John Rowe Parker correspondence Ms. Coll. 186 Finding aid prepared by John Bewley. Last updated on June 30, 2020. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 1997 John Rowe Parker correspondence Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 6 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 8 Related Materials........................................................................................................................................... 8 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................9 Bibliography...................................................................................................................................................9 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 10 Series I. Letters to and from John Rowe Parker...................................................................................10 Series II. Letters to and from Parker & Poor....................................................................................... 16 - Page 2 - John Rowe Parker correspondence Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Parker, John R. (John Rowe), 1777-1844 Title John Rowe Parker correspondence Call number Ms. Coll. 186 Date [inclusive] 1802-1840 Extent 9 boxes Language English Abstract The majority of the letters are addressed to John Rowe Parker or one of his firms. Letters from 1802-1817 are primarily concerned with Parker’s work as a dry goods merchant. Letters from 1817-1823 contain most of the music-related material in the collection, including letters from music publishers, composers, and performers, and requests for information about pianos and organs. Musicians, publishers, and musical instrument makers represented in the collection include George E. Blake, George Willig, Bacon and Hart, Benjamin Carr, Edward Riley, William DuBois, Joseph Willson, J.A. and W. Geib, John Cole, Anthony Philip Heinrich, Christopher Meinecke, Richard Willis, James Finlayson, Samuel Dyer, Oliver Shaw, Thomas Philipps, Samuel P. Taylor, James Hewitt, James H. Swindells, John Loud, John Mackay, and Gibson and Davis. Letters from 1823-1840 are principally concerned with Parker’s work on a system of semaphoric signals, with extensive letters to James M. Elford and Son of Charleston, S.C. The collection also includes personal letters from family members and friends. - Page 3 - John Rowe Parker correspondence Cite as: John Rowe Parker correspondence, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Biography/History John Rowe Parker was born October 24, 1777, in Boston. He was the eldest of thirteen children born to Rev. Samuel Parker (1744-1804) and his wife Anne (d. 1844). The Parkers were a prominent family in Boston. John Rowe Parker's grandfather, William, was a Superior Court judge, and his father was the rector of Boston's Trinity Church. Matthew S. Parker (1780-1865), brother of John Rowe Parker, was the first secretary of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society and the president of Oriental Bank in the 1830s. Another brother, Richard Green Parker (1798-1869), was a noted educator and author. Parker was named after another distinguished Bostonian, John Rowe (1715-1779). Rowe, a close friend of Samuel Parker and his wife, was a respected merchant, civic leader, and officer of Trinity Church. Rowe and his wife were childless and left their property at 103 Pond Lane to John Rowe Parker in their will. Parker's professional life falls neatly into three parts. His first career was that of a dry goods merchant selling such wares as carpet, buttons, candlesticks, cutlery, and other sundries. By 1802 Parker was partners with Standford Smith in the firm of Smith and Parker. Parker was in London in January 1802 to purchase goods for the company. He returned to Boston in time to be married to Catherine Brigden on June 6, 1802, and then returned to London with his wife. Sometime after August 1803 the couple returned again to Boston, and Catherine died shortly thereafter. Parker married Mary Hamilton of Portsmouth, New Hampshire on October 22, 1804. They had three children: Samuel Parker Parker (1805-1880), Jonathan Hamilton Parker (b. 1806), and Mary Hamilton Parker (1808-1821). Parker's partnership with Smith ended, and by the end of 1806 he was partners with Moses Poor in the firm of Parker and Poor. The partnership was short-lived, ending by October 1807. Mary Hamilton Parker, John Rowe Parker's second wife, died during the winter of 1811-1812. By late 1812 Parker had relocated to New London, Connecticut, where he developed business contacts with the three Parkin brothers, Richard William (d. 1814), John Still Winthrop, and Thomas. He married their sister, Jane Parkin, on February 8, 1813. The Parkers stayed in New London through 1814 and then moved back to Boston, where Parker continued operating as a general merchant. They had one child together, Jane Winthrop Parker, born in 1818. The next phase of Parker's professional life began in 1817 when he became the proprietor of the Franklin Music Warehouse in Boston. Parker was joined in this venture by Gottlieb Graupner, one of the most - Page 4 - John Rowe Parker correspondence respected musicians and music publishers in Boston at that time. Graupner moved his inventory into Parker's premises in April 1817, but a dispute between the two men caused Graupner to leave by August. Parker was able to take advantage of the rising demand for secular music in the former colonies to build his business into the largest music distributor in the United States during the years 1817 to 1821. In 1820 Parker published one of the first music dealer's catalogues issued in the United States. The fifty-five page catalogue contained lists of music titles, instruments, and other musical merchandise. The catalogue was also unique for bearing a distinctive, oval trademark stamp that Parker used to identify his publications. This practice was soon adopted by many other dealers. Copies of the catalogue survive in the Houghton Library at Harvard University and at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Perhaps Parker's most noted achievement was the publication of the first American journal devoted exclusively to music. Parker had written articles about music for a column titled "The Euterpeiad" printed in the local newspaper, The Boston Intelligencer and Morning and Evening Advertiser, during the years 1817-1820. This experience provided him with the background to begin his own publication, The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer on April 1, 1820. The objectives of the new journal were stated by Parker in the first issue as follows: The Euterpeiad will embrace every article any ways interesting to, or connected with the science [of music], by carefully compiling and collating -- A Brief History of Music from the earliest ages -- Cherish a classical taste -- Watch the progress of the Arts -- Excite the emulation of genius -- Record the transactions of Societies -- Examine and impartially review new Musical works -- Stimulate Professional Gentleman to explore new tracts in the regions of Science -- Furnish Biographical Memoirs of Musical men -- Correspondence, Anecdotes, Letters Instructive and interesting upon every branch of musical science -- Insert Miscellaneous Articles wherein will be noticed new Inventions, improvements in Musical Instruments, and observations upon Musical Performances, . from The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Saturday, April 1, 1820). A substantial number of the articles in The Euterpeiad were borrowed, often without attribution, from European sources, especially from the writings of Charles Burney and Sir John Hawkins. In his own writings, Parker addressed key contemporary issues such as the relationship between amateur and professional musicians, the growing importance of secular and instrumental music, and the need to educate musically the listening public as well as establishing a means of providing specialized training for musicians. The reviews of local performances set a standard for music criticism in the United States. They also provided a record of concert life that included notes on repertoire, audience reactions to styles of music and performance, and the careers of leading performers from abroad and the United States. Separate sheets of music were irregularly included with the journal as a supplement. The Euterpeiad was sold through a network of more than forty agents encompassing an area from Montreal to Augusta, Georgia. Parker tried to expand his subscription base by appealing to the female market with the addition of a Ladie's Gazette component, beginning with the issue of March 31, 1821. Despite