John Ashton (music publisher) explained

John Ashton was an American merchant and music publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century.^{[1] [2]} He owned a "music & umbrella store" at no.197 Washington Street which sold "all the new and fashionable music"^[3] ca.1819-1844.^{[4] [5]} He manufactured and sold musical instruments; tuned pianos; and published and sold sheet music "of marches, waltzes, rondos, variations, quadrilles, gallopades, dances, &c. ... arranged for the band, orchestra, piano forte, guitar, flute, violin, organ &c." Among the composers represented in Ashton's stock: Comer, Joseph Haydn, Knight, Paddon, Russell, Shaw, Webb, Charles Zeuner.^{[6] [7]} The firm "John Ashton & Co." was dissolved on January 1, 1844 with notice that the business will "be continued at the old stand, 197 Washington Street, by E.H. Wade."^[8]

Further reading

• • Russell Sanjek. American popular music and its business: the first 400 years; Vol.2: from 1790 to 1909. Oxford University Press, 1988
• Field Drums blog. "Pre-Civil War John Ashton Eagle Drum." 2009

Published by Ashton

Ashton published numerous sheet music titles. For example:

• Nathan Adams. Ruins of Troy. 1826
• John Holloway. Winthrop's quick step. 1835. "As performed by the Boston Band. ... Dedicated to Capt. G.T. Winthrop, the officers and members of the Boston Independent Fusiliers"
• Charles Zeuner. New England Guards quick step. 1835
• George O. Farmer. Gen. Harrison's grand march. 1840. "Dedicated to the Boston & Roxbury Whig Associations"

External links

• WorldCat. John Ashton & Co.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Double bass, 1823, instrument made by Abraham Prescott (Deerfield, N.H.), sold by Ashton
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Flute, ca.1830, instrument manufactured/sold by Ashton
• Johns Hopkins University, Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music. Mechanicks Quick Step. 1835.
• Field Drums blog. "J. Ashton Eagle Drum." 2008

Notes and References

1. Boston Directory. 1823, 1832
2. Arlan R. Coolidge. "Francis Henry Brown, 1818-1891, American Teacher and Composer." Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring, 1961)
3. American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1
4. "Musical instruments, umbrellas, parasols, canes, &c. John Ashton, jun." Boston Intelligencer, Jan. 23, 1819
5. John Ashton, jun. "Umbrellas. Large and small size silk umbrellas; gingham, oiled cloth and cotton. ... no.20 Marlboro-street, a few door south of the meeting-house." Columbian Centinel, Nov. 10, 1821
6. In 1825 Ashton took "Mr. G. Graupner's stock of music." Boston Commercial Gazette, Nov. 22, 1825
7. Examples of titles published and sold by Ashton reside in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, Bostonian Society, and Historic New England.
8. "The business will be continued at the old stand, 197 Washington Street, by E.H. Wade." Daily Atlas (Boston), Jan. 26, 1844