Music Book Review: Suffragist Sheet Music by Danny O. Crew

Suffragist Sheet Music
by Danny O. Crew (Music 781.592 Cre)

August marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote in our country. The Suffragist movement was a long battle in United States history, starting in the mid-19th century, and branching out through suffrage organizations in many cities and states. The basic proposal within the 19th Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878, and generations continued the fight to ensure its passage and ratification 42 years later.

Like many of the social movements we saw in the latter half of the 20th century, music was an integral part of sharing the message of the suffragists far and wide. In the era immediately before radio and records became dominant, songs were most often distributed nationally through sheet music, and the suffragist movement’s rise happens to correlate with the Tin Pan Alley era of music publication in our country (It’s worth noting that other social movements of the early 20th century such as the temperance, organized labor and prohibition movements had song traditions memorialized in sheet music, too).

You can learn about many suffragist songs in the book Suffragist Sheet Music by Danny O. Crew, available here at the Polley Music Library. The book has no narrative of its own, acting instead as a catalog of many suffragist and pro-womans’ rights songs, reproducing sheet music cover pages and lyrics. In many cases, the music of the suffragist songs borrows from popular secular or political songs, changing the lyrics to familiar melodies of the time. And these songs indeed form a narrative all their own: we find generations of female voices demanding the right to vote and asserting themselves as equals. Some songs take on the issue at the national level, and others tell of the work of suffragists in their own states, such as the “Kansas Suffrage Song” of 1867. In some cases, we see overlaps between the temperance and suffrage movements represented in song. And toward a broader context, some songs are included that oppose suffrage, such as “When the Pigs Begin To Fly” from 1890. As the suffrage movement gains traction and ultimately becomes a reality in 1920, the oppositional songs take on a rather trite character, epitomized by the title of the 1921 tune “Please! Oh Please, Little Suffragette, Don’t Take Away My Cigarette!” that concludes this book’s chronology.

If you check out this book and find yourself interested in learning even more about the suffragist music tradition, the Library of Congress has an online collection of sheet music you can check out here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/womens-suffrage-sheet-music/about-this-collection/

As social issues rise high in our public consciousness again, we’re likely to see new takes on the protest song tradition. For more books about all kinds of protest music, be sure to stop by the Polley Music Library!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Music is Power: Popular Songs, Social Justice, and the Will To Change by Brad Schreiber, 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, From Billie Holiday to Green Day by Dorian Lynskey or Lyrics and Borrowed Tunes of the American Temperance Movement by Paul D. Sanders.]

[ Danny O. Crew‘s curriculum vitae ]

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

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