S. Brainard Sons (also known as S. Brainard's Sons and S. Brainard & Sons) was a music publisher, music periodical publisher, and musical instrument retailer based in Cleveland, Ohio and then Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1836 by Silas Brainard with Henry J. Mould. The business published music and songbooks including political and patriotic music. Brainard also published the periodical ''Western Musical World'' which was eventually renamed ''Brainard's Musical World''. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

has a collection of their sheet music. The

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

has copies of their periodical in its collection.

History

Brainard sold Chickering & Sons pianos. It acquired Chicago publisher

Root & Cady Root & Cady was a Chicago-based music publishing firm, founded in 1858. It became the most successful music publisher of the American Civil War and published many of the most popular songs during that war.Cornelius, pg. 18 The firm's founders were ...

's plates in 1871 after the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...

and eventually relocated to Chicago. After Brainard's death in 1871, the business passed to his two eldest sons, Charles Silas Brainard (1841-1897) and Henry Mould Brainard (1844-1918). His third, and youngest son, Arthur W Brainard (1861-1942), aged 10, was considered too young to partake in the family business. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Charles and Henry continued their father's work; publishing vocal and instrumental music, songbooks, and political and patriotic songs. During this time, Henry Mould Brainard opened his own shop in Cleveland as an outfit for Steinway pianos. In the mid-to-late 1880's the Brainard family began to expand their businesses outside of Cleveland. In 1886, Arthur W Brainard, now a developer and businessman, moved to California, where he contributed in founding and building the city of Sierra Madre. In 1889 Charles Silas Brainard and Henry Mould Brainard moved the company out of Cleveland, OH and into Chicago,IL, where it would remain until the 1930s. From 1899 until his death, Thomas Sidwell (1860–1909) was President of S. Brainard Sons. Upon his death, management was carried on by his widow, Katie ( Kate H. Sim; 1851–1936), who, on January 24, 1910, remarried – in Highland, New York – to Edward Albert Stege ( Albert Eduard Gustav Stege; 1861–1933) of Eldred, New York. Katie Stege (under the name K. Sidwell), Edward A. Stege, and C.C. Beekman, in early 1910, formed a corporation, "The Edward A. Stege Co.," printers, engravers, bookbinders, ''etc.''

Music periodical

The music journal was published from 1864 until 1895 when it was merged with '' Etude''. The content of each issue included a musician's biography. The publication competed with Root and Cady's ''Song Messenger of the Northwest''. Karl Merz became an editor of ''Brainard's Musical World''.

Selected publications

*''School Chimes, A New School Music Book'' (1874) written by the hymn composer

James Ramsey Murray James Ramsey Murray (1841–1905) was an American composer and author including of songbooks. His work includes hymns and Christmas music and was published by Root & CadyEdward Mack; publisher: (

List of songs about Chicago This is a list of songs about Chicago. 0–9 * "1215 W. Belmont" - Carey Bell & Lurrie Bell * "19th Street Blues" - Johnny Dodds & Tiny Parham * "2120 South Michigan Avenue" – Rolling Stones * "29th and Dearborn" – Richard M Jones * "31st ...

) *"Keep the Horse Shoe Over the Door" *

Fanny Crosby Frances Jane van Alstyne (née Crosby; March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known as Fanny J. Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns ...

's ''Six Songs by Wurzel'' (1855): "O How Glad to Get Home", "Honeysuckle Glen", "The Church in the Wood," "All Together Now", and "Proud World, Good-by". The most popular of these songs was "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower", about the death of a young girl. It was popularized in the 1850s by the Christy Minstrels;"Rosalie, The Prairie Flower"
''Best Loved Songs of The American People'', Denes Agay (ed.), Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1975. it sold more than 125,000 copies of

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

and earned nearly $3,000 in

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

for RootCarder (2008), n.82, p. 215. —and almost nothing for Crosby. *

Francis Boott Francis Boott (26 September 1792 – 25 December 1863) was an American physician and botanist who was resident in Great Britain from 1820. Biography Boott was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, the brother of Kirk Boott, o ...

's "The Convict's Lullaby" (Henry Kirke White); revised 1874 *

William Krell William Henry Krell (1868–1933) composed one of the early mature rag or ragtime composition in 1897 called Mississippi Rag, published in New York by S. Brainard's Sons and copyrighted on January 27, 1897. The sheet music stated that it was the ...

's "Mississippi Rag" January 27, 1897 and "Shake Yo' Dusters of Piccaninny Rag" * Eben Eugene Rexford's "Rosa Lee" (1890), music by H. C. Verner *''Lucia di Lamermoor'' (1868), arranged by

Justin Holland Justin Holland (July 26, 1819 – March 24, 1887) was an American classical guitarist, a music teacher, a community leader, a black man who worked with white people to help slaves on the Underground Railroad, and an activist for equal rights for ...

Gallery

File:CollegeLife1874Cover.jpg File:S. Brainards published works arranged by Justin Holland.jpg, Guitar music published after the firm moved to Chicago File:Our national war songs by Henry Clay Work.jpg File:Justin Holland list of classical arrangements from Lucia di Lamermoor.jpg, List of works from the 1868 cover of ''Lucia di Lamermoor'', arranged by Justin Holland and published in Chicago by S. Brainard Sons Piccaninny Rag 1898.jpg,

's "Piccaninny Rag", 1898

History

Music periodical

Selected publications

Gallery

References

Further reading