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Chicago Sheet Music Collection

Overview

Abstract

Scope and Contents

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

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Chicago Sheet Music Collection, 1845-1871 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

By Karina Cooper

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Collection Overview

Title: Chicago Sheet Music Collection, 1845-1871Add to your cart.

ID: 01/01/MSS00115

Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Library

Extent: 6.0 Cubic Feet. More info below.

Arrangement:

Arrangement reflects original ordering by the University Library in 15 volumes, which is primary ordered chronologically by acquisition date, then alphabetically by composer last name and title of the composition within volumes.

Volume 1: alphabetically by composer last name then title.

Volumes 2-5: chronologically by publication date across volumes (v. 2 1849-1861, v. 3 1862-1865, v. 4 1865-1871, v. 5 1871- undated) then alphabetically by composer and title within each volume.

Volumes 6-7, 9-11 contain imprints ordered alphabetically by composer last name and title across volumes in the following order: v.6 (A-E), v. 7 (F-K), v. 11 (L-O), v. 9 (R-V), v. 10 (W).

Volume 8 and volumes 12-15 are ordered alphabetically by composer last name and title within each volume.

The physical collection has been rehoused into 20 boxes, ordered continuously by item based off of the original call and volume numbers. See the finding aid for a box/item listing.

Date Acquired: 08/01/1939

Subjects: H. M. Higgins (Publisher), Higgins Brothers (Chicago, Ill.), Lyon & Healy, Music publishing -- Illinois -- Chicago, Root & Cady, United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865

Forms of Material: Sheet Music

Languages: English, French, German, Italian

Abstract

A collection of 19th century sheet music printed in Chicago, Illinois before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The Chicago Sheet Music Collection is a collection of 19th century sheet music printed in Chicago, Illinois before the Great Fire of 1871. It consists of a wide range of popular music from the time, including popular vocal and piano pieces, songs, ballads, waltzes, polkas, marches, comic pieces, opera selections, and parlor music. Thematic strengths include the American Civil War; stage shows and productions by comic actors, opera stars, minstrel performers, and family singing troupes; Chicago businesses and social organizations; and social issues such as temperance, reconstruction, and women's suffrage.

The items in the collection were predominantly published by the Chicago firms Root & Cady, H.M. Higgins, Lyon & Healy, and the DeMotte Brothers and their associated national imprints. Consisting of approximately 850 items, the collection was assembled by the University of Illinois Library between 1939-1943. Volumes 1-5, 8, 12, 14 and 15 contain music published and printed in Chicago, while volumes 6-7, 9-11, 13, and 15 contain imprints published in other American cities with Chicago distributors.

Collection Historical Note

In 1939, the University of Illinois began collecting sheet music printed in Chicago before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 in response to renewed interest in the academic community regarding Chicago’s role in music publishing during the Civil War and before the Fire. The Fire devastated the Chicago music industry, destroying the storefronts and inventories of most of the publishing houses. As a result, only one pre-Fire firm survived into the 20th century and information about the scale and national reach of the Chicago music publishing industry was largely forgotten. Between 1939 and 1943, the University Library amassed over 850 pieces of sheet music that either were printed in or would have been available in Chicago before 1871.

In 1941 the University Library hired a student assistant from the Library Science program to catalog and arrange the collection, Dena J. Polacheck Epstein (1916-2013). Epstein, who had a bachelor’s degree in music was inspired to write her master’s thesis, Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871, using the Illinois collection, which was later serially published in the Music Library Association of America Notes journal between 1944-1946 and in a revised book edition in 1969, which has remained an influential work in the study of early American music publishing. Epstein later became a noted Music Librarian at the University of Chicago and an ethnomusicologist, best known for her foundational scholarship into early American Black folk music and her 1977 book Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War.

Sources:

Epstein, Dena. Interview by Chris D’Arpa. 14 March, 2008. Voices of Illinois Oral History Portal, University of Illinois Archives. https://www.library.illinois.edu/voices/collection-item/dena-epstein/, Accessed 28 February. 2023.

Epstein, Dena Julia Polacheck. “Music Publishing in Chicago Prior to 1871 : the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871”. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1943.

Epstein, Dena J. Polacheck. Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871 : the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1969.

Epstein, Dena J. "Music Publishing" in Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2005

University of Illinois Library. Annual Report 1939-1940. University of Illinois Archives, 35/1/801.

Subject/Index Terms

H. M. Higgins (Publisher)
Higgins Brothers (Chicago, Ill.)
Lyon & Healy
Music publishing -- Illinois -- Chicago
Root & Cady
United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865

Administrative Information

Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Alternate Extent Statement: 20 boxes (853 items)

Access Restrictions: The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions:

The RBML reproductions policies can be found here:

http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/collections/reproduction-services/

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would damage materials or involve violation of copyright law.

Acquisition Source: Purchased

Acquisition Method: Acquired between 1939-1943 through purchase installments from various rare book dealers including Edward H. Terry, L. E. Dicke, Fred Lockley, Wellman and Harry Dichter.

Related Publications: Epstein, Dena J. Polacheck. Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1969.


