His parents lived near the home of Paul Revere at the lower end of Hanover Street.

At the time the Waverley novels were making their appearance and Col. Parker was republishing them as rapidly as they could be gotten from England.

He acquired the Oliver Ditson and Company moniker in 1857 when he began collaborating with John C. Haynes on what would become the John C. Haynes & Co. Ditson's company published the first American edition of Haydn's The Creation, "Jingle Bells" and "Darling Nelly Gray", as well as most of the works of the Hutchinson Family - though Ditson refused to publish "Get Off the Track" due to its abolitionist sentiment.

During the American Civil War, Ditson released a number of popular songs, including "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground".

On December 21, 1888, Oliver Ditson, the pioneer of music publishing in America, died at his home in Boston at the age of seventy-seven.