COLLECTION #143: Vintage Mormon Song Books

Not to be confused with my vintage hymn books (Mormon or otherwise), these are vintage song books, some of which do contain hymns, but they are mostly youth religious or fun songs. These books are from the 1930s-1950s.

 I remember well the little book called The Children Sing. It was the song book we used when I was a child, and I spent about an hour this morning, going through it at my piano, plunking out some of the long-forgotten children's songs.  It really brought back so many happy memories of singing in Primary and Junior Sunday School back in Glendale and South Pasadena.

A few years before my Dad passed away, I remember he and his younger brother Kent getting together (both well into their 80s), and singing their childhood favorite, "A Mormon Boy".  I never knew that one, but it's nice to know that some of these songs remain in our memories our entire lives... no matter how old we get to be!

COLLECTION #128: Antique Hymn Books

I have several old hymnbooks from various churches and church groups. My friend Robin gave me a very old hymnbook from her family, and it's my oldest and most treasured one.  It's called the Sabbath Bell, and if my memory of Roman numerals is accurate, the copyright date is 1857. One of her family members documented the provenance of this book, and it's fascinating to see how the book was passed down from generation to generation.

A couple of these books were in my family for a few generations too. The Deseret Songs is an LDS hymnbook that belonged to my Grandfather Clark. It was copyright 1909.  I also found the MIA Sociability Songs in my Grandpa's things.. this was a soft bound book that was used by the youth of the church for their non-religious activities. There's no copyright date on it, but it looks to be the 1920s.

I've acquired a few other religious song books through the years, including the Hymns of Praise, published by the Hope Publishing Co. dated 1922. There are also a couple of other church song booklets: New Songs of a Christian Number Two, published by Von Kampen Press in 1947, and Hymns for Christian Youth, published by Society of Christian Endeavor in 1927.