Historic U.S. Music 

 

African American Sheet Music, 1820-1920

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/sheetmusic/afam/index.html 

This collection of sheet music--ballads, love songs, military tunes, minstrel music, ragtime classics, spirituals, and other popular songs--has  been digitized from Brown University's John Hay Library.  Browsable by composer, title or subject or, searched by keyword, the website also features an extensive Reference section and "About" page. "Particularly significant in this collection are the visual depictions of African Americans which provide much information about racial attitudes over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."

 

America Singing:  19th Century Song Sheets

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amsshtml 

Search by keywords or browse by title, composer, or publisher to gain from 4,200 popular lyrics an understanding of the culture of the nation two centuries ago; with digitized images of the sheets.

 

E. Azalia Hackley Collection of “Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Sheet Music with Negro Themes

http://tinyurl.com/yqyb5v 

Over 600 pieces of sheet music published between 1799 and 1922. Song themes cover early 19th century plantation life in the American South, the Civil War period, including abolitionism, emancipation and Reconstruction, early 20th century popular music, and the stereotypical themes associated with black face minstrelsy. A few pieces include audio files. There is also an extensive bibliography section. 

 

Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida

Compiled by scholars such as Zora Neale Hurston, this multiethnic, multi-format sound collection encompasses children's songs, dance tunes, and religious music.  Supplemented with interviews, reading lists, and other documents, it is indexed by genre, language, ethnic group, and performer.

 

Frances G. Spencer Collection: American Melting Pot

http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm4/index_01amp.php?CISOROOT=/01amp 

This collection of about 30,000 pieces of sheet music ranges from the late 18th to early 20th century. It includes first editions such as Jingle Bells and Battle Hymn of the Republic, as well as first editions of prominent American composers of the time such as Stephen Foster and Scott Joplin. To date, digital images are available for over 900 pieces. 

 

Historic American Sheet Music

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm

From the 19th and early 20th century American sheet music, digital images of over 3,000 compositions published between 1850 and 1920.

 

Historic Sheet Music

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/volcano/volcano-home.html

"...9,000 items, most published from 1850 to 1920. Most of the music is written for voice and piano. The collection includes early pieces by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, as well as music by other popular composers and numerous arrangements of classical tunes by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and other classical composers."  The Library of Congress digitized this collection of songs about romance, the military and patriotism, and sentiment.

 

Innovations of Note Sheet Music Collection

http://libraries.mit.edu/music/sheetmusic/index.html 

A quirky collection of sheet music from MIT's Lewis Music Library.  All the songs included in this collection in some way feature a technological innovation.  Songs topics, which are listed on this website by title or are browseable, include the telegraph, the airplane, subways, sewing machines, hot air balloons, the telephone and automobiles. 

 

Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu

"Contains over 29,000 pieces of music and focuses on popular American music spanning the period 1780 to 1960. All pieces of the collection are indexed on this site and a search will retrieve a catalog description of the pieces. An image of the cover and each page of music will also be retrieved if the music was published before 1923 and is in the public domain."

 

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/smhtml/smhome.html 

Over 20,000 songs, searchable by author, title, or keyword.

 

Now What a Time:  Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftvhtml/ftvhome.html 

Spanning the years 1938 through 1943, one hundred sound recordings, featuring notable African American artists.

 

Parlor Songs

http://www.parlorsongs.org 

An attractive zine with thematic issues (on topics such as African American stereotypes, Valentines, Great Depression tunes, and dreams) providing midi files for music of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  Recent issues include printed lyrics.

 

Union Songs

http://unionsong.com 

"For 2 centuries people across the world have built unions. This site documents the songs and poems that they made in the process." 

 

Go back to the Music Web guide main page. 

 

Go back to list of all Newark Public Library Web guides.