Announcement of New Collection from American Memory

[Danna Bell-Russel]

Good morning,

This is an announcement of a new American Memory Collection which will
be released TOMORROW August 25, 1999. Please accept apologies for any
duplicate postings.

Please direct any questions about this collection to NDLPCOLL at loc.gov

"We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!"    Stern Sheet Music Collection Is Latest
Addition to the American Memory Historical Collections

Sheet music portraying the career and death of Abraham Lincoln is the
latest addition to the American Memory Historical Collections available
on the Library of Congress Web site.  "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!":
Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War from the
Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana includes more than two
hundred compositions that represent Lincoln and the war as reflected in
popular music.  The collection spans the years from Lincoln's campaign
for president in 1859 through the centenary of Lincoln's birth in 1909.
This sheet music is part of a collection of Lincoln-related materials
given to the Library in 1953 by Alfred Whital Stern.  The Stern
Collection is widely regarded as the greatest collection of Lincolniana
assembled by a private individual.

This addition to Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml> includes songs that show Lincoln's
popularity, or lack thereof, during his campaigns, the Civil War, and
after his death.  Other public figures represented in the songs are
Frederick Douglass, Ulysses Grant, Andrew Johnson, Jefferson Davis, and
Robert E. Lee.  The collection also highlights some of the advances in
printing techniques, such as color lithography, that developed during
this fifty-year period.  It also documents some of the changes in
commercial advertising during this era, such as the use of the blank
pages in printed sheet music for printing music-company catalogs.

The materials in this collection are available for downloading not only
in JPEG format but also as GIF and archival TIFF files.  Having a
variety of image files available allows for the creation of
high-resolution copies that can be easily printed for use in musical
performances.

"We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation,
and the Civil War from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
can be accessed through the American Memory historical collections at
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/scsmhtml/scsmhome.html>