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Hartzler Music Collection
The Jesse D. Hartzler Collection is owned by the Good Library and housed in the rare book room of the Mennonite Historical Library on the campus of Goshen College. The collection contains 3,106 musical books with a strong emphasis on American nineteenth century hymnody. The books are broadly classified into 20 categories. A list of the categories and a description of their contents follows.
1. On Hymns and Hymn Writers
This section contains 625 books about hymns and written from 1709 until 1976.
2. Sabbath School Tune Books
This section contains 231 Sunday school songbooks. Most are oblong and were published between 1838 to 1897. There is a substantial collection of songbooks by William Bradbury. Other popular authors or compilers include Asa Hull, John Kurzenknabe, Robert Lowry, William Odgen, Tullius O'Kane, Theodore Perkins, Phillip Phillips, George Root, and Horace Waters.
3. Hymnals: Demoninational and Standard
This section contains 175 denominational hymnals published between 1800 to 1966. Although a number of denominations are represented, Methodist and Baptist hymnals tend to dominate.
4. Hymn Books with Words Only
This section contains 166 psalters and hymnals without tunes. Most of the books were published between 1714 and 1892; however there are a few early twentieth century books as well. In addition to a number of Methodist hymnbooks, there are numerous copies of Asahel Nettleton's Village Hymns for Social Worship, Sebastian Streeter's New Hymn Book, and Isaac Watts' Psalms of David.
5. Spirituals, Words Only
This section contains 42 books published between 1800 and 1879. Some of the books are by Peter Myers, Henry Smith, and John Totten.
6. Spirituals with Tunes
This section contains 51 books published between 1786 and 1890 with a couple of twentieth century books. In this section the books range from J. W. Dadmun's Melodeon to Joseph Hillman's Revivalist to Asa Hull's Sacred Harp to Joshua Leavitt's Christian Lyre to a 1786 print of Isaac Watts' Psalms of David.
7. Class Books
This section contains 443 mostly oblong songbooks mostly used in schools. Chronologically, the books range from Artemas Johnson's Empire Collection published in 1800 to Judge Jackson's Colored Sacred Harp published in 1934. Various authors include Benjamin Baker, William Bradbury, Luther Emerson, Thomas Hastings, Daniel Hodges, Artemas Johnson, Jacob King, George Kingsley, Charles Leslie, Leonard Marshall, Horatio Palmer, Henry Perkins, William Perkins, Ransom Randall, George Root, Solomon Straub, and Virgil Taylor.
8. Lowell Mason
This section contains 90 books by Lowell Mason published between 1818 and 1872.
9. I. B. Woodbury Books
This section contains 32 books by I. B. Woodbury published between 1848 to 1859.
10. Sermons on Church Music: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
This section contains 9 books with sermons. Three are from the seventeenth century, two from the eighteenth century, and three from the nineteenth century, as well as others.
11. Sacred Quartette and Choir Books and Church in Large Volumes
This section contains 42 large books published from 1800 to 1966. This section includes books such as Samuel Holyoke's Columbian Repository from 1800 and Henry Wilson's Quartettes of 1861.
12. Pamphlet Material
13. Reports of Church Wide Mennonite Music Conference
14. Shaped Notes and Other Unconventional Forms of Notes
This section contains 78 books of variable forms of notation from cipher notes to shaped notes, to aid untrained people to read syllables. These books range from Andrew Law's Select Harmony of 1779 to other notable books by William Little, John Wyeth, Jesse Aiken, Amos Hayden, Samuel Wakefield, William Walker, Thomas Weber, Benjamin White, and John Winebrenner.
15. Eighteenth Century and Others
This section contains 55 books. Although the heading suggests that most books are from the eighteenth century, the majority of books in this section are from the early nineteenth century. This section contains works mostly by previously mentioned authors.
16. Psalm Books
17. Secular Music, etc.
18. African American Melodies
19. Gospel Song Books
20. Miscellaneous
Updated 14-May-2007 SWH