The period from the 1830s to the 1850s was one of great economic prosperity in the United States: the growing middle class filled its parlors with pianos, melodeons and organs, and purchased sheet music to perform there. While the intense cultural activity of this period was halted by the Civil War, sheet music publishing continued to flourish through the 1860s as thousands of new titles poured from presses of North and South. The UNC-Chapel Hill Music Library collection of 19th-century American sheet music includes 125 binders' collections, which often consist of a young woman's favorite pieces of sheet music (vocal and instrumental) gathered and bound into one volume. In some cases, the owner's name was embossed on the cover. Because each volume embodies its owner's taste and philosophical leanings, these collections illuminate the culture of the eastern and southern U.S. during a most significant time in the region's history.
At present, descriptive bibliographic listings for around 82 volumes are accessible online (3300 pieces). Users may search or browse the collection by title, volume, composer, or keyword to access detailed information about each work. In addition, digital images for the contents of most of these volumes are available here as well.
The project will make this material accessible for class use and research in a variety of disciplines: Music, History, Art, English, Political Science, Sociology, and the curriculum in American Studies.
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