Two bound volumes of sheet music & lyrics of seventy-seven songs, copyrighted from the 1840s through 1861. These books were privately bound  for “Emily L. Lilly” and “Howard Grove Mills”, whose names are on the front cover labels of both volumes. 

Both  volumes measure 13.25 x 11.25”, with “Music” embossed spines.  One is labeled  “Emily L. Wily/ Howard Grove Mills”, and is bound in marbled glazed cloth, w/red Russian leather spine & corners, w/raised bands & gilt trimmed spine & cover labels. It exhibits light rubbing & scuffing at the  outer extremities, else good. Interior song sheets display light yellowing & foxing  throughout. Otherwise  VG & and entirely legible. 

This volume contains 37 bound compositions, including two Stephen Foster originals  [“My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night,”  by the Christy Minstrels; & “Old Dog Tray”] Other notable  pieces include “Old Rosin the Bow”, Auld Lang Syne, “Annie Lawrie”, “When Will You Come to My Mountain Home”,  “Erin’s Green Shore, The Grave of Bonaparte [by the Hutchinson family], Hail Columbia, and Woodman! Spare that Tree. Also Jenny Lind’s Celebrated “Bird Song”—[J. Lind being the “Swedish Nightingale” who made a celebrated singing tour of the United States in the early 1850s]. 

This volume also includes seven stanzas of an untitled song dealing with mourning & loved ones in heaven. Written in ink, on lined paper pasted into the reverse end-papers, the first stanza reads as follows: 

“Father, dear father, a young child said

As she stole one night to his lonely bed.

Father of come to my room with me

And three beautiful angels there you’ll see”

The second volume is cover-labeled “E.L. Wily”, and is bound in black buckram w/black leather spine & corners,  w/raised bands and gilt trimmed spine & cover labels. It exhibits slight cracking of the front spine & light wear & scuffing at the extremities. Else Good plus.  Interior songs sheets exhibit light yellowing and slight foxing throughout. Else VG & entirely legible. 

This volume contains  pieces dedicated to three Mexican War-era heroes and Civil War commander  Colonel Elmer Ellsworth of the Ellsworth Zouaves. Titles: “Kane’s Funeral March” [artic explorer Elisha Kent Kane, M.D., U.S.N.]; “Smith’s March”[ Gen. Persifore Smith, the hero of Contreras],  “The Battle of Buena Vista, a descriptive Fantasie for Piano”, dedicated to Gen. Z. Taylor. Plus “Col. Ellsworth’s Funeral March,” w/stunning color cover. 

Other popular songs include “Home Sweet Home,”  “Rocked In the Cradle of the Deep,” and “The Campbell’s Are Comin’”. Also another Stephen Foster original--“Willie We Have Missed You”--as well as an  1860 rip-off of Dan Emmett’s huge 1859 minstrel hit, “Dixie Look Away.” This 1860 copy-cat tune  is titled “The Original Dixen’s Land, Or, Dixey Land,” and its first stanza runs as follows: 

“Way down south in Fields ob Cotton,

cinnamon seeds and sandy bottoms,

Look away, look away…”

Superb collectible for Ante-Bellum/ Minstrel-era music lovers and specialists. Invites further research.