Enna Massey was born in Mississippi in 1852. She was the daughter of John B. and Catherine E. Massey. Originally from Tennessee, her father owned a large plantation near Canton, Madison County, Mississippi. Massey attended Canton Female Seminary where she studied piano and guitar with instructor Adolphus Brown. He had a private studio where he gave music lessons, and he also sold sheet music at the confectionery store of S. K. Child in Canton. Enna Massey married William C. Walker on December 4, 1872. Their daughter, Will Enna Walker, was born in 1887. She married banker and landowner Otho Fontaine Garrett on December 5, 1917. Will Enna Walker Garrett died at the Madison County Nursing Home in Canton on April 16, 1976. She is buried in the Canton Cemetery.

Otho Fontaine Garrett was born in 1882. He was a member of the family of Joseph W. Garrett, editor of the Commonwealth and the Canton Picket. Around 1900, Otho Fontaine Garrett was living in the large Garrett home in Canton with his widowed aunt, Amanda Garrett Cage; her family, including sister Louisa Garrett Foot and brother-in-law Lawrence Foot, who was president of the Canton Exchange Bank; and several boarders. Local histories document that Otho Fontaine Garrett worked for the Canton Exchange Bank.

Joseph W. Garrett’s parents were Lewis M. and Sarah D. Garrett of Canton. His elder brother, Fontaine D. Garrett, was a physician who practiced in Canton before the Civil War. Fontaine D. Garrett married Louisiana Dunlevy on December 10, 1862. She was the daughter of Ohio native James H. Dunlevy, a physician who practiced in Beattie’s Bluff, located near Canton, and Harriet G. Lee, whose father was an early settler of Beattie’s Bluff. Soon after their wedding, Fontaine D. Garrett began serving as an assistant surgeon in the Confederate army in Logan’s Cavalry. He was killed in a train accident in Meridian, Mississippi, on September 25, 1863. The Garretts’ daughter, also named Fontaine, was born about a month later. Louisiana Dunlevy Garrett’s father died in the mid-1860s, and she and her daughter moved in with her brother, James Dunlevy. Louisiana Dunlevy Garrett married J. M. Walker of Canton in 1872.

This collection contains the diary of a young woman living in antebellum Mississippi; a considerable amount of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century published sheet music; and a few miscellaneous items. The diary (1858-1859) belonged to Louisiana Dunlevy, an aunt (by marriage) of Otho Fontaine Garrett. It describes daily life near Canton, Mississippi, from the perspective of a sixteen-year-old girl living in an affluent household. Louisiana Dunlevy recounts funerals, household duties, parties, school lessons, social interaction with her immediate and extended family, trips made by her parents or by the whole family, weather, and weddings. Dunlevy includes details of people, places, and modes of travel, including railroad passenger cars at the Canton depot.

The sheet music in the collection belonged to Enna Massey Walker, mother of Will Enna Walker Garrett. Most of the music is stamped "Enna Massey." Other music is occasionally inscribed with the signatures of Enna Massey or Enna Massey Walker, her teacher, Adolphus Brown, friends, or unidentified persons. Some covers are annotated with the personal commentary of Enna Massey Walker. Much of the sheet music is bound in two volumes, one for vocal works, and the other for instrumental works. Most of the sheet music is of popular songs by contemporary composers, but many pieces are selections from musical theatre or opera. Many pieces are arranged for the piano, but several are arranged for the guitar. There is also one orchestral score for "I’m Going Back to Dixie," by Berlin and Snyder, and arranged by William Schulz.

Among the vocal selections are songs composed or published in 1903 by Harry von Tilzer, with titles such as "Under the Anheuser Bush," "Celia," "Maydee," and "The Man in the Overalls." A humorous song by Dave Braham and Edward Harrigan is entitled "Are You There Moriarity?" This 1876 character piece about an Irish policeman in New York City was probably used by the successful musical comedy team of Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart. Harrigan and Hart were best known for the ethnic characters (German, Irish, Italian, or Negro) that they portrayed in The Mulligan Guard Picnic (1878), or one of its popular sequels, all of them satires on New York’s many pseudomilitary companies. Another song with a New York City connection, "That Little Church Around the Corner" (1871), is about the death of popular British comic actor George Holland and his funeral arrangements, which were handled by popular American actor Joseph Jefferson III.

