The period covered by this project found Americans across a wide range of classes, occupations, and regions learning to read and notate music. Ordinary citizens bought copybooks (often pre-ruled with musical staves) or fashioned their own and then inscribed in them the songs, hymns, and tunes that mattered to them, music they had composed, performed, heard, or wanted to learn. Their work has come down to us as prima facie evidence of musical lives desired or lived. "American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca. 1730-1910: Digital Collections from the American Antiquarian Society and the Center for Popular Music" has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
Creator(s)
American Antiquarian Society and Center for Popular Music
Steward(s)
Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee State University
