Miscellaneous Personal Papers, 1899 - 1978

SUBSERIES 7A: MISCELLANEOUS PERSONAL PAPERS, Boxes 19, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32. Autobiographical writings and other personal papers, including two scrapbooks of Christmas cards from the 1920s and 1930s, reveal Kirkeby's early influences growing up the son of a Brooklyn store owner whose love of music carried over to his two sons, as well as his observations on the early twentieth-century music scene in New York around the time when he launched his career. Three folders of letters written between 1899 and 1902 to William H. Miller, whose relationship to Kirkeby is unclear, are from popular entertainers of the day; the stationery and penmanship are works of art. Also noteworthy are ephemera and printed material of jazz musicians who were not Kirkeby clients.

SUBSERIES 7B: PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES AND PRINTS, Boxes 20-21. Photographs, negatives and sleeves are of interest in that they track the years when he was with Fats Waller and, as such, might add further details of their travels.

SUBSERIES 7C: PUBLISHED MUSIC BOOKS AND SHEET MUSIC, Box 27. Printed music books and sheet music published between 1904 and 1952 contain popular and classical music, vaudeville, method books, music for piano, and songs composed or played by Jelly Roll Morton.