Chronology
1922 | First meeting of the Society of the Preservation of Spirituals (SPS) at 21 King St, home of Josephine Pinckney. | |
1923 | First public performance by the SPS on East Battery to benefit St. Philips Church | |
1925 | Porgy, novel by SPS member Dubose Heyward is published. | |
1929 | First concert tour in northern cities: Boston, New York, Wilmington | |
1931 | The Carolina Low Country Lyrics & music to 49 spirituals collected by SPS is published. | |
1934 | Porgy & Bess composer, George Gershwin, summers in Charleston to work on opera. | |
1935 | SPS performs in White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 20th. | |
1936 | SPS invests in device for making "electronic transcriptions" (recordings) onto aluminum discs. | |
1936 | Katherine J Hutson is recorded singing solos in her home. | |
1936 | Nationwide NBC broadcast of SPS singing in Academy of Music on April 15, 1936. | |
1936-39 | African-American congregations on Johns Island, on the Santee River and on Cromwell Alley, | |
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| downtown Charleston, SC, recorded. |
1937 | John Lomax, Curator of American Folksong Archive meets with SPS President Louis Parker | |
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| and requests donation of aluminum discs to the Library of Congress |
1952 | Series I, LP recording of 4/15/52 concert at Dock St Theatre for American Society | |
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| of Mammalogists becomes first release of SPS. |
1952 | Series II, LP recording of concerts between 1952-54 released | |
1960 | Series III, LP released | |
1980 | March 28 Concert, Footlight Players Workshop, not released. | |
1982 | Donation of 45 aluminum discs of spirituals recorded in the Charleston area from 1936-39 to | |
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| Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress |
1983 | Come En Go Wid Me, March 28 concert, Footlight Players Workshop, released | |
1987 | Sinnuh Wah Yuh Doin' Down Dehe, April 13 concert, Footlight Players Wk, released | |
1995 | Gala concert in the Dock Street Theater on March 23, not released | |
1999 | Negro Spiritual procalimed to be official music of SC by Gov. Hodges | |
2004 | Spirituals of the Carolina Low Country, music and Gullah lyrics of 49 spirituals published | |
2004 | Spiritual SocietyField Recordings, 1936-39, CD with 19 spirituals performed by African- | |
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| American congregaions and six by the founding generation of the SPS, released. |
2004 | Spiritual Society Concerts, 1936-95, a double CD with 56 spirituals released. | |
2007 | Gullah Lyrics to Carolina Low Country Spirituals, lyrics to 94 spirituals published. | |
2009 | Five Carolina Low Country Spirituals arranged for SATB by Gary Bachlund, published | |