William Austin Starmer

Who is William Austin Starmer?

The brothers William Austin Starmer and Frederick Waite Starmer were noted sheet music cover artists born in Leeds.

"Starmer" is a household name to collectors of sheet music and appears on innumerable covers dating from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Their work was of consistently high quality and they were turning out nearly a quarter of all large format covers from the late 1890s to around 1919. The identity of the artists was unknown until an invoice was discovered from William A. Starmer to the Jerome Remick Music Company, with a printed heading describing Starmer as artist and medical draughtsman.

They were sons of James Starmer, a shoemaker, married to Ann E. and living at 26 Woodsley Grove in Leeds. The couple had 3 sons and were still living at the same address with the 1891 census, with William recorded as a litho-artist.

Edwin J. Starmer *1868

William *March 1872

Frederick *2 September 1878

William Starmer arrived in America in 1898, with Frederick following two years later. William made a return trip to England in June 1900 to marry Julitta M.