Susan Jane Gaston Donaldson and the pedal harp in the early Republic

Abstract

Examining the life of Susan Jane Gaston Donaldson and her pedal harp against the context of the harps and harp-playing of other women living before 1860, this paper shows how American women appropriated the pedal harp's aristocratic, classical, and biblical ties, along with its graceful form, as symbols of their own identities, and of their aspirations for the new nation. Women who played the harp were asserting themselves as members of the country's social elite who were fashionable, patriotic, pious, well educated, beautiful, and who were therefore highly marriageable and apt symbols of American prosperity and idealism. Their music united them with their family and friends, and connected the blossoming culture of the young Republic with the strongest centers of culture in the world. In playing their harps, Susan and her peers found a way to express themselves, and to strengthen and legitimize the culture of their recently established country.