Guide to Dating Arthur P. Schmidt Publications

Posted byDerekPosted inBlog

Or, “When did Arthur P. Schmidt print my sheet music?”

This is a guide that I created primarily for myself, but which anyone who has a few of Schmidt’s publications sitting on the bookshelf or tucked into the piano bench may find useful. The problem is that the copyright notice on the music displays the original year of publication even when the copy that you are looking at was printed years or sometimes decades later.

In the image above, for example, we are looking at the title page to Amy Beach’s Song Album No. 1, a collection of 14 songs bearing a copyright notice from 1891. But using my handy chart below, the presence of a specific New York address—11 West 36th Street—reveals that Schmidt actually printed this copy of the music between 1908 and 1915. While the publisher did not update his copyright notices with each new printing, he most certainly did update his places of business. After all, he wanted you to buy more music!


Convenient as the chart may be as a quick reference, I must add a few caveats:

  1. The steps in the chart must not be taken out of sequence. For example, the options listed under Step 4 only apply to music without a New York or Leipzig address.
  2. Certain editions will simply say “Boston – Leipzig – New York” without giving a particular street address. Music with a Leipzig address was printed no earlier than 1889, and music with a New York address no earlier than 1895.
  3. The date of printing will never be earlier than the copyright date. For example, a Scherzo by Clara Kathleen Rogers with no Boston street address and an 1883 copyright date was likely printed during that year, at 146 Tremont St, despite what I’ve indicated in the chart.

Sure, it’s a bit of a puzzle—and not always one with a precise answer. But as a historian, getting a clearer sense of when something was printed helps me connect the music to a moment, a place, maybe even a performer or audience. Suddenly, those tattered sheets of old paper become part of a bigger story. And that’s usually worth the trouble.

Reference Sources

Christine Merrick Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston, 1640 to 1936 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1937), reprint (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1969), pp. 38–41.

Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Handbook of Early American Sheet Music, 1768–1889 (New York: Bowker, 1941), reprint (New York: Dover, 1977), p. 231.