Introduction

Biography

Hubert was the son of Syl­ves­ter Main, and hus­band of Ol­phe­lia Lou­ise De­graff (mar­ried 1866).

He at­tend­ed sing­ing school un­til 1854, when he went to New York Ci­ty and worked as an er­rand boy in a wall­pa­per house.

In Ap­ril 1855, he be­came an er­rand boy in the Bris­tow & Morse pi­ano com­pa­ny. That same year, he helped his fa­ther ed­it the Sun­day School Lute song­book by Is­aac Wood­bu­ry.

In 1867, Main was called to fill a po­si­tion in Will­iam Brad­bu­ry’s pub­lish­ing house. Af­ter Brad­bu­ry’s death in 1868, the Big­low & Main pub­lish­ers were formed as its suc­cess­or.

Main col­lect­ed mu­sic books, and in 1891, sold his col­lect­ion of ov­er 3,500 vol­umes to the New­ber­ry Libra­ry in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, where they were known as the Main Lib­ra­ry.

Works

In ad­di­tion to pub­lish­ing, Main wrote ov­er 1,000 piec­es of mu­sic—part song, sing­ing school songs, Sun­day School pieces, hymns, an­thems, etc. His works in­clude:

• Book of Praise for the Sun­day School, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1875)
• Our Trea­su­ry of Song, for Use in the Em­ma­nu­el Bap­tist Church, with Sam­uel Al­man (New York: Big­low & Main, 1883)
• Little Pil­grim Songs, with Mrs. Wil­bur F. Crafts (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Hymns of Praise, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Select Songs No. 2, with Fran­cis Na­than Pe­lou­bet (New York: Big­low & Main, 1893)
• Gems of Song, with Ira San­key (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Big­low & Main, 1901)
• Devotional Songs, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main, 1903)