While I love musical stamps (hence this vanity blog), my collection includes a variety of postal material. My focus just happens to be on music and music-related material. For example, check out this post about an advertising cover for the Chickering Piano Company. One of my personal prizes is an early American stampless cover from 1819. The piece bears a single postmark from Philadelphia Dec. 6th. The correspondence is about a rather trivial matter regarding the purchase and shipment of a box of sheet music.
However, look a little further and beyond the rather mundane subject of the communication, the document reveals a rather complex network of music businesses in early America. The single transaction reveals there was an already established network of musical instrument builders, music shops, and music publishers. It is an amazing piece of evidence regarding the way in which the American music industry was already in action at this early date in American history.
The stampless letter, wonderfully, has not one, but two notes that both pertain to the same transaction. I’ll start with the cover, then consider the two notes inside. The real value in this stampless letter is the number of prominent figures in the music trade of the time that it involves. I’ll break down the specifics of the transaction along with an explanation of the individuals whose names appear.
The Cover
The cover bears the name of John Rowe Parker of the Franklin Music Warehouse in Boston. I’ll consider him below. In the upper left corner is a circular postmark, inside is written PHIL / DEC with a numeral 6 in the middle. According to David G. Phillips in “American Stampless Cover Catalog,” this was the postmark in use in Philadelphia between 1816 and 1834. That same source lists the price of a prepaid letter traveling 150 to 400 miles (Philadelphia to Boston is around 300) as 18 1/2 cents. Notice in the upper right hand corner the number 18 and an illegible swoosh, this represents the cost of mailing this cover, to be paid by the recipient.
John Rowe Parker
John Rowe Parker (1777-1844) was an early dealer and publisher of a music periodical in Boston. He opened his store in 1817 where he sold pianos, organs, other smaller instruments, music, and musical accessories. In 1820, Parker began publishing The Euterpiad, an early music periodical. His importance is because he was active early, but his career in music was short lived. He was out of the music business by 1824. His papers are a part of the archives at the Penn Libraries and the Sibley Library at the Eastman School of Music.
While the cover bears Parker’s address, he was only a conduit for the communication. The letter inside is for the organ builder William Goodrich.
William Goodrich
The content of the letter is about a box of music (sheet music) that J. Meacham left in the possession of Goodrich. The note further reveals that Meacham (who must still own the music) has now sold it to “George Wilig of this City” (meaning Philadelphia). Here are three more names, all involved in the music business, that are worth better understanding.
First, it is a near certainty that Goodrich is the important Boston organ builder William M. Goodrich (1777-1833). He was a prolific organ builder whose instruments can still be found throughout New England. The pipe organ database lists twenty-six surviving instruments by him. He even has the moniker “Father of Boston Organ Building” due to his prominence and for the apprentices he taught that went on to build other instruments.
Why would an organ builder be involved in a transaction of a box of sheet music? It was common for craftsmen and builders of instruments to take part in all elements of the music business. For example, consider the famous guitar builder Christian Frederick Martin. After immigrating from Markneukirchen, Saxony (a noted center of musical instrument building), Martin was in New York City from 1833, before relocating to Nazareth, Pennsylvania later that decade. While in New York, he not only built guitars, but sold all kinds of imported musical instruments and accessories from his storefront. It was only after moving that he would specialize solely in instrument manufacturing.
It is completely consistent, then, for the organ builder William Goodrich to be part of a transaction about the sale of a box of music.
John Meacham
The J. Meacham who left a box of music with Goodrich is no doubt the woodwind maker John Meacham (1785-1844). You can still find his instruments in important collections, such as this bassoon at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. John and his brother Horace Meacham studied with the woodwind and organ builder George Catlin in Hartford, CT, before moving to Albany by 1810. Further, the Meacham’s were also engaged in other business besides making and selling instruments. They also offered instruments by others including pianos, drums, and apparently even sheet music. They also sold hardware and military goods.
In 1825, the brothers formed a partnership with the piano builder Sylvanus Pond. This firm would be Meacham & Pond. Later, this company would go be a variety of names, and was a major industry leader as an instrument builder and music publisher throughout the nineteenth century.
George Willig
The third name in this opening section of the letter is the buyer, G. Willig, of Philadelphia. This reference is to George Willig (1764-1851) who in 1794 bought the Philadelphia-based music publisher Moller & Capron (f. 1793). This is the oldest music publishing house in the United States. The remainder of this short letter regards the details of payment and shipment between Willig and Goodrich.
The letter is signed J. & H. Meacham. This is the name of the partnership of John and Horace Meacham, not a signature of an individual. This introduces a bit of intrigue. Was one of the Meacham brothers in Philadelphia to write this letter? Or was this written by an agent working on their behalf?
Postscript
The letter has a postscript that I will transcribe in full: “It was expected the box would have been shipped to Mr. Klemm of this place, but nothing has as yet been heard of the box. J & H M—-“
Yet again, this brings in another important figure from the early American music industry. Mr. Klemm would refer to either John G. Klemm or his brother Frederick August Klemm. They came to Philadelphia from Markneukirchen, Germany (the same music center that was the original home of C. F. Martin) in 1819, earlier the year this letter was written. In their new city they established a music shop where they imported German instruments to sell. They may also have built some instruments. It seems, in this transaction they were acting as agents for the Meachams in Philadelphia.
A Second Note . . .
As I mentioned above, this stampless letter carries a second note. Sent on the same piece of paper, and obviously at the same time, the second is a personal note from George Willig to John Parker of the Franklin Music Warehouse. This note asks Parker to please pay Mr. Goodrich for the costs of sending the box of music, and then add the charges to his (Willig’s) account. He signs the letter with the standard “Your Obedient Servant,” found on much correspondence of the era, and then his clearly written signature.
Conclusion
This wonderful piece of American music and postal history shows the interconnected world of figures in the early American music industry. The simple transaction of a “box of music” involved musical instrument makers from Albany (the Meachams), several actors in Boston (Goodrich, Parker), and Philadelphia (Willig, Klemm). These men probably all did regular business with each other, smoothing the way for this rather complicated minor transaction. In fact, the note from Willig to Parker proves this, with the instruction to add the costs to an already existing account. For me, it is a fantastic piece of early American music industry history.
