Francis E. Howard was supervisor of music in the public schools, and choirmaster of St. John's and Trinity Churches, Bridgeport, Connecticut. He wrote The Child-Voice in Singing: Treated From a Physiological and a Practical Standpoint and Especially Adapted to Schools and Boy Choirs (1895) and compiled the Novello Music Course. He was an expert in children's voices, and through addresses and demonstrations given with children at conventions of teachers he helped to spread a knowledge of the child voice and the importance of its right use.