John Steiner Papers

[Pictured, John Steiner recording a performance by, Howard Kennedy (guitar), Spencer Clark (bass saxophone), Squirrel Ashcraft (piano), and Phil Atwood (electric bass), with others]

John Franklin Steiner, a chemist by day, was a jazz aficionado by night. As a teenager growing up in Milwaukee, Steiner started listening to the chipped records his aunt brought home for him. He soon started traveling to Chicago to visit jazz clubs and over time befriended many jazz musicians.

Steiner also recorded and produced music. He started S/D Records with Hugh Davis and eventually purchased the rights to Paramount Records. He reissued early jazz, blues, and gospel and also recorded new material. Artists include Squirrel Ashcraft, Ma Rainey, Preston Jackson, Arthur “Blind” Blake, Johnny Dodds, and Thomas A. “Georgia Tom” Dorsey.

[Chicago Theater, undated]

For nearly eighty years, Steiner collected material about jazz music, musicians, recording companies, and many other topics of interest. He was internationally known as an expert on jazz and especially Chicago jazz and often acted as a source or consultant for articles, books, dissertations and theses, documentaries, and other productions of jazz history.

The John Steiner Collection spans 140 years and includes sheet music, articles, photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, interviews, ephemera, and publications which documents Chicago jazz and blues, musicians, clubs, printed music, recording companies, and recording technology.

The John Steiner Collection was processed and preserved as part of the "Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project," funded with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.