The Library of Congress has acquired a new collection of manuscripts connected to the music of The Wizard of Oz, including the only known lyric sketch for “Over the Rainbow.” The material adds to the institution’s existing Harold Arlen archive and provides fresh insight into the creation of one of the most influential film scores in American cinema.
The most notable item in the 35-piece acquisition is a yellow legal sheet on which lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg penciled an early draft of “Over the Rainbow.” The fragment reads, “Someday I’ll wish upon a star + wake + find the darkness far behind me,” believed to be part of Harburg’s initial creative process for the song.
“Over the Rainbow” went on to win the Academy Award for best original song in 1940, with composer Harold Arlen’s score also earning the Oscar for best original score. It was the first film to win both categories in the same year. Garland’s performance of the song has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry, and in 2004 the American Film Institute ranked it first on its list of the greatest songs in American cinema.
Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres, acting chief of the Library’s Music Division, described the acquisition as “a treasured addition” that preserves the work of both Arlen and Harburg. “This gift not only honors their imaginative genius but also preserves the legacy of the music that has captured the hearts of generations,” he said in a statement.
Selections from the collection will be on display in the Great Hall of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building from Oct. 23 through Jan. 7, 2026. The exhibit will feature manuscripts from The Wizard of Oz as well as material from Wicked, the Broadway musical inspired by Baum’s novel.
These new items expand the Harold Arlen Collection, which has been growing at the Library since 2022 through donations from the Arlen family. That archive already includes notebooks of lyric sketches, photographs, correspondence with figures such as Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, as well as manuscripts for other Arlen standards including “Stormy Weather,” “The Man That Got Away,” and “Blues in the Night.”
Together, the acquisitions position the Library of Congress as a leading repository of Arlen and Harburg’s work, alongside holdings for composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Kern, and Richard Rodgers. For historians, musicians, and the public, the collection provides an opportunity to examine how some of the most recognizable songs in the American repertoire were first conceived.
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