The title page of The Lady’s Almanac for 1854 showcases a romanticized illustration of a lady writing with a quill pen at an ornate desk as time slips away in the winged hourglass.
Augusta Browne’s table and chair would have been far less grand than the engraving depicts, but she was already making contributions as a writer as well as a composer. On page 92, the almanac includes her name—lacking (as often happened) the final e of Browne—among noted American women writers.
On the Fourth of July, 1826, Augusta Browne strolled along the streets of Boston with her siblings and parents. The day held special significance since it was the fiftieth anniversary of Independence Day, the day the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence. Bands were marching and performing in parades and celebrations throughout Boston. Augusta’s father had even persuaded Mr. Kendall’s Brigade Band to play his American Grand March in one of the events.
The Browne family had only arrived in Boston a few weeks earlier. It was Augusta’s first taste of America after living in St. John (New Brunswick, Canada) since she was a toddler. The Boston Commercial Gazette reported that the “glorious day was celebrated in this city with every becoming demonstration of joy and gratitude.” The little girl drank in the sights and sounds of the grand celebration in Boston. Memory of the festive, patriotic music heard that day may have lingered in Augusta’s mind as one of her earliest impressions of the United States. That memory may have been a catalyst years later for her American Bouquet.
The early editions (ca. 1841) of Augusta Browne’s American Bouquet bore a dedication to “Miss Sarah E. Wise of Virginia.” Although this flourish disappeared in subsequent imprints by Lee and Walker, the dedication to Sarah Wise presents an interesting connection from composer to consumer. The trajectories of these women’s lives raise questions about their respective actions during the Civil War some two decades later.
Augusta Browne Garrett (ca. 1820–82) was one of the professional women musicians most active in publishing sheet music in nineteenth-century America. Her lively songs and piano solos, prose, and music journalism present an engaging period voice neglected for too long.
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The 2021 H. Robert Cohen/RIPM committee of the American Musicological Society expressed “high respect” for the “superlative quality of Bonny Miller’s work” and awarded Honorable Mention as a “mark of distinction” for Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America. The H. Robert Cohen/RIPM Award is awarded by the AMS each year for outstanding work based on the musical press.
“Bonny H. Miller’s Augusta Browne is a superb piece of musicological scholarship. Every chapter reveals methodological mastery, nuanced analysis, engaging writing, and contagious enthusiasm for restoring a historical figure who has been undeservedly neglected.” [Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music]
“The author deftly sets up the forces in Browne’s life, both from her family, training, and social class, and from the wider cultural world surrounding her.” “engagingly written” “richly contextualized” [Journal of Musicological Research]
“This biography is an inspiration and should be included in any graduate-level research methods class for future scholars to learn from Miller’s methodologies.” [Music Library Association Notes]
ISBN: 9781580469722; 480 pp., 20 b/w & 50 line illus., Eastman Studies in Music
Library ebook ISBN: 9781787448834
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