Young Folks' Picture-History of Music

While I was rummaging around in the piano bench at my family's house here in Charlotte, I found an old family book, from 1925:


The book came with a few sheets of illustrations, and the child was instructed to cut them out and glue them into boxes on the pages. Here is the text of the “Note to Young Folks” at the beginning of the book:

Some day you may be very proud of the work you do in this book. Music is so lovely and the story of music so interesting that you should do your level best to cut out the pictures neatly and paste them in without smearing. The author hopes that you will have “all kinds of fun” doing this.

And my ancestor (paternal grandfather's sister, I think) did a really good job. After 80 years, the pictures are still in there.


There was blank staff paper in the last few pages, and in my family copy there are big, unsteady quarter-notes drawn in pencil: a child's first frustrating attempt at composition. On the final page of text, there is yet another reminder of how much the world has changed in just a few generations:

There is so much music in the world that everyone is expected to know a great deal about it these days. It is a kind of language among the most interesting people. If one does not have it a great many of the fine things of life are lost. This means that every moment you put upon practice will bring you hours of joy some day.