Songsters may be described as little books of lyrics (no notation) to popular and traditional songs. In America, they were published from the 18th century through the end of the 19th century, with occasional appearances in the 20th century.
The Harris Collection has one of the largest collections of songsters in any American library. Of the 648 songsters listed in the Lowens bibliography of songsters published before 1821, the Harris Collection has more than 200, of which 40 are unlocated elsewhere. The earliest songster in the collection is the Select Songster compiled by Philo Musico (New Haven: printed by Daniel Bowen, 1786).
Songsters are often associated with theatrical shows and performances, notably Harrigan and Hart, the Hutchinson Family singers, and many lesser-known variety performers of the second half of the 19th century; often there are cover portraits of the performers in costume. Songsters are also noteworthy as repositories of ethnic humor and jokes (and many are associated with 19th century blackface minstrelsy), as well as comic, sentimental, and patriotic songs of all sorts.
Many songsters are associated with political campaigns; notable are those associated with the 1860 and 1864 Abraham Lincoln presidential elections. Patriotic songsters were very popular during times of war; the War of 1812 and the Civil War saw the publication of numerous songsters. In addition to songsters associated with the Union cause, there are more than a dozen very scarce Confederate songsters in the collection.
Most of the songsters in the Harris Collection also exist on microfilm, produced as part of the Research Libraries Group’s Great Collections Microfilming Project.
See Also:
» Sources for the Study of 19th and 20th Century Blackface Minstrelsy
» Microforms
» Music
» Nineteenth Century Literature
Illustration: Charley Vivian’s who stole the donkey songster New York: R.M. De Witt, [1868?]
The McLellan Lincoln Collection includes numerous songsters related to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. At the Providence Public Library, there are also related songsters in the Caleb Fiske Harris Civil War Collection.
Other libraries with extensive collections of songsters include the American Antiquarian Association, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Library of Congress (Rare Book Division), Harvard University Library, the University of Pennsylvania Library, and the New York Public Library.
Illustration: The Little Mac songster. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, [1862?]
- The Center for Popular Music
Middle Tennessee State University - America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
Library of Congress: American Memory - The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music
Johns Hopkins University
Damon, S. Foster
The negro in early American songsters
[n.p.] 1934
Devine, George J.
American songsters 1806-1815
(M.A. Thesis)
Providence, R.I.: Brown University, 1940.
Hixon, Donald L.
Music in early America: a bibliography of music in Evans.
Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press, 1970.
Jones, Frangcon L.
A study of American “Forget-me-not” songsters of the 1840’s and 1850’s
1948
Krummel, Donald William
Bibliographical handbook of American music.
Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, c1987.
Lowens, Irving
A bibliography of songsters printed in America before 1821.
Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1976.
Cites 40 songsters held only by Brown University Library.
Miles, William
Songs, odes, glees and ballads. A bibliography of American presidential campaign songsters
New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Resources of American music history: a directory of source materials from Colonial times to World War II; D. W. Krummel … [et al.] Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, c1981.
Thorpe, Alice Louise
American songsters of the eighteenth century
1935
Toll, Robert C.
Blacking up : the minstrel show in nineteenth century America
New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Illustration: Joe English’s Irish comic songster. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, [1864?]
