Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885

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Chronological Thinking: Presidential Campaigns

Campaign songs were used throughout the presidential elections of the 1870s but their popularity took off during the 1880s. In fact, there are more songs for any one major-party candidate in the 1880 or 1884 election than all of the songs about the four candidates in the 1870s combined. With searches on presidential campaign and election, students can put together a timeline of candidates hoping to become president and determine ways in which the public viewed them.

For example, George Leithead's 1884 "Campaign Song No. 1" assesses the two candidates:

Historical Comprehension: Ulysses S. Grant

The Wedding March of Nellie Grant

"He's a gallant hero, And noble statesman too, He's safely brought our ship of State, The darkest dangers through, Let ev'ry brave and true man, Join our loyal band, 'Till loud resounds the victory, From mountain vale, and strand."

In addition to pieces about Grant's candidacy, songwriters wrote works about his policies and the White House wedding of his daughter, Nellie Grant. A search on hero produces a number of songs commemorating Grant's death. Students can examine these works to get a better understanding of Grant's achievements and his role as a celebrated public figure.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Minstrel Songs

"Dem Golden Slippers."

• Who wrote songs that were nostalgic for slavery?
• Why were they popular?
• How do they differ from songs written during the era of slavery?
• Would the audience be able to distinguish between the two?
• What is the effect of presenting these two types of songs in a single program?

Historical Issue Analysis and Decision-Making: Temperance

The collection offers a number of songs reflecting the social concern over the potential dangers of alcohol. These songs are generally either militant or sentimental in tone. While songs such as The Temperance Army demonstrate the movement as a religious cause, others such as The Drunkard's Daughter reflect the social problems caused by the use and abuse of alcohol from its first verse:

Even songs from a search on drinking songs acknowledge the problems of excess. For example, I'm All Broke Up To Day ends with the pledge:

Students can examine how such concerns led to social change and foreshadowed the era of Prohibition. Additional searches on temperance, drunkard, and poor offer more details of alcohol as a social problem. Students can determine the value of temperance (and, subsequently, prohibition) and use these materials as a resource for an expository essay or discussion.

The women's suffrage movement was beginning to take hold in the late nineteenth century but there are a number of different depictions of women throughout this collection of songs. Various roles of women appear in songs such as "Oh! Woman, sweet woman", "Lovely woman, comic song", and "The talking woman." Students might examine a number of these descriptions and compare them to songs representing the women's suffrage movement such as "Daughters of Freedom! The Ballot be yours." Such comparisons are available with searches on vote and suffrage.

Declaration and protest of the women of the United States