Editor William Howard Doane (1832–1915) enjoyed collaborations with prominent hymnodists and composers like Fanny Crosby and Robert Lowry, navigating a distinguished publishing career with Baptist denominational outlets and major houses in New York City and Philadelphia before settling in the Ohio River Valley for the final chapter of his career. Like several of Doane’s early twentieth-century collections, Song Evangel was published in Louisville, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from the Mount Auburn neighborhood in Cincinnati where Doane worked as a church musician. Printed in 1883 by first-time music publisher W. P. Harvey, the gospel collection included hymns already widely adopted for congregational singing as well as new compositions by Doane.

—Erin Fulton