feature image: Courtesy of Villa Terrace.
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin – A groundbreaking new exhibition, The Beat Goes On!: The Art and History of Sheet Music: 1897–1957, opens Thursday, July 31, at the Villa Terrace with a public reception from 5–8 pm. Sponsored by the Milwaukee-based headquarters of Hal Leonard—the world’s largest sheet music publisher—and Guardian Fine Art Service—the Midwest’s premier art services company. With these sponsors and other partners, this unique show explores sixty years of American culture through the lens of sheet music’s vibrant visual and musical history.
Perhaps no other medium captures the zeitgeist of America so effectively as its music. The songs of an era speak volumes about the hopes and fears of a society-at-large. While often overlooked as a cultural artifact, the backbeat of this musical history is captured in the sheet music covers. Art, design, music, and history come together in the exhibition The Beat Goes On, curated by art and cultural historians Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, and Martha Chaiklin, PhD. This novel exhibition of over 50 original examples drawn from select private collections—the first of its kind in Milwaukee—celebrates music by showcasing sixty years of popular taste and social-change as expressed by illustrated sheet music, and includes several Milwaukee highlights.
The exhibition features sheet music covers from every decade starting in the late 1890s up to the music by Les Paul and Frank Sinatra of the 1950s, along with vintage instruments and audio recordings. Musical genres will include sentimental ballads, Dixieland jazz, Blues, and songs created for Vaudeville and Burlesque, in addition to the various dance crazes. The music covers celebrating the new technology of cars, trains, and planes, along with images to inspire the troops during wartime America, are also part of this exhibition.
The images that fronted each tune—created by commercial and occasionally by fine artists—capture of the very ‘beat’ of the nation. These eye-catching, contemporary graphics highlight designs and styles ranging from Art Nouveau and Art Deco to Romantic and Modern. Social trends and events in American history, from the migration north to rousing performances by the Ziegfeld Follies to deployment overseas, were each featured in new musical creations. Many had a cover announcing the musical stars of the day.
The Beat Goes On charts the course of American popular music and through its many partners celebrates music in Milwaukee from 1897 through the 1950s. From folk tunes and sentimental ballads to popular melodies, music was enjoyed by millions in home parlors, music halls, and vaudeville/burlesque stages across the country, and on Broadway. From the genteel Victorian ballads of the late 1800s to the syncopated rhythms of the Roaring Twenties and the patriotic marches of wartime America, sheet music was not only heard—it was seen. Vivid, dramatic cover illustrations accompanied the songs that defined eras and movements, selling millions of copies and setting the cultural tone for generations.
Dominated by immigrants, the business of sheet music was substantial in the United States and led to Tin Pan Alley, the epicenter of the music publishing industry. America went through rapid change over the decades and sheet music reflects that change.
“Sheet music was big business that advertised through cover art,” says co-curator Martha Chaiklin. “It’s where America’s most iconic artists, performers, and composers met—literally—on the same page.”
The advent of dance crazes like the foxtrot, tango, and Charleston all stimulated sheet music sales, as did patriotism during the war years. It inadvertently (not by design but by default) documents the history of culture, advertising, and entertainment in this country.
Sheet music broadcast the various stars (performers, composers, and musicians) of each new tune. Songwriters from Milwaukee’s Charles K. Harris to Moe Jaffe, Leo Feist, Irving Berlin, and Duke Ellington defined the genre. These music producers wrote for the likes of The Mills Band, Rogers and Hammerstein, and the Ziegfeld Follies. They in turn turned to artists and illustrators whose talents were employed to promote the new music of the day. Those featured in this show include Albert Wilfred Barbelle, Gene Buck, André de Takacs, Pud Lane, Sydney Leff, Frederick S. Manning, Norman Rockwell, and Helen Van Doorn Morgan, among others.
To accompany the output of these artists, this exhibition will include historical examples of the popular instruments used in many of the arrangements.
