Anyone know the background to this historic photo?

[Dave Detwiler]

Hey TubeNetters - I'm writing an article on the early history of the Sousaphone, and was forwarded this photo of Herman Conrad holding a modified version of Conn's first Sousaphone (I say modified, because the valve section is quite different from what we see in the earliest image of this horn in an edition of C. G. Conn's Truth; the bell, however, is idential, with the "SOUSA" engraving and all).

1898 First Conn sousaphone (from Ian Church).jpg

Do you know anything about the background to this photo - when and where it was taken?

And what do you make of the straps seen here? I'm tempted to suggest that they are holding on the new valve section, that had just been added at the Conn factory, but would that be a good guess?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Bandmaster]

I'll bet that those straps hold something to collect the fluid that leaks out of the bottom of the valves. A pro doesn't want a dirty uniform after the concert is over.

How much would that horn be worth today, with those big letters engraved on it spelling out SOUSA?

[imperialbari]

I don’t thonk it is modified. To me the wrap looks similar to that of the 40K, but I don’t remember the serial # of the raincatcher variant.

The short loop in the foreground is the tuning slide of the 4th valve tubing.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Who says the photo is as early as you assume?

A prototype for the 40K wrap could have been ready in the early WWI era.

[Dave Detwiler]

Bingo! - just found out who owns the photo. Once I speak with that person, and get the story behind it, I'll share it (with the owner's kind permission, of course).

Also, when I said the the photo revealed a modified version of the valve section of Conn's first Sousaphone, I was referring to the photo below, the earliest known image of that horn (with a valve section that is very similar to the Sousaphone in the Iowa Band Museum that Ian mentioned, which is one of the first 10 horns made by Conn, as per a brief article and photo in the April 1900 edition of Conn's Truth).

1900 Conn Truth- Vol 4- No 8 (April).jpg

The original photo I posted (whose owner I now know) has a very different valve section. And by 1903, we see Conrad with a third version of the valve section that is identical to the horn in the photo that Ian posted above, showing me in a red USC t-shirt (Fight On!).

[Dave Detwiler]

What I've learned is that this photo (the one originally posted, not the one immediately above), along with a photo of a Sousa Band member playing the "Sorrusophone," is featured on a postcard from 1902 or 1903 that promoted the Band's European tour in 1903. Whether that's the full story behind the photo, or if it was originally taken for another reason, is uncertain. Once again, if anyone out there knows more, please share it!

And we still aren't really sure why there are those straps on the horn, but some plausible explanations have been given - thanks!