Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820-1860
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Historical Research: Formulating Questions About Women and Music
"The New Bloomer Schottisch." In 1851,
bloomers were a new style that attracted
interest from a number of songwriters.
Why do you think an article of clothing
would generate such controversy?
Historical research often begins with a curiosity and then proceeds to more specific, focused questions. For example, having spent some time looking at documents in the Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820-1860, you might have noticed more songs were written by men than women and become curious about the role of women in American music in the period 1820-1860. You are especially interested in whether women were composing music and writing lyrics in that period, but you also wonder about women performers and the messages about women conveyed in the music of the time.
Construct a strategy for finding out about women in music from 1820-1860 using Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca 1820-1860. Consider how to use the collections indexes, the search features, and the special presentations. All can be helpful in gathering some initial information. Consider search terms that might generate "hits" (e.g., women, mother, daughter, lady).
Once you have developed and used your strategy, organize the information you have collected. What focused questions emerge from your initial research? Examples of focused research questions might include the following:
- Were songs attributed to unnamed women (e.g., "A Lady of Baltimore") really written by women? If so, why did these women choose not to use their names? How were women who wrote music viewed by society?
- How and why did the Swedish singer Jenny Lind become so popular in the United States? Were there comparable American female "stars" of the time?
- Did the views in songs about women's rights reflect the views of the larger society? In what other ways were views on women's rights conveyed?