Collections

Works demonstrating the emergence of a shared racial, social, and cultural identity among whites, especially in the early 1900s.

Large-scale collections of hymn lyrics that do not include any form of musical notation (though some may suggest the names of appropriate tunes). This was the only form of hymnal until the late 1850s and remained prominent into the 1900s.

Representative works created for use during charitable activities or by charitable institutions, such as orphanages or missions to the urban poor.

Representative works created for use by young children and demonstrating historical understandings of childhood as a distinct phase of life. See the Youth collection for similar works geared toward teenagers and young adults.

Representative works that advocate for the practice of participatory singing by the whole congregation, usually on theological or aesthetic grounds.

Representative works that thematize cultural attitudes towards death, often including repertoire that served a function in mourning practices.

Representative works that express fundamentalist Christianity, which emphasizes the infallibility of scripture. While fundamentalist ideas existed throughout the corpus time period, fundamentalism emerged as a significant and self-identified movement within US religion in the 1910s–1920s. See also the Theological Modernism collection.

Representative works that thematize gentility, a respectable social status theoretically attained by means of appropriate personal behavior independent of wealth.

Representative works created by or for subjects of the Great Migration, a mass migration of Black Americans out of the South and into Northeastern, Western, and Midwestern urban centers beginning in the 1910s.

Representative works that thematize health and disability.

Representative works created for use during religious, secular, and regional holiday celebrations.

Representative works created by or for the use of immigrants to the United States and their descendants.

Representative works that thematize modernity, the perception of a distinct, emergent era characterized by systematization, scientific and technological advancement, and cross-regional societal integration. These works were originally published throughout the project scope of 1850-1925.

Representative works that thematize U.S. and foreign nationhood.

Representative works created during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). Reconstruction consisted of the occupation of the South by the federal military following the conclusion of the US Civil War.

Representative works that thematize the South, by and for both southerners and non-southerners.

Representative works created for use during revivals, brief periods of heightened religious feeling and activity. See also the Mass Revival collection for works associated with the large-scale revival "campaigns" of the late 1800s.

Representative works that thematize rural areas or center self-identified rural or "country" people.

Representative works that thematize technological change across the corpus time period.

Representative works that advocate for abstinence from alcoholic beverages or for the legal suppression of the alcohol trade.

Representative works that express Christian modernism or "liberal theology," which emphasizes the application of contemporary scientific knowledge to Christian scripture and doctrine. Theological modernism existed as an important strand within English-language Christianity from the mid-1800s, before splitting decisively from fundamentalism in the 1920s; see also the Fundamentalism collection.

Representative works that thematize war, including works created for use by deployed soldiers.

Representative works created for use by teenagers and young adults, which demonstrate historical understandings of "youth" as a distinct phase of life. See also the Childhood collection for similar works geared toward younger children.