Ditto. You’re amassing quite the treasure trove.

Don Howe’s thorough and exacting research on various aspects of Catholic hymnody (authors, composers, melodies, reflections, etc.) represents a great contribution to the continued historical development of hymns in the English language. J. Vincent Higginson (pseudonym, Cyr de Brant) initiated this research in the 1930s; and it resulted in two books published by the Hymn Society of America: Handbook of American Catholic Hymnals (1976) and History of American Catholic Hymnals (1982). These two books, actually, represent only an initial delve into this fascinating area; and Higginson was acutely aware of this. I had the good fortunate of visiting Higginson at his home in Long Island City, New York, in 1988 at which time we spent nearly a whole day discussing Catholic hymns in the English language—triumphs and tragedies and everything in between. He was 92 at the time (he died in 1994 at 98). We talked about the contents of both of his books and the fact that a number of hymns as well as hymnals were omitted from the two publications. He said that he was very aware of these limitations but that time was catching up with him, and he wanted to get the two books published! Higginson told me that he was hoping a researcher, down the road, would continue the research he started; and Don Howe is definitely doing this. Hopefully, Don's research will be published in "hard-copy format" in the future, perhaps even as an addendum to one of Higginson's books.

Fortunately, Don has access to a whole world of online databases and related Internet sources. These were unavailable to Higginson; he had to rely on visits to various libraries and the US mails! Higginson died the year the Internet became available to the American public, but I’m sure he is sending down his blessings on the continued success of Don’s important work.