Before the phonograph, America learned the latest music fads from printed song sheets. These single printed sheets, often beautifully illustrated, included lyrics only and were sung to familiar tunes like "Yankee Doodle." The lyrics and illustrations on these song sheets offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and cultural life of the time.

This American Memory collection offers the 4,291 song sheets from the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collection Division, spanning the years from 1800 through the 1880s, but primarily from the 1850s to the 1870s. Each item offers an image of the song sheet, publication and repository information, and a transcription of the lyrics.

The site also includes a 2,000-word essay on the history of song sheets, links to six related American Memory collections, and a bibliography of more than 70 related scholarly works, approximately 20 of which are for younger readers. The site is keyword searchable and can be browsed by subject, title, composer name, and publisher. For those interested in how 19th-century American politics and society were interpreted in popular culture, this is a useful site.

This American Memory project, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Duke University, provides a window on American culture between 1850 and 1920 by offering more than 3,000 pieces of sheet music from Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. These musical pieces represent American history and culture through a variety of music types including minstrel, protest, sentimental, patriotic, and political songs, bel canto, spirituals, dance music, vaudeville, and musical pieces.

The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, Confederate imprints, and Civil War music and includes a large collection of piano marches, opera excerpts, waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles as well.

In addition to the music and lyrics, each item includes an image of sheet music cover illustrations, which provide further perspective on contemporary ideas about politics, patriotism, race, religion, and sentiment. Descriptive remarks, including notes on the composer, publication information, repository, and a transcription of lyrics accompany each item.

The site also offers a 750-word essay; a link to Duke University's home page for sheet music collections; a 1,000-word essay that defines sheet music as a cultural medium and outlines the history of music publishing in the U.S.; a bibliography of more than 150 works on the history of sheet music, composers, musicians, and performers in the U.S.; and links to five other American Memory collections with related materials.

The site is searchable by keyword and browseable by composer name and subject. Students and teachers researching American cultural history or the cultural significance of music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries will find this site useful.

Provides more than 300 musical selections and sheet music covers, in addition to essays on ragtime music and related subjects. Music available as MIDI files, performed by site creator Bill Edwards, a professional musician and collector. Selections include descriptive annotations from 200 to 600 words, and many include lyrics. Biographical essays of 100-800 words each on 26 composers, including Scott Joplin, James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Artie Matthews, and Eubie Blake. Longer essays (2,000-6,000 words) on the histories of ragtime music, player pianos, sheet music cover art, and technique tips for playing ragtime. A section on ragtime nostalgia provides information on people, inventions, events, advertising, city life, and rural life during the ragtime era. Provides annotated links to approximately 80 related sites and a bibliography of 17 titles. Valuable to those studying music history and turn-of-the-century American culture.

These scanned images come from more than 2,700 pieces of sheet music published between 1852 and 1900 in California. The website also includes more than 800 illustrated covers, 48 audio selections, eight video clips of singers, and a handful of programs, posters, playbills, periodicals, catalogs, broadsheets, books on music, and maps. More than 350 items contain advertising.

Explanatory essays of 1,000 to 2,000 words in length provide general information on music from more than a dozen ethnic cultures, and with reference to specific topics, including buildings, composers, dance, disasters, gender, mining, performers, politics, product ads, railroads, and sports. Provides 14 links to additional sheet music collections and reference sources. These resources are valuable to those studying popular culture, California history, music history, advertising, and depictions of ethnicity, gender, and race in 19th-century America.