Heading: (African-American Music, 1862)
Author:
Title: 1862 invoice, Firth, Pond, publishers of Stephen Foster music
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: 1862
Description:

Firth, Pond &; Co. Printed and handwritten invoice. New York, July 10, 1862. To Ferrari & Davis, who paid $105 for hundreds of copies of sheet music, plus a "sample of new music".

Firth, Pond were New York City "publishers of sheet music and musical works" and purveyors of "musical merchandise" such as pianos, guitars, brass and string instruments - and even, curiously, one British patent medicine. The firm made its mark in American musical history by contracting with young composer Stephen Foster to publish his future compositions after he had burst upon the musical scene with his wildly-popular Gold Rush-era tune, Oh Susanna. From 1850 until 1860, Firth, Pond published Foster 's Old Folks At Home/Swanee River, Massa 's in the Cold Ground, My Old Kentucky Home, Hard Times Come Again No More, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Old Black Joe and, after Foster 's death in 1864, his last song, Beautiful Dreamer. The company profited handsomely, with Foster surrendering the rights to his most popular songs for less than $2,000. During the Civil War, when this invoice was written, Firth, Pond continued to publish scores of Foster songs - perhaps they were among the "new music" mentioned on the invoice - but they sold poorly and the composer became an alcoholic and died in abject poverty two years later. Some of Foster 's timeless melodies were sentimental slave tunes, performed by black-face minstrels; these are seen in retrospect as racist - though Frederick Douglass praised at least one as arousing sympathy for the slave before Emancipation.

Slight edge wear and staining.