Sheet Music
The collection of sheet music at the American Antiquarian Society consists of about 60,000 pieces of instrumental, vocal, secular, and religious music by both American and foreign composers that were printed through 1880 (more than 4,100 compositions were printed in the United States before 1826). Although Boston imprints are in the majority, the collection also embraces works published in many other sections of the country, notably New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
The music is shelved alphabetically by composer. A title index housed with the collection provides a second means of access for researchers. In addition to the title and name of the composer, the index lists the place of publication, publisher, and date. It also indicates any special filing category for retrieval of the music. Both Richard J. Wolfe's bibliography Secular Music in America, 1801-1825 (New York, 1964) and A Bibliography of Early Secular Music [18th Century] (Washington, 1945) by Oscar G. T. Sonneck and William T. Upton, are annotated to reflect the AAS holdings and new acquisitions. The numbers assigned by Wolfe are also added to the collection's title index.
The Sheet Music collection is divided into six categories. The largest contains about 44,400 pieces. As with all the other subdivisions, it is arranged first by composer's name, then alphabetically by title, and, in the case of multiple variant imprints, by place of publication and publisher. Some 9,000 pieces of music with lithographed pictorial covers forms a second division. This group is used extensively by researchers. The covers not only give a pictorial dimension to the musical content but also present a social and cultural commentary on the era. Songs were composed to pay tribute to the heroism of fire fighters or to celebrate such important events as the first water piped into New York in 1842. These pieces also illustrate issues of the day such as temperance, slavery, and women's rights. They extolled the pleasures of rowing or bowling, ice cream parlors, and tobacco. Even the appearance of the great comet in 1843 was deemed appropriate for the popular composer and the cover artist. The artists who illustrated the pictorial sheet music included some of the nation's most prominent--Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, David Claypoole Johnston, and Fitz Hugh Lane. Consequently, this category of sheet music is in demand not only by scholars, but also by many publishers who wish to use the illustrations for current publications. To aid researchers, there are supplemental indexes to lithographers and titles for this group and an index by subject. The topical classification for sheet music with pictorial lithographed covers is available online.
About 5,000 pieces of music with engraved pictorial covers forms a third category. Another 800 or so pieces are filed by the names of authors cited in P.K. Foley's bibliography American Authors 1795-1895 (Boston, 1897). A smaller group of sheet music includes compositions displaying photographic or lithographed portraits on their covers.
The final category is the group that constitutes the "Worcester Collection," containing about 600 pieces. This category comprises music either composed by a Worcester native, published in Worcester, or celebrating a Worcester subject; and it is the only group that contains imprints extending into the twentieth century. Included are such pieces as the "Rangers Trip to Westborough or Lion Quick Step" by James Hooten, written for the opening of the railroad to Westboro, Massachusetts, on November 15, 1834, and "Good Old Worcester Town," composed in 1917 by Hamilton B. Wood, a former president of the Worcester County Music Association.
Supplementing the large number of compositions by Stephen C. Foster is a three-volume, privately printed set containing reproductions of all Foster's known works and arrangements, the Foster Hall Reproductions (Indianapolis, 1933). The Society also holds a small but significant group of vocal and instrumental compositions that were published as serials. Two volumes of the serial Musical Journal for the Pianoforte, first published in 1800 by Benjamin Carr in Philadelphia, are included, as well as a complete four-volume facsimile reprint published in 1972.
Rare items in the Society's pre-1826 group of sheet music include the 1814 Baltimore printing of the second issue of the first edition of "The Star Spangled Banner," Benjamin Carr's "The Wreath of Roses" (Philadelphia, ca. 1816), and the "Hunters of Kentucky," composed by William Blondell in support of Andrew Jackson as a presidential candidate in 1824.
The Sheet Music collection is one of the outstanding collections in the country. The Society continues to augment the collection with as much pre-1826 music as possible. Also of interest is music published through 1880 in the West, Midwest, or South.
- Audrey T. Zook, former graphic arts assistant. Updated by Georgia B. Barnhill, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts
