Old Time Jigs and Reels for the Violin

Old Time Jigs and Reels for the Violin was issued in Boston by the Oliver Ditson Company in 1906 as part of the firm’s Half Dollar Music Series, a line of low-priced melody collections. The contents run to 63 numbered pages and list 232 titles in four sections: jigs, reels, hornpipes, and miscellaneous dances, the last gathering strathspeys, highland flings, clogs, and contra dance figures including Hull’s Victory, Petronella, and the Tempest. The repertoire mixes Irish and Scottish material with tunes long established in American use, among them Arkansas Traveller, Pig Town Fling, Money Musk, Devil’s Dream, and Durang’s Hornpipe. The book shares a large number of tunes with Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883), including tunes that appear in the same setting. Both draw on the Boston publishing stock assembled by Elias Howe, whose earlier collections Ditson had acquired around 1850. No editor or compiler is named in the printed book. The Library of Congress record credits Charles H. McGee as editor, but the attribution traces to a handwritten name on the deposit copy; it does not appear in the publication.

Note: Physical copy reviewed at the Library of Congress, August 22, 2026.