The Social Orchestra was entered for copyright deposit on January 26, 1854, by Firth, Pond & Co. The collection of 73 instrumental arrangements for household music making was incredibly popular and included Foster’s arrangements of both his own songs and works by other composers:

1. Old Dog Tray, by Stephen Foster
2. Twilight Song, by Henry W. Pond 
3. I Love the Merry Sunshine, by Stephen Glover
4. Old Folks at Home with Variations, by Stephen Foster
5. Will You Come to My Mountain Home, by Francis H. Brown
6. Hohnstock Polka, by Adele Hohnstock
7. Saratoga Lake Waltz, by Frederick C. Grambs
8. Love Launched a Fairy Boat, by James Howard Tully
9. Widow Machree, by Samuel Lover
10. Waltz, by Beethoven
11. Commence Ye Darkeys All, by W. D. Corrister
12. Bridal Waltz, by Louis Antoine Jullien
13. Wait for the Wagon, by Anonymous
14. Nancy Till, by Anonymous
15. Cally Polka, by Anonymous
16. O Would I Were a Boy Again, by Frank Romer
17. Nelly Was a Lady, by Stephen Foster
18. Sontag Polka, by Giulio Alary
19. Eulalie, by Stephen Foster
20. Roll On, Silver Moon, by [Jane?] Sloman
21. My Old Kentucky Home, by Stephen Foster
22. Thou Art Gone From My Gaze, by George Linley
23. On the Banks of the Guadalquiver, by Louis Henry Lavenu
24. I’d Offer Thee This Hand of Mine, by L. Thayer Chadwick
25. The Wild Haunts for Me, by Anonymous
26. Broadway Quickstep, by Josef Gung’l
27. Agatha, by Franz Abt
28. Evening Star Waltz, by Joseph Franz Karl Lanner
29. Pearl Polka, by Henry Kleber
30. Scenes That Are the Brightest, by William Vincent Wallace
31. Come Where the Fountains Play, by Gaetano Donizetti
32. Will You Love Me Then, As Now?, by Francis Weiland
33. Irene, by Stephen Foster
34. Italian Melodies No. 1, by Giuseppi Marco Maria Felice Blangini
35. Italian Melodies No. 2, by Gaetano Donizetti
36. Italian Melodies No. 3, by [Ferdinando?] Bertoni
37. Italian Melodies No. 4, by Nicola Vaccai
38. Italian Meldoies No. 5, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
39. Anadolia, by Stephen Foster
40. Duett from Lucia di Lammermoor, by Gaetano Donizetti
41. Would I Were with Thee, by Carlo Bosetti
42. Pirate’s Chorus, by Michael William Balfe
43. Massa’s in the Cold Ground, by Stephen Foster
44. Katy Darling, by Vincenzo Bellini
45. The Hour for Thee and Me, by Stephen Foster
46. The Old Pine Tree, by Charles White
47. Make Me No Gaudy Chaplet Now, by Gaetano Donizetti
48. On to the Field of Glory, by Gaetano Donizetti
49. Introduction to Caliph of Bagdad, by François Adrien Boieldieu
50. March from the Daughter of the Regiment, by Gaetano Donizetti
51. Waltz, by Strauss
52. Byerly’s Waltz, by William Byerly
53. Rainbow Schottisch, by Henry Kleber
54. Gems from Lucia No. 1, by Gaetano Donizetti
55. Gems from Lucia No. 2, by Gaetano Donizetti
56. Gems from Lucia No. 3, by Gaetano Donizetti
57. Jennie’s Own Schottisch, by Stephen Foster
58. Maria Redowa, by Gaetano Donizetti
59. Air from Preciosa, by Carl Maria von Weber
60. Air by de Beriot, by Charles Auguste de Beriot
61. Coral Schottisch, by Henry Kleber
62. Waltz by Lanner, by Joseph Franz Karl Lanner
63. O Summer Night!, by Gaetano Donizetti
64. Where Are the Friends of My Youth, by George Arthur Baker
65. Crystal Schottisch, by William Byerly
66. Ton-Mahrchen Waltz, by Joseph Gung’l
67. Gems from Lucia No. 4 (I’ll Pray For Thee), by Gaetano Donizetti
68. Gems from Lucia No. 5, by Gaetano Donizetti
69. Village Festival, by Stephen Foster
70. Old Folks Quadrilles, by Stephen C. Foster
71. French Quadrille[s]
    • French Quadrille No. 1, by Jean Baptiste Tobeuque 
    • French Quadrille No. 2, by Bosissio
    • French Quadrille No. 3, by Bosissio 
    • French Quadrille No. 4, by Jean Baptiste Tobeuque 
    • French Quadrille No. 5, by Anonymous
72. La Sérénade, by Franz Schubert
73. Happy Land, by Edward Francis Rimbault

In 1863 Firth Pond & Co.’s printing plates passed to William A. Pond, who reprinted the collection in 1866. 

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family:

Stephen wrote to Morrison from New York on July 8, 1853, saying that he had plenty of work to keep him busy. And indeed, he must have had, because the following January, Firth, Pond & Company published, in addition to his songs, Foster’s Social Orchestra which is a compilation of many of Stephen’s own compositions and the works of others arranged as solos, duets, trios, and quartets for piano, violin, and flute. The book contains waltzes, quadrilles, polkas, schottisches, and quicksteps, the popular parlor and ballroom dances of the day. Several of Henry Kleber’s and William Byerly’s compositions are introduced, and Stephen’s complete “Village Festival,” a very lively and tuneful piece for five sets of quadrilles. Dancing at home was a universal diversion; the better class of people did not allow their daughters to attend public ballrooms unless the party was a private one. Therefore, the young people provided their own music, and Stephen’s book had a large sale. It reveals a great deal of patient work on Stephen’s part. Stephen’s Social Orchestra contains two compositions of his that never have been published in sheet music form, a graceful melody called “Anadolia” and a piece evidently composed to please his wife, for he called it “Jennie’s Own Schottisch.”