You help make Hymnary.org possible. More than 10 million people from 200+ countries found hymns, liturgical resources and encouragement on Hymnary.org in 2025, including you. Every visit affirms the global impact of this ministry.

If Hymnary has been meaningful to you this year, would you take a moment today to help sustain it? A gift of any size—paired with a note of encouragement if you wish—directly supports the server costs, research work and curation that keep this resource freely available to the world.

Give securely online today, or mail a check to:
Hymnary.org
Calvin University
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Thank you for your partnership, and may the hope of Advent fill your heart.

Click here to donate to Hymnary.org I have already donated. Please don't show this to me again

Date of "The Southern Harmony" edition

You are here

Home » Forums » Hymnary Editor Room
Sun, 06/15/2014 - 13:47 — timeless

The Southern Harmony as listed here shows a publication date of 1835. I understand that was the date of the first edition, but there were a few revisions until 1854. I can't find the copyright page, or any page showing dates, in the page scans of the edition shown here. The reason why I question the date 1835 is because the index here includes Happy Land, which is asserted to be written by Andrew Young in 1838. And at least one other source asserts the tune was arranged by Breedlove in 1850.

The earliest source I found elsewhere claims to be 1847 in the metadata, but the preface shows it to be the 1854 edition.


Comments

Mon, 06/16/2014 - 02:16 — Haruo

Some of the Southern Harmony pages also show multiple page scans that are not identical for the same page. The whole thing seems to be an amalgam of different sources. Not clear if any of it is actually from the 1835 edition.

The Breedlove 1850 note probably refers to the arrangement of the tune in an 1860 or later edition of the Sacred Harp. (Just a guess. But a number of tunes in the 1991 Sacred Harp (Denson) say they're by, or arranged by, Breedlove in 1850.)

Mon, 06/16/2014 - 11:30 — dianneshapiro

The "Southern Harmony" on Hymnary came from the Christian Classic Ethereal Library. I think it was the first hymnal added to Hymnary. The pioneers who added it followed different procedures than our current procedures which have evolved over the years. It looks from the Title page and the Preface that it is actually a new enlarge edition dated 1854. I've changed the 1835 date to 1854.

Wed, 06/18/2014 - 13:38 — hplantin

Yes, I think it was scanned from a modern reprint of the 1854 edition.

The Southern Harmony was not only the first hymnal added to Hymnary, but also the first hymnal added to CCEL.org and, in fact, the first hymnal anywhere on the Internet as far as I know. It dates back to about 1997 or so.

Fri, 04/28/2017 - 13:48 — barrycjohnston

There is also an 1845 edition now available on IMSLP -- a little closer to 1835, but regrettably the first edition is still not available, as far as I can see.

Forums: 
Hymnary Editor Room
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.