Catalogue Entry

Oakes & Swan were sheet music engravers and publishers, with a shop located on Tremont Row in Boston, Massachusetts. This was only a brief partnership (c.1840) of William H. Oakes and Samuel Swan. Oakes, however, went on to publish sheet music under his own name from 1840 to 1851.

– Catharina Slautterback

Sharp & Michelin was the lithography firm of William Sharp (1803–75) and Francis Michelin at 17 Tremont Row, Boston. Both Michelin and Sharp had worked at the London-based lithography firm of Charles Hullmandel before emigrating to America around 1839. Sharp & Michelin was founded the following year, but was shortlived, lasting from 1840–41. The work produced by Sharp & Michelin is regarded as interesting and highly accomplished, a result of William Sharp's determination to establish himself in Boston.

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback. 

One of the first uses of lithography, after its invention in France in the late eighteenth century and its development in America, was for sheet music covers. The music itself was printed from engraved copper plates, which was necessary for the clarity and evenness demanded by the public for the music. However, lithography provided a quick and inexpensive way to provide enticing pictorial title pages, or covers, for sheet music. Pendleton's shop produced the first lithographic sheet music cover printed in the United States in 1826. Much of Lane's work at Pendleton's involved sheet music covers, and examples here by other artists show some of the conventions around the designs.

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.