Scope and Content Note
The Research Materials on Music in Boston chiefly consist of newspaper clippings from Boston serials published from 1798 to 1830, transcribed and compiled by Harvard University graduate student Donald Tilton. The clippings provide evidence of a growing interest in sacred and secular music in Boston in the wake of the Revolutionary War. Article content includes performance reviews, concert publicity, sheet music publisher advertisements, instrument retail sales, and music instruction from a variety of publications, such as the Independent Chronicle, Columbian Centinel, Massachusetts Federalist, Boston Gazette, and New England Palladium. Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, one of the oldest music societies in the United States, appears frequently throughout this collection.