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Box:

[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Box 4],
[Box 5],
[Box 6],
[Box 7],
[Box 8],
[Box 9],
[Box 10],
[Box 11],
[Box 12],
[Box 13],
[Box 14],
[Box 15],
[Box 16],
[Box 17],
[Box 18],
[Box 19],
[Box 20],
[All]

Box 4Add to your cart.
Volume 3Add to your cart.
Item 37: "Little Major," comp. and lyrics by Henry C. Work, 1862Add to your cart.
Piano, voice (duet). Published by Root & Cady.
Item 38: "Sleep, Baby, sleep," comp. and arr. Henry C. Work and arr. John Molter, 1862Add to your cart.
Piano, guitar. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 39: "Sleeping for the flag: song and chorus," comp. and lyrics by Henry C. Work, 1863Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 39, cop. 2: "Sleeping for the flag: song and chorus," comp. and lyrics by Henry C. Work, 1863Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 40: "Song of a thousand years: solo and chorus," comp. and lyrics by Henry C. Work, 1863Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 41: "I'se on de way: Freedman's song," comp. and lyrics by Wurzel, 1864Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 42: "Temple polka mazourka," comp. Florence Ziegfeld, 1864Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Reeds Temple of Music.
Volume 4Add to your cart.
Item 1: "Look out upon the stars: serenade," comp. Ch. H. Bach, lyrics by Wilkes, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Ziegfeld & Willson and Reeds Temple of Music.
Item 2: "Etta Mazurka," comp. Adolph Baumbach, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 3: "Inauguration March," comp. Adolph Baumbach, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by H.M. Higgins.
Item 4: "Golden Cloud Polka" (from Golden Dreams: A Collection of Gems for the Piano composed by Eugene Berthier; no. 2), comp. Eugene Berthier, 1868Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 5: "Golden Dream March" (from Golden Dreams: A Collection of Gems for the Piano composed by Eugene Berthier; no. 2), comp. Eugene Berthier, 1868Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 6: "Daylight: A Musical Expression for the piano," comp. Blind Tom, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 7: "Love among the roses," comp. T. Brigham Bishop, lyrics by W.H. Delehanty, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 8: "Little Maggie May," comp. Chas. Blamphin, lyrics by G.W. Moore, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 9: "Lora Vale: Song and chorus," comp. and lyrics by P.P. Bliss, arr. Geo F. Root, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 10: "Three little words ('I love you'): song & chorus," comp. J.A. Butterfield, lyrics by Mark Moxley, 1871Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by T.W. Martin.
Item 11: "The Signal galop" (from Compositions of Jos. Freising for Piano), comp. Jos. Freising, 1870Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 12: "Darling Minnie Lee," comp. E.N. Catlin, lyrics by W. Dexter Smith Jr., 1866Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 13: "The crown of glory," comp. and lyrics by F. Stevens Chandler, 1868Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 14: "Katy's Letter," comp. and lyrics by Lady Dufferin, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 15: "Out West!: or the Down Easters Journey," comp. and lyrics by H.L. Frisbie, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 16: "I'm thinking tonight, My Darling!," comp. James Harrison, lyrics by Irene Stiles, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by De Motte Bros.
Item 17: "They sleep in the far Sunny Southland" (from Loyal lyrics by Mrs. O.N. Haskins), comp. and lyrics by Mrs. O.N. Haskins, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by H.M. Higgins.
Item 18: "Willie has come with the angels: song and chorus," comp. H.M. Higgins, lyrics by Mrs. O.N. Haskins, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by H.M. Higgins.
Item 19: "Matinèe Quickstep," comp. John B. Hemstreet, arr. H.R. Palmser, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by H.M. Higgins.
Item 20: "Night before Pettersburgh," comp. Edward Hoffman, 1867Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 21: "Bonnie Athliene: song and chorus," comp. and lyrics by Frank Howard, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by T.W. Martin.
Item 22: "Little Barefoot: song and chorus," comp. and lyrics by Frank Howard, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by H.T. Merrill & Co.
Item 23: "Fairy footsteps waltz," comp. Miss Virginia S. Kinney, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 24: "Gathering Home," comp. C.T. Lockwood, lyrics by H.M. Look, 1868Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 25: "Starry waves: song & chorus," comp. C.T. Lockwood, lyrics by C. Ernst Fahnestock, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 25, cop. 2: "Starry waves: song & chorus," comp. C.T. Lockwood, lyrics by C. Ernst Fahnestock, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 25, cop. 3: "Starry waves: song & chorus," comp. C.T. Lockwood, lyrics by C. Ernst Fahnestock, 1869Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 26: "Tommy's Return," comp. and lyrics by C.T. Lockwood, 1868Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 27: "Galop Orientale," comp. George W. Lyon, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.
Item 28: "Charlie Schottische," comp. Clara C. Mitchell, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 29: "She sleeps in the valley so sweet: duet and chorus," comp. and lyrics by H.R. Palmer, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by H.M. Higgins.
Item 30: "Soldier's Home Medley," comp. Madame Eliza Pattiani, 1865Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 31: "Absence: For contralto baritone or bass," comp. and lyrics by Alfred H. Pease, 1870Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 32: "Softly fall the silvery moonbeams" (from Wreath of Vocal Beauties with piano forte accompaniment composed by Geo. W. Persley), comp. Geo. W. Persley, lyrics by Frank Howard, 1870Add to your cart.
Piano, voice. Published by Root & Cady.
Item 33: "Lena," comp. S.C. Pratt, 1866Add to your cart.
Piano. Published by Lyon & Healy.

Browse by Box:

[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Box 4],
[Box 5],
[Box 6],
[Box 7],
[Box 8],
[Box 9],
[Box 10],
[Box 11],
[Box 12],
[Box 13],
[Box 14],
[Box 15],
[Box 16],
[Box 17],
[Box 18],
[Box 19],
[Box 20],
[All]


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