Talk:Hutchinson Family Singers

Merge

It's obvious that a merge is necessary from Hutchinson Family, but I'd like to check the sources used on that article first. If any are unreliable, those sections should not be merged. — BrianSmithson 13:16, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I've checked the sources. They are websites that do not themselves cite sources and for which there is no evidence of editorial oversight. As primary sources, they fail WP:RS guidelines, so I will not be merging the information into this article. Here is the text that was at "Hutchinson Family":

The Hutchinson Family Singers were a group of glee singers in the 1840s through the 1860s. They were the children of Jesse Hutchinson, a farmer from Milford, New Hampshire.

The first appearance of the Hutchinson Family Singers was in Boston in 1841, when Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., became the musical director of a quartet made up of four of the family, Abby, Asa, John, and Judson Hutchinson. Another brother, Joshua, occasionally substituted in the group. They began traveling around New England and New York, as the “Aeolian Vocalists.” By 1842 they were performing under the name of the “Hutchinson Family.” In 1859, Judson Hutchinson died, and the remainder of the group split into two groups, both of whom performed as the “Hutchinson Family.” They performed through New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the Midwest, and the West Coast, as well as Canada and England.

Judson and Jesse Hutchinson composed most of the group’s songs, which were in three and four-part harmony. Although their music was lighthearted in character, many of their songs addressed highly controversial social and political topics of the day, such as womens suffrage, abolition of slavery, immigration , and temperance. For this reason, their reception was sometimes mixed. At the beginning of the Civil War, General George McClellan refused to let them entertain the troops of the Army of the Potomac, because of their anti-slavery songs (President Abraham Lincoln later overruled McClellan’s decision.).

The Hutchinson Family Singers performed into the 1880s.

Here are the external links (probably the sources of the article):

Hutchinson Family Singers, [1]

About Jesse Hutchinson and the Hutchinson Family Singers, [2]

Hutchinson Family Singers Home Page by Alan Lewis

[3]

"Heralds of Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers," an online biography by Alan Lewis

[4]

If anyone can find reliable sources for this information, it should be merged in. — BrianSmithson 08:37, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I did not write the original article, and do not know about the first two web links, but I did add the two external links to the Alan Lewis websites which are thoroughly sourced and documented. "Hutchinson Family Singers Home Page by Alan Lewis" consists of two works -- one is an annotated version of the published book "The Story Of The Hutchinsons" by John W. Hutchinson, and the other is an online biography by Alan Lewis that is saturated with references to source publications and documents. "Heralds Of Freedom" is a direct link to the second work, and the author is one of today's foremost authorities on the Hutchinson Family Singers. Although my links weren't sources for the article, I think the links belong with the article since they lead to the best online information on this topic. Personally, I found the original Wikipedia article to be acceptably accurate, and the only necessary correction I made, to both articles incidentally, was to change Milford's state from Massachusetts and Connecticut to the right one of New Hampshire. Brian Hackert - 12/12/06

Thanks for the comments, Brian. I'll check out the Alan Lewis page again. I have a natural aversion to Geocities pages (they are, 99.99% of the time unreliable by Wikipedia's standards), but this may very well be one of those 00.01%). — BrianSmithson 22:19, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Hutchinson, MN

Someone needs to add information about the HFS's move to Minnesota and their founding of Hutchinson, MN as a utopian, dry community. I don't have the background to do this, though I have just created a link from that community's page to this page. Note this information (from a timeline) on the Minnesota Historical Society page: http://events.mnhs.org/timepieces/EventDetail.cfm?EventID=397 .

Thanks, Steve

Source?

I removed this paragraph because no source was cited for it:

In 1860, the Hutchinson's began campaigning in the east for presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln with the campaign song Lincoln and Liberty. It is believed by some, that the song may have won the presidency for Mr. Lincoln.

It could very well be true, but we need to cite sources. — Amcaja (talk) 01:29, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Who keeps screwing up this article?

The best one was several versions ago. Not only that, but this picture is not the Hutchinson Family Singers, it's the Hutchinson FAMILY. Didn't there used to be a picture here of Abby, John, Judson and Asa? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.181.53.76 (talk) 03:21, 19 December 2009 (UTC)