Minstrel stage history exploring the origins of black American minstrelsy; early minstrel shows, their prosperity and decline; their techniques. The concluding chapter is given to... Read More
Autographed by the author on the title page. California: Eucalyptus Press, Mills College, 1945. 39pp. First Edition. Slim blue hardcover without dust jacket. Binding with... Read More
Subtitle: “King of the Twelve-String Guitar Players of the World, Long-Time Convict in the Penitentiaries of Texas and Louisiana.” The oral autobiography of Huddie Ledbetter... Read More
Work: “This volume contains over 250 selections. Includes a chapter which gives special attention to the music for the songs, and a chapter on the... Read More
An important gathering of folk songs, often citing where from reported, and often with detailed scholarly and explanatory notes. The author was a Duke University... Read More
First Edition of this scholarly interpretation of black life in the South in the context of its indigenous music. Chapel Hill: The University of North... Read More
Talley, an African American professor at Fisk University, presents an exhaustive compilation of black American folk rhymes followed by an almost one hundred-page scholarly interpretation... Read More
First Edition, and a very pleasing copy, of Fisher’s study of the haunting melodies and swinging rhythms of African American slave songs and spirituals of... Read More
Unusual small format sheet music celebrating African-American soldiers fighting in France in the First World War. With lyrics in both English and French, the song... Read More
Chinese-themed sheet music by popular songwriter Harold Weeks, composer of such songs as Hindustan and Kentucky Home. Weeks’ song Chong (He Come from Hong Kong)... Read More
![The Opportunity You Have Been Waiting For ... From Gipsy Camp to Pulpit ... Gipsy Simon Smith [opening lines of broadside]. Gipsy Simon Smith.](/pictures/thumb/3727498_1.jpg?v=1534977058)
Smiling Methodist evangelist Gipsy Simon Smith (1875–1943) looks out benevolently from this tall narrow broadside which advertises a performance to hear him give the good... Read More
![[First Performance in England of Beethoven’s Grand Mass, in D. Op. 123. December 24, 1832]. Sec. to the Queen Square Concerts A. Grimal, Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770–1827.](/pictures/thumb/3727394_1.jpg?v=1535491772)
Exceedingly rare program for the first English performance of Beethoven’s Grand Mass in D or Missa solemnis. The concert was given in London on Christmas... Read More
![[1842–1917 Combination Bound Volume of Masonic, Musical, and Theatrical Programs and Scrapbook kept by Musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania]. Albert Ritter, c.1838–1915.](/pictures/thumb/3727221_1.jpg?v=1534362500)
For Christmas 1873, musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania was given a scrapbook. He immediately began to fill it with ephemera from the various fraternal... Read More
Exhaustive study of Daniel Decatur Emmett, banjoist, fiddler, singer, composer and lyricist, comedian and playwright. Nathan’s book combines musicology, biography, and history to situate Emmett’s... Read More
First Edition of this important collection of American balladry, edited by Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Archivist of the Virginia Collections of Ballads. Davis, Jr. presents... Read More
First Edition of this important collection of American balladry, edited by Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Archivist of the Virginia Collections of Ballads. Davis, Jr. signs... Read More
![“An Address on Music. Delivered before a convention of the church choirs of Summit Co. Ohio, Dec. 18, 1844.” [Ohio manuscript]. Unkwn.](/pictures/thumb/3726724_1.jpg?v=1534362450)
Manuscript on musical composition and performance delivered as an address before an 1844 convention of church choirs held in Summit County, Ohio. Numerous emendations and... Read More
![Nashville, ’98. July 6–11. [Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor song sheet]. Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, L L. Rice, Dr. E. T. Cassel, Flora H. Cassel.](/pictures/thumb/3726722_1.jpg?v=1534362449)
Song sheet issued by the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor for their July 1898 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. An illustration shows the group’s banner... Read More
![[Philadelphia Academy of Music, 1873 Program:] Forasmuch as Dyvers Syngynge People…. Academy of Music.](/pictures/thumb/3726692_1.jpg?v=1534362443)
Delightfully humorous program for a concert of antique music performed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Likely getting into the spirit of the nation’s... Read More
Excellent circa 1920s photograph of the Boston Symphony Orchestra advertising Buescher True Tone Saxophones: In late 1924, the first bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra... Read More
With modestly decorative ornamental typography, this business or calling card documents the availability of this singing group who offered a repertoire of sacred and secular... Read More
![[Georgia - Women’s Clubs - Music:] The Orpheus Club [Six Programs]. Various.](/pictures/thumb/3726512_1.jpg?v=1534362398)
The Orpheus Club of Columbus, Georgia was founded by Mary Unity Kivlin (1850–1906) in 1895. “[A]n accomplished pianist, organist and music teacher for 30 years... Read More
Autograph Musical Quotation from the opera Henry VIII by French Romantic Composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). The four-act historical opera was first produced in 1883 at... Read More
Unrecorded ballad or song sheet printed in New York City c. 1853–1858. The popular religious poem, attributed to J. Adams, was first published around 1840... Read More
AUTOGRAPHED BY MILLIE-CHRISTINE.¹ Millie-Christine McCoy (1851-1912) were conjoined African-American slaves born in Columbus County, North Carolina. From childhood, these “Carolina Twins” a.k.a. “United African Twins”... Read More
