Merrill, A. D.; Brown, W. C. The Wesleyan Harp: A Collection of Hymns and Tunes, suitable for Social Worship. Boston: Published by the Compilers, 1834. First Edition. [11010]
Teal cloth with floral pattern, brown leather title label to spine, scuffed and worn, corner tips and spine ends frayed, tight. Old cloth repair to both end paper hinges, 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. 213, [3] pp., smudges, foxing. Good. Hardcover.
The music is in two or three parts, with round notes.
Abraham Dow Merrill (1796-1878), b. & d. at Salem, New Hampshire. Metcalf has his middle name as "Down." He was converted at a revival meeting in 1820, and by 1822 joined the New Hampshire Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wherein he was for forty years active in the ministry. He was known "as a revivalist, an indefatigable worker, and a sweet singer in Israel." - Metcalf, American Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music (1925).
William Cowper Brown (1801-1870), b. Newburyport, Massachusetts; d. Chelsea, Massachusetts. He for many years a teacher associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and was the compiler of The Harmonist: being a Collection of Tunes from the most approved authors; adapted to every variety of metre in the Methodist Hymn-book. He served as the Recording Secretary and Treasurer of the American Peace Society, and in the 1830's was the editor of the Methodist periodical Zion's Herald, as well as the editor and publisher of the Mother's Magazine.
With a signed provenance card from the music collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