Milwaukee: A Musical Nexus
In particular, the exhibition shines a spotlight on Milwaukee’s underappreciated contributions to American music publishing. The American songwriter Charles K. Harris (1867–1930), who grew up in Milwaukee, was instrumental in popularizing music by publishing hundreds of songs with dynamic artistic covers. His After the Ball (1892) was the first to sell over a million copies and then went on to exceed that number five-fold. In addition to this legacy, Milwaukee is home to the headquarters of Hal Leonard, the world’s largest sheet music publisher and the founder of the world’s first website for digital sheet music and guitar tablature. A further star to come out of Wisconsin is Les Paul, and his wife Mary Ford. The two defined music in the 1950s and beyond.
Art, Identity, and Innovation
Through rich visuals and thoughtful context, The Beat Goes On explores themes that continue to resonate: gender, race, war, technology, and social change. From the music of the South to the war songs that helped power a movement, the exhibition offers a kaleidoscopic view of American identity without ignoring the darker chapters—minstrel shows, “coon songs,” Orientalism, and other artifacts of systemic racism are included in historical context to examine the evolution of American entertainment and its, at times, painful legacies.
“Sheet music reflects everything—our hopes, our fears, our prejudices, and our joys,” says Annemarie Sawkins. “It’s a unique cultural artifact that deserves serious attention, both for its musical significance and its visual storytelling.”
Exhibition Highlights:
· Historic examples of “Jewface” and minstrel imagery—critically presented
· Zip Coon characters and Blackface as performed by Al Jolson
· Depictions of Orientalism in sheet music
· Rare sheet music from the World Wars
· Patriotic and protest songs, including WWI’s “America, Here is My Boy”
· Norman Rockwell’s image for “Over Yonder Where the Lilies Grow,” 1918
· Sheet music celebrating Milwaukee’s Centennial and the Centurama
· Cover art reflecting changing technology, fashion, and social ideals
· Music recordings of the music on display
· Les Paul’s “Johnny Is The Boy For Me,” 1953, and a signed Les Paul guitar
· The 1957 cover for “All the Way” sung by Frank Sinatra in Paramount Picture’s The Joker is Wild
The Beat Goes On honors the songwriters, musicians, and illustrators who brought American music to life on paper. Before recorded sound dominated, it was sheet music that allowed homes, dance halls, and hearts across the country to be filled with music.
As noted by Tony Walas, author of Visions of Music: Sheet Music in the Twentieth Century, a Hal Leonard publication from 2014, these visual treasures from the past—the art created to promote the sale of sheet music—needs to be seen and appreciated, before, “we lose the remarkable perspective, the visual delight, the colorful history that they represent.”
The exhibition, by featuring material less commonly found in the museums and galleries yet visually and aesthetically worthy of contemplation, will open visitors’ minds to fresh approaches to museum exhibitions. Since it touches upon art and design, evolving graphic presentations, American culture and history, and the confluence of modes of expression, the exhibition will have value to the entire community and its visitors.
Exhibition Programming
In recognition of the collaboration between the Alliance Française and Villa Terrace, a micro exhibition of French-themed sheet music covers will be presented at the Alliance Française (1800 E. Capitol Drive in Shorewood) from July 24 through January. This portion of the exhibition will be open and available during regular AF hours of operation.
The Beat Goes On offers an immersive experience with period recordings, a possible film series, and individual gallery soundtracks featuring hits from the sheet music collection. This exhibition supports and coincides with the Villa MSO concerts and their Sopra Mare Sunday music series.
Additionally, several concerts are being planned during the run of the exhibition. Local talent including Old Sam and the Teardrops,the Troubadours of Rhythm, and Pinkerton and his Band, among others, will bring the music in the exhibition to life in dance concerts and special events.
The Villa Terrace Museum and Gardens at 2220 N. Terrace Avenue is the historic house of Lloyd R. and Agnes Smith along with their six children. Built in 1924, Villa Terrace—originally Sopra Mare, the Italian for “above the sea”—was designed by the renowned architect and Milwaukee native David Adler (1882–1949). The Italian Renaissance-style home on a bluff above Lake Michigan has since 1966, housed the Villa Terrace Museum and Gardens. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Exhibition Sponsor
Hal Leonard: A Muse Group Company
Exhibition Partners (in no particular order)
Alliance Française de Milwaukee
Bronzeville Center for the Arts
America’s Black Holocaust Museum
Exhibition Dates: July 31, 2025 – January 18, 2026
Opening Reception: July 31 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Location: Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, 2220 N. Terrace Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202