my church hymnal collection

I gotta start this post by admitting -- because it is absolutely true -- that I do NOT know exactly when/why I started to collect hymnals. (being in the 'church organ bizness' for a living, it just sorta happened...?) <LOL>

ANYWAYS, there's roughly 70 books shown sitting here on my shelves at the moment. Together they represent various examples and editions from most currently common 'branded faiths' (Baptist, Catholic, Christian, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, etc...alphabetical order there...did I miss someone?) as well as some non-denominational books seemingly produced independently of any particular organized religion. Their actual ages (via publication dates) range from the early 1900's (or earlier) to what you'd find in the pewback racks at any odd church you might happen to attend next Sunday morning.

Lots of them have come to me via junk shops, others have been "rescued" after being found discarded/abandoned in basements/attics/towers/etc of the actual church buildings they likely first belonged to. Many still bear various assorted marks (handwritten legends/dedications, rubberstamp prints, bookplate/donor labels, or whatever) on them somewhere, to further suggest past owners and/or where they came from. Exactly one of them actually has *my own* name gilt-embossed on its cover, as it was presented to me as a teen by the church I grew up in... :-)

A handful of them (maybe some of the oldest, even?) are paperback or spiral bound songbooks, and a few are children's/Sunday School editions. There are 3 ringbinder books of 'daily office' chants/etc (?) which might have come from a monastery or convent or somesuch, and editions of Handel's THE MESSIAH and Bach's CHRISTMAS ORATORIO thrown in for good measure to round out the shelves. ;-) :-)

Speaking of the shelves themselves, they are of 1-1/2"+ thick sugar pine with beveled/grooved edges, originally made in Canada. From (approx.) 1965 until 2008, they were parts of a pipe organ (called "swell shades", a sort of volume control mechanism) located at a church in the Detroit, MI area.

(and I *think* most of the rest of the assorted doo-dads seen sitting on the shelves are probably already in my show-n-tell somewhere else...?)