& son inc. j.w. pepper logo type private industry retailing founded philadelphia 1876 headquarters exton pennsylvania number of locations 11 products sheet music music accessories music software website jwpepper.com j.w. pepper & son inc. is a privately owned american sheet music retailer based in exton pennsylvania . the company is credited with being the largest sheet music retailer in the world with over 750 000 titles in its catalog . customers who buy music from pepper include individual musicians community organizations and professional ensembles with the main customer base being school and church music directors . contents 1 history 2 company details 3 references 4 external links history edit james welsh pepper was born in philadelphia in 1853 and died in the same city on july 28 1919 . he was an american music publisher and musical instrument maker . 1 in 1876 pepper founded a publishing house in his home city which printed music tutorial books and a magazine called musical times which ceased production in 1912 . additionally pepper produced musical instruments such as drums until 1910 the year in which j.w. pepper & son was founded . pepper is often credited with inventing the sousaphone around 1893 although there have been some disputes to this claim . company details edit j.w. pepper has 11 regional marketing centers along with two distribution centers dedicated to order fulfillment and shipping . 2 in spring of 2009 pepper added two new warehouses to the company s distribution network . from 1984 2013 the national headquarters was located in paoli pennsylvania approximately 20 miles west of philadelphia . in october 2013 the company s headquarters moved further west to exton pennsylvania . references edit since 1876 . j.w. pepper sheet music . j.w. pepper & son inc. retrieved 21 december 2015 . pepper winston salem branch moves to new location . j.w. pepper sheet music . j.w. pepper & son inc. retrieved 21 december 2015 . external links edit j.w. pepper & son corporate website free scores by j.w. pepper & son at the international music score library project lee paynter namm oral history program interview 2015 authority control worldcat identities viaf 152792697 lccn no2004016438 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title j.w. pepper % 26 son & oldid 743488584 categories music retailers of the united statescompanies based in chester county pennsylvaniaretail companies established in 18761876 establishments in pennsylvaniaprivately held companies based in pennsylvaniahidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles with international music score library project linkswikipedia articles with viaf identifierswikipedia articles with lccn identifiers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 21 58 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view