Vintage Wednesday: Antique Hymnals

Hubby and I were visiting my parents over the July 4th weekend. While we were there, my father pulled out a video made of my grandparents in the late 80s. My grandmother told the story of how they met. My grandfather had taken a blind date to a community sing. My grandmother had gone with another gentleman. Apparently, they got to the sing and realized their partners couldn't sing, so they switched partners ending up with each other because they were both singers. He walked her home and that was the beginning of somewhere around 70 years of singing.

I guess you could say we're a musical family. Family gatherings often involve a piano and some kind of singing... and sometimes dancing if we get too excited. I remember many nights falling asleep to my father picking out hymns on the piano. My brother started playing music by ear when he was just old enough to reach the piano keys. And I amaze my husband when I break out into songs from my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations.

That could be the reason I get such a thrill from finding new, old music. By that I mean music that was popular long before I was born - sometimes before my grandparents were born. I especially love when I find old hymnals.

Daddy used to talk about shape note singing in churches he attended as a child. Much of the singing they did was a capella (without instruments, voices only) as the shapes of the notes guided their voices. Many of the older hymnals I have are printed with these odd-shaped notes.

I was delighted recently to see a Smithsonian article with a picture of the hymnal of Harriet Tubman. Her hymnal looks quite a bit like one of the hymnals in my collection. It reminded me that even though these hymnals are dear to me, I have many of them. I wonder as I look at my collection, how dear these might have been to their first owners - and how many hours were spent singing the notes, pondering the words and meditating on the meanings of songs in these precious books.

Vintage Wednesday: Finding Out of Print Books

I think I officially started collecting books somewhere around the age of 6. Mama jokes my first word ought to have been "book!" And I have a few authors whose work I gravitate toward, not only because the writing is good, but also because they tended to work with certain illustrators.

For example, Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote one of my favorite books as a child, The Little Princess. There were two copies of the book at our local library - both with illustrations by Tasha Tudor - and I think I checked out each copy at least 15 times. I loved the story. I loved her writing. I loved Tasha Tudor's illustrations.

As I got older I realized that she's written more than The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Lost Prince. In addition to her childrens' books, she'd also written many books for adults - including several serials that were published first in installments and then bound in one volume for sale together.

In my quest to collect her books, I found The Head of the House of Combe and realized there was a sequel to that book called Robin. For many years I searched antique shops and book sellers looking for this book to no avail until, in the first days of the Internet becoming a resource, a book seller told me about Alibris. Before Amazon started collecting dealers with caches of antique books, Alibris was making the model work. It's a consortium of book sellers who've put their stock online. I actually think this is the best resource for finding out of print books as I've had more luck with Alibris when looking for the obscure. Another book collecting friend recommends ABE Books, but I'm still a fan of Alibris.

So if you're looking for a book that's out of print or difficult to find, see if Alibris can help you with your search!