Born July 4, 1826, in Lawrence-ville, near Pittsburgh; died Jan. 13, 1864, in New York. American composer of popular songs.

Foster’s songs incorporated the traditions of family music making (the sentimental ballads “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair,” “Old Dog Tray,” and others), Negro spirituals and plantation songs (the hymnlike “Way Down Upon the Swanee River,” “Old Black Joe,” and “My Old Kentucky Home”), and the comic songs of the minstrel show (“Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races,” and “Old Uncle Ned”). Foster also wrote songs about the American Revolution (1775–83). Many of his songs became so widely known, even in other languages, that they came to be regarded as folk songs. They were used as “folkloric” material by C. Ives, A. Copland, and F. Poulenc.