Three-quarter leather over cloth-covered boards, 10.5? x 14?.

Custom bound collection of 43 early and mid-19th century, mostly American, stereotyped sheet music pamphlets. The collection includes black-face minstrel show songs, music hall melodies, dance music, etc

Included in the collection are an early version of the Star Spangled Banner and several important American first editions including two Stephen Foster songs and two versions of I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land by EMMETT.

Several of the scores have very nice lithographed cover illustrations, some of which are in color.

Some are undated but are none are later than the 1860s.

All the scores are complete but a few are missing the cover sheets. These are noted in the list below.


Five items in the collection standout for their rarity and importance in any list of American Sheet Music First Editions:
1. The 1861 Firth, Pond edition of the Star Spangled Banner
[No. 1 in the complete list below] which became the official US national anthem in 1931.
Unfortunately our copy, while it has the complete score and all of the stanzas, is missing the lithographed cover page.

2. I Wish I Was in Dixie?s Land
Written and composed expressly for
Bryant?s Minstrels
By Dan D. Emmett
The very rare 1860 second issue of the first edition of this American Classic. [No. 13].

This is the second state or issue of the first edition of this work. It is identical with the first printing except for the addition of ?Piano? and ?Guitar? on the title page, and the addition below the Firth Pond imprint of the line ?New Orleans published by P. P. Weirlein, 5 camp St? and of the Toledo publisher. Otherwise, this printing is identical with that of the deposit copy.
For comparison, see the Library of Congress copy which is available in the digital collection on the web. That copy is inscribed: 1st edition, 2nd issue. Copy has stamp: Nolen Collection. Originally published: New York : Firth, Pond & Co., 1860.
See also the Handbook of Early American Sheet Music by Dichter and Shapiro, page 105.

3. Dixey?s Land
Arranged by Jas. W. Porter
Beck & Lawton, 1860.
This is a piano arrangement of Emmet?s Dixie?s Land for the walk-around dance version with no verses. Also, a very rare edition published about the same time as the song version credited to Emmett. [No. 38].

4. Foster Melodies No. 46
Under the Wilow She is Sleeping
by Stephen C. Foster
Firth, Pond & Co., N.Y., 1860. First Edition.
Small stain at lower margin of cover and subsequent pages. [No. 9]

5. Foster?s Melodies No. 41
Fairy Belle
By Stephen C. Foster
Firth, Pond, N. Y. 1859. First Edition.
Short closed tear on lower margin of cover. [No.16]

"Dixie", also known as "I Wish I Was in Dixie", "Dixie's Land", and other titles, is a popular American song. It is one of the most distinctively American musical products of the 19th century, and probably the best-known song to have come out of blackface minstrelsy. Although not a folk song at its creation, "Dixie" has since entered the American folk vernacular. The song likely cemented the word "Dixie" in the American vocabulary as a synonym for the Southern United States.

Most sources credit Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett with the song's composition; however many other people have claimed to have composed "Dixie", even during Emmett's lifetime. Compounding the problem of definitively establishing the song's authorship are Emmett's own confused accounts of its writing, and his tardiness in registering the song's copyright. The latest challenge has come on behalf of the Snowden Family of Knox County, Ohio, who may have collaborated with Emmett to write "Dixie".

The song originated in the blackface minstrel show of the 1850s and quickly grew famous across the United States. Its lyrics, written in a comic, exaggerated version of African American Vernacular English, tell the story of a freed black slave pining for the plantation of his birth. During the American Civil War, "Dixie" was adopted as a de facto anthem of the Confederacy. New versions appeared at this time that more explicitly tied the song to the events of the Civil War. Since the advent of the American Civil Rights Movement, many have identified the lyrics of the song with the iconography and ideology of the Old South. Today, "Dixie" is sometimes considered offensive, and its critics link the act of singing it to sympathy for the concept of slavery in the American South. Its supporters, on the other hand, view it as a legitimate aspect of Southern culture and heritage and the campaigns against it as political correctness and even cultural genocide.

Emmett published "Dixie" (under the title "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land") on 21 June 1860 through Firth, Pond & Co. in New York. The original manuscript has been lost; extant copies were made during Emmett's retirement, starting in the 1890s. Emmett's tardiness registering the copyright for the song allowed it to proliferate among other minstrel groups and variety show performers. Rival editions and variations multiplied in songbooks, newspapers and broadsides. The earliest of these that is known today is a copyrighted edition for piano from the John Church Company of Cincinnati, published on 26 June 1860. Other publishers attributed completely made-up composers with the song: "Jerry Blossom" and "Dixie, Jr.", among others. The most serious of these challenges during Emmett's lifetime came from Southerner William Shakespeare Hays; this claimant attempted to prove his allegations through a Southern historical society, but he died before they could produce any conclusive evidence. By 1908, four years after Emmett's death, no fewer than 37 people had claimed the song as theirs.
[From Wikipedia]
 

The complete contents of the volume are:
1. The Star Spangled Banner
Words by Francis Scott Key
Arranged by Henry Tucker
Firth, Pond and Co., 1861.
Lacking the lithographed front cover but includes all of the music and 4 stanzas.

