Ditson (Oliver) & Company is established.

Originally Parker & Ditson, it is located on Washington Street and assumes its subsequent name in 1856. The first music publishing company in the U.S., it moves to a new building on Washington Street in 1900,* and then to another on Tremont Street in 1917.* By the turn of the century, it is the largest music publishing house in the U.S. The company sells its catalogue to the Theodore Presser Company of Philadelphia in 1931.