In 1946 Crosby took a 25% share in the ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Bing was always an avid baseball fan and was an owner of the team until his death in 1977.

Crosby was a fan of Stephen Foster’s music and recorded many of his songs, all of which are well documented in the collection’s recordings. He also championed the use of a Foster song in the film Mississippi, inciting the ire of composer Jerome Kern.

Stephen Foster was America's first popular songwriter. Everyone knew his songs, played his songs, bought his songs but knew very little about the man who created them. With Bing it was no longer the song that was selling -- it was the artist. As one of the most important figures in the development of musical entertainment in the twentieth century, this collection will allow us to continue tell the story of the development of American music and performance from the pre-electronic age through the development of radio, film and television.