The Visual Culture of Sacred Harp
Here’s another post about personalizing our new books: The Sacred Harp, 2025 Edition.
The Publishing Company agreed to subsidize loaner books for singing groups as long as they were permanently marked as such. You can spot the Utah books by the divot taken out of the LA!
Practical and graphic decisions had to be made to make the books easily distinguishable.
The last picture is a singer’s personal copy, stenciled with a unique design so that it can easily be identified in a crowded room.
Publicity poster by Holly Taylor for all-day singing in New Orleans, 31 Jan & 1 Feb, 2026.
A “peaceable kingdom” menagerie appears to have gathered to sing from a tune book in a local building. The somber border looks more like a graveyard, an appropriate New Orleans setting.
This particular weekend event will morph from a traditional all-day format on Saturday to a “Queer Gathering” on Sunday, welcoming all the varied participants to join in mutual support and celebration.
Are they trying to wake the dragon?
Many of us have seen these or have one at home. Barb Lund of Indiana skillfully makes these useful mugs, and lavishly adorns them with the shapes.
I bet they are still available from Barb, to remind us of the Shape Note community with our coffee each morning .
Photo: Shawn C Taylor
In preparation for the 9th Annual Australian Sacred Harp Convention later this month, Lauren Reader of Melbourne has created a labor of love.
A custom-mixed color, and debossed fondant is layered on shortbread cookies, and then hand-painted lettering is applied. She has faithfully reproduced the color and graphics of the new 2025 Edition.
Some may recall a previous iteration of these cookies in “1991 Red.”
From the “Sacred Harp Melbourne” FB group.
A new edition of the tune book is a fresh chance to personalize one’s copy.
This new copy of The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition belongs to Esther Morgan-Ellis, with a fabric cover by Pam Nunn, and beautiful edge decoration by Lily Hammond.
Beloved Chicago singer, the late Ted Mercer, had a biting sense of humor and lots of opinions, which he shared liberally.
Here are two examples of the many critical “marginalia” he meticulously stamped into his copy of the 1991 Edition.
These were recently shared by Judy Hauff on Sacred Harp Friends on the occasion of Ted’s birthday. The book is now in the possession of Lisa Grayson. Anyone who ever sat near Ted in a singing remembers these fondly.
Talk about visual transmission of Sacred Harp culture!
The hollow square at the 2009 Keystone Sacred Harp Convention in Philadelphia.
Judging from the light, and how tidy everything still looks, this must be first thing in the morning.
Photo by Kevin Griffin Moreno
License CC BY 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Photo provided by KG Miller.
Illustrated minutes of the local singing in Sherbrooke (North Hatley), Québec on 3 Dec 2025
A FB post to the Sacred Harp Sherbrooke group on 7 Dec 2025 by Anabel Gravel Chabot.