The first decades of a comprehensive holding of popular American sheet music. Totaling more than 400,000 titles, the collection came to the Library in 1966 from the estate of George Goodwin (1900-1966), a radio station director who developed the Tune-Dex, a comprehensive 25,000 card catalog index of popular songs. (He also published several compendia of songs in the 1950s with the title "Song-Dex.") The information on the cards was nearly exhaustive, documenting composer, publisher, licensing and copyright information as well as the song's words, music and chords, all on two sides of 3 x 5 inch index card! Achieved in the pre-automation era, Goodwin's idea was a great success and for a time used extensively by those in the industry including NYPL.
