The Kenneth S. Goldstein Collection held by the Center for Popular Music consists of nearly 3,300 American song broadsides, from more than 120 publishers. While most broadsides carry no publication date the items in the Goldstein Collection range from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, with the bulk having been published between 1840 and 1880. The collection provides an exceptional window through which to view and study American taste and culture of the time. Numerous older traditional ballads were printed in broadside form, as were contemporary narrative songs that documented natural disasters, battles, political events, social movements, tragic accidents, and the concerns of daily life. Sentimental and comic songs were plentiful. |