Catalogue Entry

Ives & Putnam were booksellers in Salem, Massachusetts. Benjamin Hale Ives died at age 30 in 1837, and Francis Putnam continued working as a bookseller. As with many booksellers, they may also have published sheet music.

– Catharina Slautterback

English-born Thomas Moore was the successor to William S. Pendleton's lithography shop in 1836. Prior to this changing of hands, Moore worked in Pendleton's shop for years as a clerk and bookkeeper. During his four years (1836-40) at Pendleton's 204 Washington Street address, he had under his employ many famous artists, including F.H. Lane, Robert Cooke, and Benjamin Champney. Moore's Lithography printed the usual variety of work, including portraits, town views, public institutions, maps, plans, certificates, cards, etc. In 1840, Moore sold his Boston shop to B. W. Thayer, ending his lithographic career 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.