Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Oliver Ditson Company
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1783-1937
History
The Ditson publishing company traces its beginnings to Ebenezer Batelle, who sold music from his "Boston Book Store," starting in 1783, thus making Ditson's the oldest publishing firm in the United States. After passing through several different hands, it was sold to Samuel H. Parker in 1811, for whom Oliver Ditson worked as an apprentice in 1823. Ditson bought out Parker after the latter's death in 1842, changing the name of the company to Oliver Ditson. After his death in 1888, it became the Oliver Ditson Company with various subsidiary firms in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chicago. In addition to scores, the publishing firm also published an American music periodical which underwent various name changes, from Dwight's Journal of Music in 1868 to The Musician in 1901. It ceased publication in 1919. Oliver Ditson Company operated in Botson until it was sold to Theodore Presser of Philadelphia in 1937.