Stephen Collins Foster, known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer", and many of his compositions remain popular today.
The pump organ or reed organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the American reed organ, the Indian harmonium, the physharmonica, and the seraphine. The idea for the free reed was derived from the Chinese sheng through Russia after 1750, and the first Western free-reed instrument was made in 1780 in Denmark.
Mason & Hamlin is an American manufacturer of handcrafted grand and upright pianos, currently based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, it is one of two surviving American piano manufacturers from the "Golden Age" of pianos, although some smaller piano manufacturers have since started in the United States.
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow" is a gospel hymn written in 1905 by lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel. It is most associated with actress-singer Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography. Tanya Blount & Lauryn Hill recorded the song for the Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit soundtrack in 1993. Mahalia Jackson's recording of the song was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2010. Whitney Houston's recording of the song, one of the singer's last to be recorded before her death in 2012, was released off the soundtrack of the film, Sparkle, and became a posthumous number one Billboard single off one of the gospel singles charts.
Josiah Kirby Lilly Sr., nicknamed "J. K.," was an American businessman, pharmaceutical industrialist, and philanthropist who became president and chairman of the board of Eli Lilly and Company, the pharmaceutical firm his father, Colonel Eli Lilly, founded in 1876. Josiah, the colonel's sole heir, began working at his father’s company at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and became superintendent of the Lilly laboratories in 1882 and company president in 1898. Under his leadership, the company introduced standardized manufacturing processes, expanded its sales force, and increased its research efforts to develop new drugs. Eli Lilly and Company grew into one of the largest and most influential pharmaceutical corporations in the world, and the largest corporation in Indiana. Lilly’s eldest son, Eli Jr., succeeded him as president in 1932. His younger son, Josiah Jr. ("Joe"), succeeded Eli as company president in 1948. J. K. served as chairman of the board from 1932 until his death in 1948.
Francis Ramacciotti was an Grand Duchy of Tuscany-born inventor who founded a major piano string manufacturer in the United States.
The Estey Organ Company was an organ manufacturer based in Brattleboro, Vermont, founded in 1852 by Jacob Estey. At its peak, the company was one of the world's largest organ manufacturers, employed about 700 people, and sold its high-quality items as far away as Africa, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Estey built around 500,000 to 520,000 pump organs between 1846 and 1955. Estey also produced pianos, made at the Estey Piano Company Factory in New York City.
Benjamin Carr was an American composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher.
Joseph John Daynes was the first organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle and for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Daynes was born in Norwich, England, to John Daynes and Eliza Miller. The Daynes family later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then immigrated to Utah Territory in 1862.
Susan McFarland Parkhurst was an American writer and composer.
Joseph Willcox Jenkins was an American composer, professor of music, and musician. During his military service in the Korean War, he became the first arranger for the United States Army Chorus. He ended his teaching career as Professor Emeritus at the Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University, where he had been a professor since 1961, and composed over 200 works.
William Dunn, Jr. was an English professional golfer and golf course designer of Scottish descent. Dunn was born in Blackheath, London, England in about 1864. His best U.S. Open finish was second in the 1895 U.S. Open. He took home $100 as his share of the purse. His best known golf course designs are those found at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and the Apawamis Club.
Temperance songs are those musical compositions that were sung and performed to promote the Temperance Movement from the 1840s to the 1920s. It was a distinct genre of American music. In 1830 the US per capita consumption of alcohol was 9.5 gallons yearly, almost four times the rate of consumption in 2008. In response, many temperance organizations formed over the next eighty years. Some temperance song lyrics were sung with already well-known songs of the period, for example, "Oh! Susanna". This Stephen Foster melody was used with lyrics in support of temperance and the title changed to “There's A Good Time Coming,” in 1857, ten years after the publication of the original lyrics of "Oh! Susanna".
Martin Luther was a great enthusiast for music, and this is why it forms a large part of Lutheran services; in particular, Luther admired the composers Josquin des Prez and Ludwig Senfl and wanted singing in the church to move away from the ars perfecta and towards singing as a Gemeinschaft (community). Lutheran hymns are sometimes known as chorales. Lutheran hymnody is well known for its doctrinal, didactic, and musical richness. Most Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs, handbell choirs, children's choirs, and occasionally change ringing groups that ring bells in a bell tower. Johann Sebastian Bach, a devout Lutheran, composed music for the Lutheran church: more than half of his over 1000 compositions are or contain Lutheran hymns.
The Stephen Foster Collection and archives are the largest collection of primary source materials on the life and work of composer Stephen Foster. The collection consists of documents and other items of historical interest related to the life and work of Stephen Foster. It resides in the Stephen Foster Memorial at the University of Pittsburgh. Josiah K. Lilly donated an almost complete set of first edition music. The memorial houses sketchbooks and other memorabilia. The process of assembling the collection was methodical, well-organized and funded by various non-governmental and governmental sources. The cost of maintaining the collection is partially funded by the University of Pittsburgh.
Jane Denny Foster Wiley was the wife of Stephen Foster and the inspiration for his song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". Her archives are located in the University of Pittsburgh.
A urethral sling is a device that is surgically implanted to stabilize the pelvic tissues and organs of women. The surgery that implants this device can help treat urinary incontinence and uterine prolapse. An alternative treatment to the placement of the urethral sling is urethral bulking injections.
Open Thy Lattice Love was a song composed by Stephen Foster on February 1, 1844, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Susan E. Robinson was the last remaining member of the quartet that performed the song and the person who the song was written for. She died at age 85 on December 31, 1916. Other sources give a different date of publication. The song is mentioned in Chapter IX of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).
Marion Welch was the only child of composer Stephen Collins Foster and, together with her daughter, Jessie Rose, was the caretaker of the Stephen S. Foster Memorial Home, located at 3600 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1914 until her death in 1935. She taught the piano and occasionally composed music.
