Wyeth, Francis [publisher]. Pennsylvanische Sammlung von Kirchen-Musick | The Pennsylvania Collection of Church Musick. Containing an ample Assortment of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Anthems, &c. Set to both English and German Poetry. Designed for the Use of Families, Singing-Schools and Musical Societies. Harrisburg, PA: F. Wyeth, 1844. [8677]
Leather spine with marbled paper over card, front with vertical center crease/crack, boards scuffed with some loss of paper. Oblong 14 cm (5 1/2 x 9 inches, 160 pp., complete. Some margin tears, chips; no text affected. Good. Hardcover.
Stanislaw 225. A four-note shape tunebook.
Title page in German & English; Elements of Music (pp. 3-12) in English & German; tunes pp. 122-157 mostly in German, with a few English texts; 158-160 is the Index (German & English). Possibly composed by the publisher, but unknown for certain.
Francis Wyeth (1806-1893), was the son of John Wyeth (1779-1858), John being a publisher and tunebook compiler, and the author of Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music. Francis, the son, was a resident of Harrisburg, PA; he graduated in 1827 from Jefferson College at Canonsburg, and learned the art of printing from his father. He set up shop as a bookseller and publisher in Harrisburg in 1831, and conducted the business until he sold it in 1859. During the American Civil War he served as the local Quartermaster near Harrisburg and was in 1862 was appointed one of the Pennsylvania Commissioners to visit and report on conditions of the hospitals of the Army of the Potomac. He was a trustee of the Harrisburg Academy for 40 years, and its President for 15 years. He was one of the first three elders of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church.
"He was an excellent classical and English scholar and was always respected as an upright Christian gentleman." - obituary, Harrisburg Patriot, July 3, 1893.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
