18th & 19th Centuries
This section includes comprehensive reference books that focus on sheet music produced in the eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Many of these books provide in-depth discussion of the development of the sheet music industry, while others provide comprehensive listings of popular song sheets.
1912: Illustrated Music Titles and their Delineators. W. E. Imeson.
London, self-published. (nine b&w illustrations) NOTE: This is the first
book believed to have been written about song sheet illustration.
The ‘delineators’ in the title refer to biographies of British song sheet
illustrators.
1941: Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768–1889.
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro. NY: R. R. Bowker Co. (includes some
b&w illustrations)
1948: Morning, Noon and Night in London. Sacheverell Sitwell. London:
Macmillan & Co. (selective color illustrations of British song sheets)
1967: Grace Notes in American History: Popular Sheet Music from 1820
to 1900. Lester. S. Levy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. (b&w
illustrations)
1969: Victorian Music Covers. Doreen and Sidney Spellman. (2nd Ed:
1972) Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press. (b&w and some color illustrations)
1970: Prints in and of America to 1850. John D. Morse, Ed. Published
for The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. Charlottesville: The
University Press of Virginia. (b&w illustrations)
1971: Flashes of Merriment: A Century of Humorous Songs in American,
1805–1905. Lester S. Levy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
(b&w illustrations)
1972: Victorian Sheet Music Covers. Ronald Pearsall. South Devon: David
& Charles Ltd. (extensive b&w illustrations)
1973: The Lure of the Striped Pig: The Illustration of Popular Music in
America, 1820–1870. David Tatham. Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society.
(color and b&w illustrations)
1973: American Sheet Music Illustration: Reflections of the Nineteenth
Century (A Guide to an Exhibition in the Museum of Art, October 12–
November 18, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan).
Nancy R. Davison (includes four b&w song sheet images)
1973: Favorite Songs of the Nineties: Complete Original Sheet Music for
89 Songs. Robert A. Fremont, Ed. NY: Dover Publications, Inc. (b&w
illustrations)
1975: Give Me Yesterday: American History in Song, 1890–1920. Lester S.
Levy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. (b&w illustrations)
1975: Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents: Harmonies and
Discords of the First Hundred Years. Vera Brodsky. Lawrence. NY:
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. (b&w and some color illustrations)
1976: Picture the Songs: Lithographs from the Sheet Music of Nineteenth
Century America. Lester S. Levy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press. (color and b&w illustrations)
1981: Victorian Illustrated Music Sheets. Victoria Albert Museum.
London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. (25 color illustrations)
Illustrated Song Sheets 