Dale nee Gibson, Mary Isabel

[Scrapbook] Anthology of Cowboy Songs and Poems with Words and Music Illustrated

Anthology of Cowboy Songs and Poems with Words and Music Illustrated, compiled by Mary Isabel Dale nee Gibson circa 1940, revised in 1972.

Big fat scrapbook stuffed with cowboy ephemera, clippings, manuscript music, printed music, several songbooks, art and more. Screw post binding of which only one set (of the three) remains functional. The book looks like a wreck, and we will say it is in fair condition only. However, the content outweighs condition and to certain musicologists, this may well be a treasure. See scans--we'll do our best to provide a good cross-section of pages.

Compiled by Mary Isabel Gibson nee Dale of Waynesboro, Virginia in the late 1930's apparently to complete an assignment for her Modern Literature 12A class. It appears she received a 'B' for her efforts. For the amount of time it took Mary to complete this book, she should have received an A+.

Book includes a bibliography, and two table of contents. Someone lightly wrote in pencil that the book contains 577 songs, but the tables of contents do not reflect that many. Her sources for material included:

--Cowboy Sings by Kennith S. Clark
--Cowboy Songs by John Lomax
--Singing Cowboy by Margret Larkin
--March 1935 issue of Western Story Magazine
--Cowboy Lore by Jules Verne Allen

These sources were published in the 1930's with the exception of the Lomax title published in 1910. Cowboy Songs was republished in 1938, and we assume is Mary Gibson had access to that edition.

Additionally, we find several songbooks tipped in:

--Girl Reserve Songs circa 1927 as published by the Girl Reserve Department of the Y.W.C.A. in San Francisco

--Six-page blueprint-type booklet, no date, no editor

--14-page mimeograph booklet titled "Girl Scouts", no date, no editor

--Mountain Songs, published in 1937 by Belmont Music Co., Chicago, Illinois

--39-page blueprint-type booklet titled "Waynesboro Mariner Scout Songs". No date, no editor--unrecorded in OCLC

--Joyful Singing, Campfire Girls Edition published by Campfire Outfitting Company, no date

--22-page manuscript packet with additional song lyrics

Scrapbook also contains a 22-page manuscript school report titled "Cowboy". This report is in a different hand. Sources for this report include books by Will James, J. Frank Dobie and William MacLeod Rains.

The bulk of the scrapbook is a combination of manuscript lyrics and music, typed lyrics plus mimeograph sheets interspersed with original art, scraps, clippings and ephemera. Includes a cute little Stephen Foster die-cut songbook advertising Bardstown Bond Whiskey--Ask for the Fiddle Bottle.

Towards the latter part of the scrapbook, we find additional manuscript lyric sheets from a much older Mary Isabel Dale nee Gibson dated 1972.

A wonderful late 1930's scrapbook packed full of Cowboy songs and scraps. Likely many hidden treasures and lost verses within this labor of love. A classic item of Americana. Item #2574

Price: $325.00