Gospel Glory is the 1915 joint offering of A. J. Showalter & Company of Dalton, Georgia, and its affiliates Showalter-Patton Company in Dallas, Texas, and Perry Brothers Music Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The volume’s composition is representative of the convention book publishing practices then spreading across gospel publishing. In order to market a new flagship collection every year, editors featured almost exclusively newly composed music, with relatively few “standard” selections of earlier hymn tunes and Sabbath School music included. Beyond the regional reach of its publishers, Gospel Glory’s large editorial board, anchored by Showalter (1858–1924), and list of far flung associate authors and special contributors point to gospel music’s ascent to a nationwide style of church music in the early 1900s.

—Erin Fulton