Publisher Root & Cady issued The Prize in response to a call for Sunday school materials to complement the weekly lesson topics announced in the interdenominational periodical National Sunday School Teacher. Root biographer P. H. Carder attributes the call to a young Dwight L. Moody, who later rose to international renown as evangelist and urban revivalist. The volume’s inclusion of rhythmically engaging tunes, like the popular JEWELS, demonstrates editor George F. Root’s (1820–1895) engagement with secular repertoire that influenced sacred music intended for both juvenile and adult audiences. Although both Root & Cady and National Sunday School Teacher were based in Chicago, Illinois, The Prize was simultaneously published by John Church & Company, a prominent music publisher and instrument manufacturer from the Ohio Valley with outlets in Chicago, New York City, London, and Leipzig. Following the near-annihilation of Root & Cady’s business during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the publishing company sold their entire catalog of sacred music titles, copyrights, and plates, including those made for The Prize, to John Church & Company for $130,000.

—Erin Fulton