Augusta Browne’s music has long been confused with the work of another composer, sometimes identified as “Miss Browne,” but more often as the sister of Mrs. Hemans. Even during Browne’s lifetime, people muddled the two composers. Who was who, and how can one determine which is the composer when the sheet music asserts “Miss Browne”? The simple answer is that Augusta Browne consistently used her given name, “Miss Augusta Browne” or “Miss A. Browne.” Thus we can identify her works with certainty. By contrast, publishers of songs by “Miss Browne” usually cited her celebrated sister—poet Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans—in a prominent place on the cover or title page of sheet music imprints.
