Over There! and Back Again: Patriotic American
Sheet Music from World War I

Selections from the
Wade Hall Sheet Music Collection

The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library
The University of Alabama

Exhibit by:
Jessica Lacher-Feldman,
W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library
and Daniel Goldmark, School of Music,
The University of Alabama

Women in the War: Mothers

While many songwriters chose to write about the hardships of war, an equal number focused their attention on those making sacrifices back in the United States. One topic in particular that became a mini-phenomenon was the mothers of all fighting men. Some songs dealt with the suffering and grief of those women whose sons had been taken from them, while others made it clear that our nation’s strength came from the courage and determination of all the mothers in the land who kept praying for their children. Once more, Al Jolson had a tremendous hit in this style of wartime tunes with “So Long Mother.” If you look carefully on the cover of this music sheet, you can see the song is advertised as “Al Jolson’s Mother Song,” thus proving that the “mother” song was even seen by the music industry as a topic worthy for attention.