Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Source list
Sources consulted for the biography of:
Joel Walker Sweeney
Primary Sources
- United States Census Schedules, Appomattox Co., 1850 (age 36), 1860 (age 48), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Joseph A. Cave, A Jubilee of the Dramatic Life and Incident of Joseph A. Cave, Author, Manager, Actor, and Vocalist, ed. Robert Soutar (1892), 72 (third quotation).
- Death date of Oct. 29, 1860, at 50 years of age in Death Register, Appomattox Co., Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.
- Burke Davis, "The Swinging Sweeneys," Iron Worker 33 (Autumn 1969): 2–12.
- Phillip F. Gura and James F. Bollman, America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century (1999).
- Bob Carlin, The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy (2007), and author's research in Bob Carlin Research Notes, 1754–2006, Acc. 40709, Library of Virginia.
- Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser, Dec. 2, 1836 (fourth quotation); Dec. 9, 1836.
- New York Evening Post, April 16, 1839 (fifth quotation).
- New York Herald, Aug. 31, 1843; Oct. 12, 1843.
- Liverpool Chronicle, Feb. 24, 1844 (sixth quotation).
- Lynchburg Virginian, Dec. 11, 1845.
- Lynchburg News, Apr. 16, 1905 (second quotation); Mar. 13, 1960.
- Excerpt from 1890 letter about Sweeney from George W. Inge to J. E. Henning printed in the Cadenza 8 (Dec. 1901): 10–12 (first quotation on 11).
- Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 13, 1967.
- Richmond Daily Dispatch, Oct. 31, 1860 (death "on Saturday evening, the 27th inst. [i.e., October]" at "about the age of forty-five years").
- Richmond Daily Whig, Oct. 31, 1860 (death "on Saturday evening, the 27th inst. [i.e., October]" at "about the age of forty-five years" and seventh quotation).