Florence Atherton Spalding

Florence Atherton Spalding (September 10, 1859 – December 13, 1933) was an American music teacher and a composer from Boston, Massachusetts.

Her father was a member of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, and was an accomplished tenor singer, and later served as director.

When she was thirteen, in 1872, the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival was taking place in Boston.

[4] She was now a prominent music teacher in Boston and an acclaimed composer of pieces for piano, organ and voice.

During her formative years, Samuel Atherton (1815–1895)[6][7][8] was highly involved in the Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest in the country, which had been set up by a number of male singers in honor of her great grandfather William Billings.

He was instrumental in building up Boston reputation in the arts during this period, particularly once elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1867.

After Ditson’s death in 1888, she was published by another Boston house, Allan & Co., immediately followed in 1901 by C. W. Thompson & Co, a relationship which lasted the rest of her professional career.

[16] Her musical accompaniments in the form of a duet, with a reader and Spalding on the piano continued to be programmed events around a number of towns in Massachusetts.

Her husband was a Harvard graduate of 1883, who commenced a shoe manufacturing business immediately after completing his studies and became a successful Boston merchant.