2. Oh Gently Breath
By S. H. Thomas
< Hall & Son, 1853

3. Listen to The Mocking Bird
by Alice Hawthorne
Lee & Walker, 1856 engraved decorations to cover sheet.

4. I Am Dreaming of Thee

by Alexander Lee
Ditson, no date, ca. 1850

5. Then You?ll Remember Me
From the Bohemian Girl
By M. W. Balfe
Henry McCaffrey, no date

6. Columbia! The Pride of the World
Samuel Woodworth/D.D. Griswold
Composed for and sung by
Lloyd?s Minstrels
Harthhill, 1861

7. Beats There a Heart on Earth Sincere
From the opera The Maid of Cashmere
By Auber
Hall & Son, N.Y.

8. Sparking Sunday Night
a solo and chorus for men's voices
By S. Markstein
Cook & Brother, N.Y., 1855.
Cover page missing.

9. Foster Melodies No. 46
Under the Wilow She is Sleeping
by Stephen C. Foster
Firth, Pond & Co., N.Y., 1860. First Edition.
Small stain at lower margin of cover and subsequent pages

10. Life Has No Charms for Me
By E. Thomas
W. C. Peters. Cincinnati, [c1848]. second edition.

11. The Musical Wife
by John Parry, Jr.
Geo. P. Reed, no date.

12. Sleeping I Dreamed, Love
by John H. Hewitt
William Hall & Son, 1844, 7th edition.

13, I Wish I Was in Dixie?s Land
Written and composed expressly for
Bryant?s Minstrels
By
Dan D. Emmett
Arranged for the Piano Forte by
W. L. Hobbs
Firth, Pond & Co., N. Y. 1860, First Edition, 2nd issue.
6 pages , final page blank.
Stain at lower margins of pages

14. Where Are the Lays of my Youth?
By Barker
Henry McCaffrey No date.

15. The Cottage by the Sea
by J. R. Thomas
Firth, Pond, 1856.
Closed tear in cover.

16. Foster?s Melodies No. 41
Fairy Belle
By Stephen C. Foster
Firth, Pond, N. Y. 1859. First Edition.
Short closed tear on lower margin of cover

17. Ever of Thee
By Foley Hall
Firth, Pond, N. Y., No date.
Closed tears on cover, several old mends at fore margin.

18. Aeolians Songs & Quartets
The Warrior?s Grave
By H. M. Sener
Lee & Walker, 1858.


19. Some Love to Roam O?er the Dark Sea Foam
By Charles Mackay/Henry Russell
Ditson, No date.

20. The Palace Garden Polka
With Accompaniment of Singing Bird
By Thomas Baker
Lacking cover page


21. The Wedding March
from
Midsummer Night?s Dream
By Mendelssohn
Firth, Pond, No date.

22. The Emerald
Grande Valse Brilliante
By Francois Hunten
Firth, Pond, N. Y. No date
.

23. Les Rats Quadrilles
By J. Redler
Ditson, No date.

24. La Priere d?une Vierge
Thekla Badarzewska
Firth, Pond, No date.
Short closed tear at lower margin .

25. Les Fleurs du Printemps
by Reissiger
William Bressler, N.Y. No date.

26. Jenny Lind Polka
By A. Wallerstein
Wm. F. Duffy, Wilmington, Del. No date.

27. Linden Waltz
By Ch. Czerny
Firth, Pond. N.o date.

28. The Seraglio Schottisch
By Francis H. Brown
Firth, Pond, 1853.
Color lithographed cover, closed tear.

29. Russian March
Firth, Pond. No date.

30. Little Rosebud Polka
Wm. Dressler

31. The Banjo
An original imitation of the inimitable instrument, for the piano By
H. C. Harris
Lee & Walker, 1857.

32. Louisville March & Quick Step
By W. C. P.
[William Cummings Peters]
Firth, Pond, no date, circa 1860.

33. Prize Banner Quick Step
By D. H. Haskell
Ditson, 1860.
Lithographed Cover.

34. Parodi Mazurka (Searing Waltz)
By. P. Brown
Wm. Hall & Sons 1851.
Lithographed cover.

35. Lott is Does
Firth, Pond, 1852.

36. Come Haste to the Wedding
Firth, Pond, No date.

37. The Signal March
By H. Kleber
Firth, Pond, 1851.

38. Dixey?s Land
By Jas. W. Porter
Beck & Lawton, 1860.

39. Dawn Waltz
By H. Louel
Firth, Pond. No date.

40. Mountain Belle Schottische
By C. Kinkel
W. C. Peters & Son. 1853.

41. Stilly Night Polka
By J. Bellak
Firth, Pond. 1858.

42. Kiss Me Quick and Go Polka
By J. Bellak
Firth, Pond. 1858.

43. Empress Henrietta?s Waltz
By H. Herz
Firth, Pond. No date.

Condition: Leather on spine and corners is scuffed, wear at spine extremities and corners. Edgewear. Tight binding except for some separation at gutter of Star Spangled Banner.
Contents are complete except for several cover pages that are missing as noted in the above list. All music and verses are complete. Ocassional soiling on pages and occasional closed tears (noted on list). Several mends in margins or edges, not affecting text and music.
It appears that the sheet music was bound when it was in good shape, but without taking the voiume apart it is not possible to check and ascertain the condition of the individual spines except for a few at the center. Apart from the sewing holes, these visible spines are untorn.