Chicago Sheet Music Collection, 1845-1871 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Arrangement reflects original ordering by the University Library in 15 volumes, which is primary ordered chronologically by acquisition date, then alphabetically by composer last name and title of the composition within volumes.

Volume 1: ordered alphabetically by composer last name then title.

Volumes 2-5: ordered chronologically by publication date across volumes (v. 2 1849-1861, v. 3 1862-1865, v. 4 1865-1871, v. 5 1871- no date) then alphabetically by composer and title within each volume.

Volumes 6-7, 9-11 contain imprints ordered alphabetically by composer last name and title across volumes in the following order: v.6 (A-E), v. 7 (F-K), v. 11 (L-O), v. 9 (R-V), v. 10 (W).

Volume 8 and volumes 12-15 are ordered alphabetically by composer last name and title within each volume.

The physical collection has been rehoused into 20 boxes, ordered continuously by item based off of the original call and volume numbers. See finding aid for item list.

The University of Illinois Library developed this collection of Sheet Music between 1939 and 1943 in response to a renewed interest in academic community regarding Chicago’s role in music publishing during the Civil War and before the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. In the early 20th century, little was known about the national reach and prominence of the early Chicago music industry, which had been completely devastated by the 1871 fire. The University Library sought to purchase sheet music printed in Chicago prior to 1871 as well as sheet music printed in other US cities, such as New York and Boston, that listed pre-fire Chicago publishers as secondary imprints. The bulk of the collection was purchased from various rare booksellers over the 1939-1940 academic year, although additions continued until 1943. The collection began as a general collection in the University Library, however was transferred to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library during the mid-20th century. In January 1941, the library brought in then library student assistant Dena Julia Polacheck Epstein (1916-2013) to catalog and organize recent additions to the collection. Epstein was in the process of completing her B.S. and M.A. in library science and held a B.A. in music from the University of Chicago. Epstein was inspired to write her master’s thesis, Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871, using the Illinois collection, which was later serially published in the Music Library Association of America Notes journal between 1944-1946 and in a revised book edition in 1969, which has remained influential in the study of early American music publishing and Chicago publishers. Dena Epstein later became a noted Music Librarian at the University of Chicago and ethnomusicologist, best known for her foundational scholarship into early American black folk music and her 1977 book Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War.

Sources:

Epstein, Dena. Interview by Chris D’Arpa. 14 March, 2008. Voices of Illinois Oral History Portal, University of Illinois Archives. https://www.library.illinois.edu/voices/collection-item/dena-epstein/, Accessed 28 February. 2023.

Epstein, Dena Julia Polacheck. “Music Publishing in Chicago Prior to 1871 : the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871”. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1943.

Epstein, Dena J. Polacheck. Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871 : the Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1969.

Epstein, Dena J. "Music Publishing" in Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2005

University of Illinois Library. Annual Report 1939-1940. University of Illinois Archives, 35/1/801.