Many songs in the collection were dedicated to or inspired by other literary, operatic, or theatrical figures. Some of these include "The Captive Knight" (n.d.), dedicated to Sir Walter Scott; "Guess Who" (1870), written for Miss Lotta; "I’m a Merry Zingara" (n.d.), by M. W. Balfe, and sung by Anna Thillon in The Crown Jewels; "Then You’ll Remember Me" from The Bohemian Girl (n.d.), also by Balfe; "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1876), by F. N. Crouch and Mrs. Crawford; "Prince Leander is My Name," sung by Rosa Cook in The White Fawn (1868); "The Dying Camille" (1856), by Julia Daly; and "Ah I Have Sighe’d (sic) to Rest Me" (n.d.), by Verdi.

There are a number of humorous or topical songs in the collection. Examples include the political humor in "I Vants to Go Home, or Maximilian’s Lament" (1865), by Bob Barkis and T. M. Brown; the topical humor in "O Father, Dear Father Come Down with the Stamps" (1867), by Charles Chamberlain, Jr., and Frank Wilder; sentimental songs about death exemplified in "The Vacant Chair" (n.d.), by G. F. Root; the South in "My Southern Sunny Home" (1864) and "Beautiful Girl of the South" (1868), by Will S. Hays; and the Civil War in "When This Cruel War Is Over." Church music is represented in a small number of selections, such as "By and By" (1869), a hymn by William T. Rogers. The predominant type of music in the collection is the sentimental love ballad, such as "Why, No One to Love?" (1862), by Stephen C. Foster; "Alone" (1867), by Laura J. P. Smith; "Absence" (n.d.), adapted to the tune of "Rousseau’s Dream"; and "Come to Me Darling, I’m Lonely Without Thee" (1866), by Joseph Brennan and E. O. Eaton.

Instrumental selections are largely arrangements of popular music or operatic themes, but there are also many varieties of dance music: barcarole, gallop, march, mazurka, polka, quadrille, schottische, and waltz. "The Banjo" (1863) notes the rising popularity of that instrument. Other songs include "Falling Leaves" (1860), by Julius E. Muller; "Tam O’Shanter" (1855), by William Warren; and "Our American Cousin Polka" (1859), by Frank Drew, dedicated to the patrons and friends of Asa Trenchard, a character in the British play, Our American Cousin (1851), by Tom Taylor. Joseph Jefferson III was cast as Trenchard in its American debut in 1858, and the play became a popular success. Another song still popular is "Home, Sweet Home" (n.d.), with variations by J. H. Slack. Yet another variation on "Dixie" is "I Wish I Was In Dixie," arranged by S. Schlessinger. Among the operatic themes are "Ah Che La Morte" and "Miserere" from Il Trovatore, transcription by G. A. Osborne. Among the dance music is one set, copyrighted in New York in 1830, entitled "The Tri-Colored Quadrilles," which includes the steps "as danced at the military balls." Dances inspired by contemporary figures include "The Union ‘Bell’ Polka" (1860), dedicated to the Tennessee representative and senator, John Bell, by Charles Grobe; "General Braxton Bragg’s Grand March" (1861), by Rivenac; and a fragment of the "Delta Kappa Epsilon March" (1861), by Alfred H. Pease. Adolphus Brown, music instructor at the Canton Female Seminary, wrote several of the instrumental pieces in the collection, among them the "Remembrance Waltz" (1869), dedicated to his pupils at the school, and the "Potomac Artillery Grand March" (1862), dedicated to the Southern Artillerists.

Along with the sheet music are advertisements and catalogs for musical instruments and sheet music. There is also a fragment of a piano-instruction book, to which are attached several popular songs. Another item is a handwritten score for guitar instruction, with three handwritten songs on the same sheet. In addition, there are three issues of Benham’s Musical Review, a monthly journal of music, art, and literature published in Indianapolis, Indiana. The issues are dated June 1875; March 1876; and April 1876.

1. Diary. 1858-1859; 1875. 1 item.

   This series consists of the diary of Louisiana Dunlevy.

   Box 1

2. Sheet Music. 1828-1912; n.d. 1.30 cubic ft.

   This series contains bound or loose sheet music, music journals, advertisements, catalogs, and music-composition paper (blank). The sheet music is arranged by type (instrumental or vocal) and alphabetically by title.

   Boxes 1-4

3. Miscellany. n.d. 4 items.

   This series includes a silhouette of a man; a textile silhouette of a child’s hand; and an advertisement for the Pulvermacher Galvanic Company.

   Box 1