Early American Songsters: 1734-1800: Users' Manual



Introduction
Sources
Collection and Indexing Procedure
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Abbreviations

Introduction

The Early American Songsters, 1734-1800: An Index, is an index of all of the known songsters currently available. The index draws heavily from Irving Lowens' Bibliography of Songster Printed in America Before 1821 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1976), for titles and other bibliograhical information. Lowens defines a songster "as a collection of three or more secular poems intended to be sung." Most of the songsters do not include music, although many contain references to the names of tunes to which the song could be sung. This publication comprises those songs published through 1800. Many of the songsters have been microfilmed or digitized, which made indexing much simpler, since the microfilms or digitized images are available through the Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800-Microform Edition or the on-line Archive of Americana.

Sources
Lowens identified a total of 224 extant songsters. Of these 70 were listed as "No copy located". During my search I found 2 songsters in the Evans Series I (Shipton-Mooney) and 1 new songster in WorldCat®.
There is a total of 10499 songs in this publication, from 227 songsters. This includes all extant songsters published in America before 1801.

Collection and Indexing Procedure
Several indexes were created from this data:
Source Index, with a listing of a Short Title, Title, Data Place (database or library from which data was collected), and Publisher;
Text Index for each song Title(t), First Line(fl), Alternate Title(at), Burden Text(bt), Refrain(r) and Theatre Work or Theatre(tw), where given.
Name Index for each Performer(pf), Author/Composer(a), where given.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my appreciation to the librarians at the holding libraries, listed below, and to several fellow scholars who assisted in collecting data at their local libraries: in particular, David Hildebrand, of Severna Park, MD, and Elizabeth Snowdon, of Wyndmoor, PA, and, of course, my wife and fellow researcher, Kate Van Winkle Keller. Particular acknowledgement should be given to the late Irving Lowens, who developed and published his ground-breaking Bibliography of Songsters Printed in America before 1821.

Bibliography
Lowens, Irving. A Bibliography of Songsters Printed in America Before 1821. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1976.
Archive of Americana® Published by Readex, a division of NewsBank, Inc. http://www.readex.com/readex/ .
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800. [On-line subscription database]
An incomparable collection containing virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America throughout a 160-year period.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 [Microform Edition]
http://www.readex.com/readex/
Contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period
WorldCat® http://www.worldcat.org/
WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

Holding Libraries:
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA;
Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK;
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA;
Brown University, Providence, RI;
Duke University, Durham, NC;
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA;
Henry E, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA;
Library Company, Philadelphia, PA;
Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD;
New York State Library, Albany, NY;
Pennsylvania University, Philadelphia, PA;
Scottish Rite Supreme council, Washington, DC;
Trinity College, Hartford, CT;
University of Virgina, Charlottesville, VA;
William and Mary College, Williamsburg, VA;
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Abbreviations Abbreviations are used to identify similar fields or to improve clarity. Holding libraries are identified using the sigla developed for the National Union Catalog by the Library of Congress.
Fields:
  • (a)  Author, Composer or Originator of Song
  • (at): Alternate Title of Song
  • (bt): Burden Text of Song
  • (fl): First Line of Song
  • (it): Indicated Tune of Song
  • (r): Refrain of Song
  • (t): Title of Song

  • Library Sigla:
  • CSmH: Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
  • CtY: Yale University, Hartford, CT
  • DLC: Library of Congress, Washington, DC
  • DSC: Scottish Rite Supreme Council, Washington, DC
  • MB: Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
  • MdHi: Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD
  • MH: Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
  • MWA: American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
  • N:  New York State Library, Albany, NY
  • NcD: Duke University, Durham, NC
  • O:  Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
  • PPL: Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
  • PU: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
  • RPB: Brown University, Providence, RI
  • ViU: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  • ViW: William and Mary University, Williamsburg, VA

  • Other Abbreviations:
    AoA Archive of Americana [On-Line Subscription Database]
    0/ Indicates that database/source was searched without success
    NCL No Copy Located
    WC WorldCat® [On-Line World Union Catalog]

    Created and published September 10, 2008 © 2008. Colonial Music Institute(tm)

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