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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Silver Star (1910 song)

song composed by Charles L. Johnson

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 3, 2021
Entity authorityQ7516370 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Silver Star" is an intermezzo composed by Charles L. Johnson in 1910. In 1911, William R. Clay added lyrics which tell of an Indian warrior eloping with an unnamed Indian maiden whom he refers to as his "silver star".

Lyrics

The lyrics as written by Clay:

References

Bibliography

Clay, William R. (w.); Johnson, Charles L. (m.). "Silver Star" (Sheet music). Kansas City, MO: J.W. Jenkins Sons Music Co. (1911).

Johnson, Charles L. (m.). "Silver Star" (Sheet music). Kansas City, MO: J.W. Jenkins Sons Music Co. (1910).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Silver Star (1910 song)” is song composed by Charles L. Johnson. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Silver, Star and song, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1910, 1911—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Silver, Star and song is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “song composed by Charles L. Johnson” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2021. The linked authority identifier is Q7516370. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1910 and 1911.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Silver Star (1910 song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Silver Star (1910 song) primary sources, Silver Star (1910 song) archive and Silver research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Silver Star (1910 song)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Silver Star (1910 song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.