Singing the Psalms: Part 3

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Frances Elliott Clark, A Woman Before Her Time

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Frances Elliott Clark (1860-1958) was an early music-appreciation advocate. As a teacher in twentieth-century Ottumwa, Iowa, Clark spent ten minutes in each of her chorus rehearsals telling students about composers or helping them recognize the stylistic features of a work that made it possible to place it in its correct historical context. Shortly thereafter, the phonograph added new opportunities for students to listen to music. Clark, who by 1903 had moved to Milwaukee, told of her introduction to Edison's invention and of its potential. She realized the difference it could make to her students if they could hear professional recordings. Her principal agreed, and approved the purchase of a machine for the schools.

Victor Talking Machine Company
"His Master's Voice" logo with Nipper
Founded	1901
Founder	Eldridge R. Johnson, Leon F. Douglass
Status	Merged with RCA in 1929; known today as RCA Records
Genre	Classical, blues, popular, jazz, country, bluegrass, folk
Country of origin	United States
Location	Camden, New Jersey

Curriculum Development

Clark made herself an authority on the use of the phonograph to teach music to children and in 1910 spoke to the Wisconsin Teachers Association on "Victrolas in the Schools." Edward Bailey Birge, president of the Music Supervisors National Conference (later MENC), invited her to present this subject at his MSNC program in Detroit. Within a year she had moved to Camden, New Jersey, where she established an education department for the Victor Talking Machine Company. She supervised the preparation of recordings designed for use in the classroom*. Recordings were also developed to correlate music with English and American literature. Among other responsibilities, Clark assisted record and Victrola dealers in setting up educational displays to help music educators learn the benefits of the phonograph. Victor issued a number of instructional booklets prepared by Clark and assistants. Clark remained with Victor for the rest of her professional career but kept up with the times in the 1920s when she promoted the radio as an avenue to music appreciation.

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Although a distant cousin of mine, I have been told that I am very much like Frances: I visited another cousin who was a close friend to Frances. While talking about family history, she interrupted me saying, "It's like going back in time. Like the chats, Frances and I used to have over a cup of tea." She then got up and returned with a letter from Frances. It read like a diary while Frances was traveling around England on a Shakespeare tour. She included a special detour to see the stained-glass window honoring John Eliot. 

Like both John and Frances, I write. Like John, I tend to lean toward helping the underdog. Like Frances, I adore music and was a children's choir director for many years. I feel very special knowing I have some DNA from these two extraordinary people.

____________

* The recordings paved the way for music as a separate class. And she fought an uphill battle reaching her goal of music for every child during a still male dominate world.

Singing of the Psalms: Part 2

 Not only did John Eliot participate in the printing and publishing of the Bay Psalm Book, but he also translated the entire Bible into a dialect that had no written language. A 13 year-old Algonquin boy lived with John. It's said that he never left John's side- even sleeping on the floor next to John's bed. As he learned English from John, he taught John his language. The New Testament was completed first and printed while he translated the Old Testament.

John was a strong advocate of the Algonquins and was instrumental in building schools and writing bilingual textbooks. Sadly all of the Algonquin tribes were wiped out by the Redcoats. 

Eliot Indian Bible

Printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, between 1660 and 1663, the Eliot Indian Bible was the first complete bible printed in the Western Hemisphere. As part of his mission to convert the indigenous people of Massachusetts, Puritan clergyman John Eliot spent fourteen years translating the Geneva English Bible into Natick, a dialect spoken by the Algonquin tribes in the region. Equally formidable was the story of printing the bible. Under Stephen Daye’s supervision, 1000 copies were printed by Samuel Green on the first printing press in colonial America. He was assisted by a newly arrived English printer, Marmaduke Johnson, who brought with him 100 reams of paper and 80 pounds of new type, including extra “O’s” and “K’s” necessary to accommodate Algonquin spellings. At its completion, the Eliot Bible emerged as the largest printing project in seventeenth-century America.

John Eliot (1604–1690). The Holy Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the New. Translated into the Indian Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1663. Bible Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (004.00.00)

Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/bay-psalm-book-and-american-printing/online-exhibition.html#obj004

To be continued.

Singing of the Psalms Is Special To Me

It's Personal! 

Because I am the great, great, great, great, great-granddaughter of John Eliot.

David playing his harp (unknown artist, c. 960)

Part 1: The Bay Psalm Book

The decision to print a book of psalms metered for singing may seem an odd choice as the first book to be printed by the settlers of Massachusetts Bay, but this modest book served the larger purpose of the colony—to live within the reformed church. The Bay Psalm Book, as it is known, is essentially sacred text to be sung during the liturgy. A committee of thirty learned elders, including John Cotton, Richard Mather, and John Eliot, set about the task of creating a new translation of the 150 Hebrew psalms into English and casting the text into verse for singing.

Printing the Bay Psalm Book in 1640 required importing the tools and materials of printing to the new colony. The Reverend Jose Glover put this into action when he resigned his post in Surrey, England, and set sail for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 with his family, possessions, and a printing press operation, replete with paper and slightly worn type. Glover died aboard ship, and it was left to his widow, Elizabeth, to establish the press.

Elizabeth Glover eventually moved the printing operation to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and placed it under the charge of her husband’s apprentice, Stephen Daye (1594?–1668). Daye was a locksmith by trade; his press work and spelling were inconsistent. Two centuries later, American printer Isaiah Thomas would remark that the Bay Psalm Book “abounds with typographical errors. . . . This specimen of Daye’s printing does not exhibit the appearance of good workmanship.” It was, nevertheless, the first full venture of printing in British North America, and this ambitious effort is an important monument of the establishment of this nation and its culture. It is estimated that 1,700 copies of the book were printed, which sold for twenty pence. Today, only eleven copies survive.

From Online Exhibition.