George E. Blake

George E. Blake (17 August 1774 in England – 23 February 1871 in Philadelphia) was an American music engraver and publisher.

He was born in Yorkshire, England and, according to his obituary in the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, emigrated to the United States when he was sixteen.

[2] What is clear though is that by 1793, he began teaching the flute and the clarinet in Philadelphia, operating out of a room above the shop of music publisher John Aitken on South Third Street.

[5] One of his greatest early achievements was a complete edition of Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies (OCLC 25580733), which Blake first published in 1808 and continued printing until 1825.

During the 1820s and 1830s, he undertook what was then the most ambitious music-publishing project in the United States: the complete vocal works of George Frideric Handel in piano-vocal score over fifteen folio volumes (OCLC 25904395).

The title page of Blake's Collection of Duetts for Two Flutes, Clarinets, or Violins published by Blake in Philadelphia circa 1807. The engraving features one of Benjamin Latrobe 's waterworks buildings in Philadelphia's Center Square.
George E. Blake tombstone in Laurel Hill Cemetery