The Musical Periodicals, 1781-1879 collection gathers publications dedicated to various aspects of music, from the sacred to the secular, from the political to the comic. Before widespread use of the printing press in the nineteenth century, the popular culture of the United States was largely an oral one, and much of it revolved around music. Often including related content on the arts, literature, and sometimes science, these periodicals show music in a larger cultural context, as music was also an important leisure activity for families and communities. Representative titles include the Family Minstrel, the Musical Journal, Trumpet Notes: A Monthly Paper Devoted to the Interests of Bands and Orchestras, Aeolian Piano Forte Journal, the Musical Miscellany, the Vox Humana, and the New Yorker Musik Zeitung.