The Boston YMCA published this hymnbook in 1861 for soldiers fighting in the Civil War. In November of that year, only months after the war began, several northern YMCAs formed the United States Christian Commission to provide medical aid, supplies, and religious literature for troops. This copy of The Soldiers’ Hymn-Book was one of millions of hymnbooks, Bibles, and tracts the commission would print and distribute over the course of the war. The title page features a verse from Frederick W. Faber’s poem “Workman of God,” which reads: “For right is right, since God is God, And right the day must win; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin.”
Provenance
Published in 1861 by the Boston Young Men’s Christian Association, Boston, Massachusetts. Acquired by Glover's Bookery, Lexington, Kentucky; Purchased around 2017 by Ted Steinbock, private collector, Louisville, Kentucky; Privately purchased in 2020 by Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.