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Benjamin Russel Hanby
Benjamin Russell Hanby (July 22, 1833 – March 16, 1867), also given as Benjamin Russel Hanby, was an American composer, educator, pastor, and abolitionist who wrote approximately 80 songs. The most famous are "Darling Nelly Gray" and the Christmas songs "Up on the House Top" and "Who Is He In Yonder Stall?". Hanby was born in Rushville, Ohio. He moved to Westerville, Ohio in 1849, at the age of sixteen, to enroll at Otterbein University. He was involved in the Underground Railroad with his father, Bishop William Hanby. Hanby composed the popular anti-slavery ballad Darling Nelly Gray in 1856 in what is now a national historical site, the Hanby House, located at the corner of Grove and Main Streets (in the 1830s, when Hanby was still a child his family moved to 160 West Main Street) in Westerville, adjacent to the campus of Otterbein University. The song was based on the Hanby family’s encounter with Joseph Selby, a runaway slave from Kentucky who died at the Hanby home in Rushville after relating the moving story of his escape to freedom and having to leave behind his lost love. Hanby wrote several other notable anti-slavery songs during this period including Ole Shady, The Song of the Contraband and Little Tillie's Grave. After graduation in 1858, Hanby briefly taught school and then became a minister in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1860, he became principal of Seven Mile Academy in Seven Mile, Ohio. In 1864, Hanby was minister of a church in New Paris, Ohio, but by Christmas 1864, he was no longer working as a pastor, but operating a singing school in New Paris. He composed "Up On The Housetop" as a Christmas sing-along. It was originally titled Santa Claus. The following year, Chicago publisher George Frederick Root published "Up On The Housetop" and brought Hanby to Chicago to pursue other publishing ventures. At age 33, Hanby died from tuberculosis in Chicago on March 16, 1867. He is buried in Otterbein Cemetery in Westerville. Today the Hanby House is a museum managed by the Westerville Historical Society. |
= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings (Results 1-25 of 42 records)
Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Victor | [Pre-matrix A-]912 | 7-in. | 7/17/1901 | Darling Nellie Gray | American Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | [Pre-matrix B-]1387 | 10-in. | 5/12/1902 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | [Pre-matrix A-]1387 | 7-in. | 5/12/1902 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | [Pre-matrix B-]3515 | 10-in. | 7/17/1901 | Darling Nellie Gray | American Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | [Pre-matrix C-]31044 | 12-in. | either 1901 or 1902 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | C-600 | 12-in. | 10/27/1903 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-1043 | 10-in. | 2/18/1904 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | A-1043 | 7-in. | 2/18/1904 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | C-1242 | 12-in. | 3/16/1905 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | composer | |
Victor | B-1242 | 10-in. | 4/21/1904 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | composer | |
Victor | A-1242 | 7-in. | 4/21/1904 | Darling Nellie Gray | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | composer | |
Victor | B-3138 | 10-in. | 2/23/1906 | Darling Nellie Gray | Richard Jose | Counter-tenor vocal solo, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-14733 | 10-in. | 4/21/1914 | Darling Nelly Gray | Lambert Murphy | Male vocal solo, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-15705 | 10-in. | 2/15/1915 | Darling Nellie Gray | Samuel Gardner | Violin solo, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | BVE-16779 | 10-in. | 7/2/1925 | Darling Nellie Gray | Peerless Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-16779 | 10-in. | 11/17/1915 | Darling Nellie Gray | Peerless Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | C-17855 | 12-in. | 6/13/1916 | Songs of the past, no. 15 | Victor Mixed Chorus | Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-20092 | 10-in. | 6/26/1917 | Darling Nelly Gray | Alma Gluck | Soprano vocal solo, with male vocal quartet and orchestra | composer | |
Victor | B-22402 | 10-in. | 10/31/1918 | Darling Nellie Gray | Orpheus Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | composer | |
Victor | BS-031256 | 10-in. | 1/9/1939 | Darling Nellie Gray | Les Brown Orchestra ; Miriam Shaw | Jazz/dance band, with female vocal solo | composer | |
Victor | CS-057603 | 12-in. | 11/7/1940 | Darling Nellie Gray | Bill Dickinson ; Tuxedo Colonels | Instrumental ensemble, with calls | composer | |
Columbia | 4215 | 10-in. | approximately July 1909 | Darling Nellie Gray | Carroll Clark | Male vocal solo, with orchestra | composer | |
Columbia | 19735 | 10-in. | 1/23/1912 | Darling Nellie Gray | Alice Nielsen | Soprano vocal solo, with orchestra | composer | |
Columbia | 46312 | 10-in. | 1/3/1916 | Darling Nellie Gray | Taylor Trio | Instrumental trio | composer | |
Columbia | 78789 | 10-in. | 11/3/1919 | Darling Nellie Gray | Tollefsen Trio | Instrumental trio | composer |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Hanby, Benjamin Russel," accessed September 4, 2024, https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/104386.
Hanby, Benjamin Russel. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved September 4, 2024, from https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/104386.
"Hanby, Benjamin Russel." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 4 September 2024.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
External Sources
Wikipedia: Benjamin R. Hanby
Discogs: Benjamin Russel Hanby
Grove: Benjamin Russel Hanby
IMSLP: Benjamin Russel Hanby
IMDb: Benjamin Russel Hanby
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: Hanby, Benjamin Russel, 1833-1867 - http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83181651
Wikidata: Benjamin R. Hanby - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4888764
VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/21062719
MusicBrainz: Benjamin R. Hanby - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/6b1b6ab3-23b8-45d1-ba70-cef87ac495e3
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