BLOODGOOD, Mrs

Mrs. Bloodgood was an early 19th-century American composer based in upstate New York. Because she published her work during an era when women composers faced strict domestic gender roles, biographical details regarding her personal life remain sparse, and she was credited primarily by her married name. She lived in Oakwood, located in Saratoga County, New York. She was active during the rise of bourgeois domestic parlor music and early American ballad composition. She is best known for composing the parlor piece "Mary Hay," a favorite Scottish ballad published in New York by Atwill's in 1833. Her work has survived largely through historical collections of early American sheet music, such as the Thomas A. Edison Collection of American Sheet Music. Modern musicologists specializing in historical woodwinds and early American melodies—such as researcher Clark Kimberling—have preserved and re-arranged her composition "Mary Hay" for traditional instruments like the soprano recorder and flute, ensuring her contribution to 19th-century female-authored music is documented.