A study of American women composers that attempts to map out a hitherto unknown history by defining the issues involved, and establishing some criteria for dealing with a large repertory of sheet music published in the mid-19th century. It also traces the attitudes found in etiquette books, discusses education in female seminaries, and locates the most important popular composers together with some outstanding works. Beginning with the first sheet music published by a woman in America, in the 1790s, the text goes on to examine music by 19th-century composers, including brief biographies of five prominent women active in the 1850s and 60s. During this time, women moved from rather tentative efforts at musical composition - when most of their music was published anonymously - to becoming competitors in the flourishing sheet music market of the mid-1800s, writng parlour songs and keyboard pieces which became popular commercial successes. The succeeding generation of women composers was the first to write serious works in the "higher forms" of symphony and opera.