NOTE: Clicking links in the introduction below will take you to MERLIN catalog records for this collection. To browse, view and search scanned images of the sheet music itself, please use the three links above.

The World War I Sheet Music Collection contains over 250 unique titles published primarily from 1914 to 1919. Among them are a number of compositions by Irving Berlin, including Let’s All Be Americans Now, They Were All Out of Step But Jim, I’ve Got My Captain Working For Me Now and Good-Bye France. Also included in the collection are older titles that experienced a revival in popularity at the outbreak of the First World War. Two titles – When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1863) and Just Before The Battle, Mother (1864) – originally date back to the Civil War.

The sheet music of World War I reflects the sentiment of the time, both on the battlefield and on the home front. Pun-laden jabs come full force in titles like We’ll Knock The Heligo, Into Heligo, Out of Heligoland and We Don’t Want The Bacon (What We Want Is A Piece Of The Rhine); while a fascination with French culture is apparent in works such as How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm After They’ve Seen Paree. From military leader to Red Cross nurse to stoic mother, character tributes are also common subject matter, as indicative in the compositions of General Pershing, The Rose of No Man’s Land and America, Here’s My Boy.

Social commentary also turns up in World War I song, most prominently in The Makin’s Of The USA: A Plea In Song For Tobacco For The Boys Over There; The Alcoholic Blues, a lilting indictment of Prohibition; and I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, an anti-war composition. Other works offer a more difficult glimpse into the cultural climate of the country. Titles like Mammy’s Chocolate Soldier, the lyrics to You’ll Find Old Dixieland In France, and the cover art of If You Just Must Go To War Bring The Kaiser Back prove unequivocally that racial divisions persisted in the midst of patriotic solidarity.

The World War I Sheet Music Collection can be searched here at the Missouri Digital Library. Titles also can be searched via the UMKC Merlin library catalog using the following subject headings limited by material type (printed music): World War, 1914-1918 -- Songs and music or, more generally, Popular music -- United States -- 1911-1920.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City University Libraries are grateful for the assistance with this web project provided by the University of Missouri-Library Systems Office, especially by Kurt Kopp, Assistant Director - Electronic Resources, Philip Redmon - Programmer Analyst and George Rickerson - UM Assistant Vice President for Library Systems and Executive Director, MOBIUS Consortium.