Fantastic Find: Old Time Music

Genealogy as commonly practiced is a quiet undertaking. But we have to remember that the people we're researching didn't live in a silent world (and it wasn't always just chickens and cows they were hearing).

[Music's Charms, c1896 Photo by Leo D. Weil.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA]

Our immigrant forefathers (and mothers) brought music with them from their homelands, whether they arrived in the early 17th century or stepped off the boat at Ellis Island one hundred years ago.

When Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the lyrics to our national anthem after seeing the flag still flying over after the British had bombarded Fort McHenry in 1814, he set it to an old popular tune, The Anacreontic Song, originally from London. But not all American music of the period was imported from abroad as the sheet music below demonstrates.

[The heroe of New Orleans battle of the memorable 8th January 1815 - composed ... by P. Laroque

Date Created/Published: Philadelphia : G. Willig, 1818

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540]

Music was used to stir up support during political campaigns like this 1840 tune for William Henry Harrison and his running mate John Tyler:

[Tippecanoe and Tyler too! A comic glee, Published Philadelphia: G.E. Blake 1840

Library of Congress, Music Division]

Just as our 19th century ancestors had access to fashion trends no matter where they lived, the same improved printing methods made a wide variety of sheet music available to consumers all over the country.

[Sweet Memories of Thee, c.1849 Original Copyright by Wm. Hall & Son. Lithograph by Sarony & Major, N.Y.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540]

North and South had their patriotic songs during the American Civil War, and songs to mourn the fallen afterwards.

[Chicora the original name of Carolina. Respectfully dedicated to the patriotic ladies of the Southern Confederated States of North America, 1861. Drawn by F. Roeth. Published by Thomas Sinclair, Philadelphia.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540]

[Hail! Glorious banner of our land. Spirit of the Union, c1861 Gibson & Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540]

[O'er graves of the loved ones Poetry and music by John P. Ordway, M.D

. Boston : Published by Oliver Ditson & Co. ; c1867.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540]]

And of course enslaved Africans brought their own musical traditions that profoundly influenced American music, beginning with Spirituals and Gospel, continuing through the Blues, Ragtime, Jazz, Rock and beyond

[Summit Avenue Ensemble, Atlanta, Georgia; Photographer: Thomas E. Askew, 1850?-1914

Part of  W.E.B. Du Bois albums of photographs of African Americans in Georgia exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900

Daniel Murray Collection (Library of Congress)]

We're fortunate that we can re-capture some of the sounds our ancestors enjoyed through collections to be found at Smithsonian Folkways and the Library of Congress.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.