Imrie & Graham

Imrie & Graham

Imrie & Graham. Toronto firm of book, job, and music printers and music publishers active 1884-ca 1909. John Imrie, a printer and poet (b Glasgow 1846, d Toronto 1902), moved to Toronto in 1871. He was a subscription salesman for the Canada Presbyterian and a foreman at Strange & Co before he established his own company in partnership with D.L. Graham. After Imrie's death the company was known as Imrie, Graham & Harrap, and - in 1905 when his son John Mills Imrie became managing director - as the Imrie Printing Co Ltd.

More than 50 Imrie & Graham copyright and non-copyright publications have been traced. The former date from the period 1884-94; none have plate numbers. Many are by Toronto composers, including Herbert L. Clarke, Edwin Gledhill, J.F. Johnstone, H.F. Sefton, G.W. Strathy, and F.H. Torrington. Most are patriotic songs (frequently to Imrie's texts) or early 'singing commercials'. Respective examples are the small album Toronto's 'Welcome Home' to Her Brave Defenders, from the North-West Rebellion! July 1885 and 'We Dye to Live!' (to the tune of 'Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!') issued for R. Parker's Dye Works in 1890. Music and advertising were issued together in Imrie & Graham's Musical Handbills - single sheets with music on one side and an advertisement on the other, of which 71 were issued (ca 1890) in book form.

Imrie founded the weekly Scottish Canadian in 1890 and included some music in it. He published Scottish Songs too, but the collection of his verse, Scared Songs, Sonnets, and Miscellaneous Poems (1886; and several later editions as Songs and Miscellaneous Poems) does not include music.