer; 1876-1950. Inland-Walton Engraving Co., engraving; Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries).
A light and airy dance tune, by a well-known ragtime composer. 

 

"Come Josephine In My Flying Machine"

by Fred Fisher, composer; Alfred Bryan, lyrics; 1910; Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries).
A well-known aeronautical tune about a couple courting on an airplane.

 

"Up In a Balloon"

By G. W. (George W.) Hunt, composer; Nelly Power, performer; Agnes Power, lyrics; Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music (Smithsonian Institution. Libraries).
A song about falling in love with an aeronautical con man.