THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS,
J.D. WILLIAMS LIBRARY, THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI

"Land That We Love:" Patriotic images from the Ann Jefcoat Rayburn Collection of Paper Americana with a holograph stanza from "God Bless America."

Introduction, Exhibit II: Holograph stanza from Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" taken from "The Book of Gold."  Continued
Army as a private, later becoming a sergeant in the Intelligence Corps. Beginning in the First World War and continuing through the early 1940s, Dawson collected a dazzling array of signature, autograph sentiments, signed musical notations, autograph poems, pen and pencil drawings, watercolor sketches, political documents, original photographs, and war-time ephemera. Contributors include many important writers (Ezra Pound, Thomas Mann, Rudyard Kipling, and William Faulkner), political and military figures (Winston Churchill, Marshall Foch, John Pershing, Douglas McArthur, and Woodrow Wilson), composers (W.C. Handy, Cole Porter, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmanioff), figures from the arts (Howard Chandler Christy and Henri Matisse) and science (Albert Einstein), as well as from film and stage (Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Gish, and Tallulah Bankhead) and sport (Jack Dempsey). The piece featured on display is an original holograph stanza form Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."
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