States and Capitals

DESCRIPTION: A catalog of the capital cities of various states, starting perhaps in the northeast: "Maine, the capital is Augusta...." Versions may add additional details, e.g. "...Augusta, on the Kennebeck River"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph); Stout-FolkloreFromIowa's informants thought it was in existence in 1864
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 878, "States and Capitals" (2 texts, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 80-81, "Capitals of the States" (1 text, 1 tune, with only three states, all in New England)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 138, "States and Capitals" (1 text, with only five states, all in New England)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which the "B" text is this song; this version too has only five verses, all from the northeastern U.S.)
Roud #7543
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The States" (list of states)
NOTES [137 words]: This seems to have been at one time a widespread song to help children learn geography (in which it failed, since almost none of the informants could remember much).
Whether this is actually a single song is perhaps open to question; the texts in Randolph are very different, and this is perhaps a topic that several schoolmarm/songwriters might have tackled.
The information is also sorely out of date. Since the song was sung in the 1880s, of course, it lacks at least half a dozen states. Even for the states that are listed, the data is inaccurate (e.g. the capital of Maryland is Annapolis, not Baltimore, and Rhode Island and Connecticut have only one capital city each, though Randolph's "A" text lists Providence and Newport for Rhode Island, while "B" gives New Haven and Hartford as capital of Connecticut). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R878

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