Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 195

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
ILLUSTRATED DORR REBELLION SHEET MUSIC (RHODE ISLAND.) R.B. Taylor and Henry S. Cartee. Convention Quick Step. 3 pages including illustrated cover, 13 x 10 1/4 inches, on 2 detached leaves; minor foxing; inscribed in pencil on cover "Julia E. White from Mr. H.S. Cartee" [the author]. Boston: Published for the author by C. Bradlee, 1841
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The Rhode Island Suffrage Association was formed in 1840 to protest the limitation of voting to property owners. An extra-legal constitutional convention was held in late 1841, and the next year suffrage advocates held their own election, setting up two competing state governments in what became known as the Dorr Rebellion.
This sheet music was composed by a Providence musician for the Suffrage Association in its early days. The cover notes that it was "performed by the American Brass Band April 17th, 1841." The American Band, founded in Providence in 1837, remains active as a renowned community band today. The mass suffrage meeting was held on Jefferson Plain atop Smith Hill, where the State House is now located. This event was described by Noah Arnold in his 1890 "History of Suffrage in Rhode Island": "A mass meeting of the friends of suffrage, which was convened in Providence on the 17th of April 1841 . . . was numerously attended. . . . About this time the Suffrage Party held a mass meeting and roasted an ox on Smith's Hill, in Providence, which did something to tone up public opinion in their favor." The central lithograph view in this piece, by Thayer & Co., depicts a massive crowd watching the concert on a plain; the ox can be seen roasting in the lower right. Fried calamari, the official state appetizer, is not visible, though perhaps the frialator is stationed just behind the ox. 2 in OCLC.