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The brothers William Austin Starmer and Frederick Waite Starmer were noted sheet music cover artists born in Leeds.
"Starmer" is a household name to collectors of sheet music and appears on innumerable covers dating from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Their work was of consistently high quality and they were turning out nearly a quarter of all large format covers from the late 1890s to around 1919. The identity of the artists was unknown until an invoice was discovered from William A. Starmer to the Jerome Remick Music Company, with a printed heading describing Starmer as artist and medical draughtsman.
They were sons of James Starmer, a shoemaker, married to Ann E. and living at 26 Woodsley Grove in Leeds. The couple had 3 sons and were still living at the same address with the 1891 census, with William recorded as a litho-artist.
William Starmer arrived in North America in 1898, with Frederick following two years later. William made a return trip to England in June 1900 to marry Julitta M. Dawson, with the entire family, parents James and Ann, and William and Julitta, arriving from Liverpool on 10 June 1904 aboard the Carpathia. William and Frederick made frequent visits to England until 1924, when they became naturalised. The 1910 U.S. Census lists the family as living in Long Island, William being noted as a commercial artist and Frederick an illustrator. William and Julitta had a son named William J. in 1907, who is not reflected in the census. The 1920 census records the two brothers on West 91st Street with Julitta, who died shortly after on 26 February 1922.
The 1930 census records William Starmer as having in 1925 taken a new wife, Edith Mary, born 1871, an Englishwoman who came to North America with her family in 1877. William and Edith were living at 2734 8th Street in Queens, and later, in the 1930s, at 27-34 8th Street, Astoria, Long Island. Frederick Starmer is not recorded in the 1930 census.
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A residential community with a vibrant tourism industry, the town is famous for its clams, celebrated annually at the Ipswich Chowderfest, and for Crane Beach, a barrier beach near the Crane estate. Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.
George Washington Vanderbilt II was an American art collector and member of the prominent Vanderbilt family, which amassed a huge fortune through steamboats, railroads, and various business enterprises. He commissioned the construction of a 250-room mansion, the largest privately owned home in the United States, which he named Biltmore Estate.
Heinke was a series of companies that made diving equipment in London, run by members of a Heinke family.
Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book, magazine, newspaper (tabloid), comic book, video game, music album, CD, videotape, DVD, or podcast.
Mary Ann Cotton was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their life insurance policies. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic.
Fay Holderness was an American vaudeville performer and film actress.
Frank Paton was an English artist of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for his paintings of animals and scenes of rural life. He was a successful artist during his lifetime and could even count Queen Victoria as an admirer of his work. His most famous compositions, "Fairest of Them All" and "Puss in Boots" (1880), still sell as collectibles today in various forms, including canvas, posters and plates. His series of printed Christmas cards published between 1880 and 1909 have also become collectibles.
William West, FLS was an English pharmacist, botanist, microscopist and writer, particularly noted for his studies of freshwater algae. His sons, both botanists, were William West Jr with whom he did fieldwork, and George Stephen West with whom West co-wrote botanical publications for more than 20 years.
Edith Ailsa Geraldine Craig, known as Edy Craig, was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. She was the daughter of actress Ellen Terry and the progressive English architect-designer Edward William Godwin, and the sister of theatre practitioner Edward Gordon Craig.
Princess Anastasia of Greece and Denmark was an American-born heiress and member of the Greek royal family. She was married to Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, the youngest child of King George I of Greece and his consort, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia.
Alfred Concanen was, for over twenty-five years, one of the leading lithographers of the Victorian era, best remembered for his illustrated sheet music covers for songs made popular by famous music hall performers of the time. These covers usually featured portraits of the performers or humorous scenes from their songs. Sacheverell Sitwell said of him, "The most painstaking of the Pre-Raphaelites must fail beside Concanen!"
Sylvia Clevenger was an American prostitute who worked with madam Pearl Elliott and was a minor associate of the John Dillinger gang. Her brother William was the former husband of Elliott. She was married three times, reverting to her maiden name of Hughes after her divorce from her second husband, John Clevenger, in 1930. She lived for much of her life in Kokomo, Indiana, and died in 1951 in Michigan City, Indiana.
William Chappell was a British dancer, ballet designer and director. He is most noted for his designs for more than 40 ballets or revues, including many of the early works of Sir Frederick Ashton and Dame Ninette de Valois.
Henry Congreve Evans was a journalist, editor and newspaper proprietor of South Australia.
"There's a Service Flag Flying at Our House" is a World War I era song released in 1917. The lyrics were written by Thomas Hoier and Bernie Grossman. Al W. Brown composed the music. It was published by Joe Morris Music Co. of New York, New York. The Starmer Brothers designed the art on the sheet music, on the cover of which are soldiers marching down a street. Crowds of people cheer them on and service flags wave above them.
"Say a Prayer for the Boys "Out There"" is a World War I era song released in 1917. Bernie Grossman wrote the lyrics. Alex Marr composed the music. It was published by Joe Morris Music, Co. of New York, New York. The sheet music cover was designed by the Starmer Brothers. It features a family praying at the dinner table. Behind them is a sentry guarding a campground of tents. There is an inset photo on the left side that varies per edition. The song was written for both voice and piano.
Walter Percival Starmer (1877-1961) was an English artist, cartoonist, muralist, and stained glass designer.
Thomas Frederick Worrall (1872–1957) was a Staffordshire-born manual worker and watercolourist. He lived for a time in Lancashire and in the upper Calder Valley area of Yorkshire but spent most of his adult life in Barry, in South Wales, where he was also deeply involved in politics and stood for parliament in the general election of 1923 representing the Labour Party. He was the elder brother of the pottery and fabric designer William Worrall.
Benjamin Payler, , was a sculptor, stone and marble mason. He was apprenticed to Catherine Mawer, alongside fellow apprentices Matthew Taylor and Catherine's son Charles Mawer. He formed a business partnership at 50 Great George Street with Charles Mawer in 1881. There is no known record of Charles after that. Payler continued to run the business there under his own name. In his day, he was noted for his 1871 bust of Henry Richardson, the first Mayor of Barnsley, his keystone heads on the 1874 Queen's Hotel in the same town, and his architectural sculpture on George Corson's 1881 School Board offices, Leeds. Payler was a member of the Mawer Group, which included the above-mentioned sculptors, plus William Ingle.
Thomas Holroyd was an English portrait and landscape painter working in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England. Before his marriage he undertook painting tours to the United States, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Russia and the Holy Land. Returning to Harrogate, he painted portraits of the local worthies there. He shared responsibility for the successful photography business T & J Holroyd with his brother James, and continued to run the business after his brother died. Holroyd was a founding member of Harrogate Liberal Club.
Media related to Starmer sheet music covers at Wikimedia Commons