MUSIC

Berlin Treasure: The Library of Congress has formally taken possession of the Irving Berlin Collection, which includes 750,000 items of personal correspondence, photos, scrapbooks and the business records of the company Berlin founded in 1919 to handle his songs, in addition to his musical manuscripts and scores. Berlin, whose songs include “God Bless America” and “White Christmas,” died in 1989 at age 101. Documented in Berlin’s business archives is the fact that “White Christmas” is the most commercially successful song ever written, with 332,280,627 copies sold in recordings, plus another 5.9 million in sheet music.