Music & Musical Instruments

This sheet music is for the song “Three Wonderful Letters from Home.” with words by Joe Goodwin and Ballard MacDonald and music by James F. Hanley. It was published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. in New York, New York in 1918. The cover of this popular World War I song depicts a mother, wife, and daughter writing letters with marching troops and a plane, ship, and tank in the background.

The cover art for this sheet music was made by American artist and designer Albert Wilfred Barbelle (1887-1957). With a prolific career spanning over forty years, Barbelle created numerous works of cover art for sheet music and albums.

This double bass was made by an unknown maker in Germany, around 1878-1882. It is constructed in viol form. This bass has a one-piece table of spruce, a two-piece back of maple with mild, irregular horizontal figure, ribs of similar maple, two scribed lines on table and back in representation of purfling, neck, pegbox and scroll of plain beech with four individual brass tuning mechanisms, and yellow-brown varnish.

John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. The 1882 J. Howard Foote musical instrument catalog lists “DOUBLE BASSES. Commonly called Double Bass Viols. German manufacture, with patent, or machine heads: No. 6027 Large Size, 4 stringed, good quality, and good tone, with better patent head. $42.00 each.”

This player harmonica was made by the PlaRola Corporation in Easton, Maryland, around 1931. It is a player harmonica with a painted metal body with picture of organ pipes and keyboard, 16 single holes and 32 reeds, metal sprocket, metal handle, and a metal mouth piece. The instruments is marked:

PlaRola
ORGAN
If you can breathe, you can Pla Rola

This instrument features U. S. Patent #1813337, dated July 7, 1931 by Martin D. Zimmerman and Henry Pullen.

This musette was made by Martin Frères in Paris, France, 1883 and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is a musette made of boxwood with ivory ferrules. This instrument is stamped:

[bee]
MARTIN FRES
A PARIS

John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. This musette (#5410) listed in an 1880 J. Howard Foote catalog, sold for $3.00.

This banjo was made by William Boucher, Jr. in Baltimore, Maryland in 1845. It is a Five-String Fretless Banjo, with a wood shell with a decorative strip, red painted metal hoops, 6 brackets, and friction pegs. The banjo is stamped:

W.BOUCHER.JR
BALTIMORE

William Boucher was a drum maker and musical instrument dealer in Baltimore, Maryland. He became the first commercial maker of banjos, perhaps through his association with the celebrated minstrel banjoist Joel Walker Sweeney.

His instruments were important in standardizing the form of the banjo in its transition from a homemade rural instrument to urban commercial manufacture. The basic shape and string arrangement has changed little up to the present day. Boucher’s design copied important features of earlier home-made African American instruments: the skin head, short thumb string and fretless neck. He added a scrolled peghead similar to those used by guitar makers W. Stauffer and C. F. Martin, and replaced the traditional gourd body with a thin, bentwood rim construction with screw-tightening brackets similar to that used for drumheads. Boucher’s innovations were well-adapted to commercial mass-production and urban musical tastes and played a large part in the subsequent worldwide enthusiasm for the banjo.

These commercial “improvements” were never adopted by many traditional rural musicians, who continued to make good sounding instruments that were entirely adequate for their musical needs from locally available materials, at little or no expense.

This music folio was made by an unknown maker in the United States, from 1878 to 1882, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is made of brown cloth covered cardboard, stamped and labeled “Music,” in gilt.

John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. This item is described as made of “plain cloth back, imitation Morocco sides, fancy colors” in an 1880s Foote catalog, and sold as a music folios with spring backs (#7269) for $11.70 per dozen.

This music strip was made by Autophone Comapny in Ithaca, New York, about 1878. It is Autophone strip #280 - "Polka Flor De Un Dia." This strip can be played in 22-key model autophones.

This instrument features U. S. Patent #211821, dated December 3, 1878, by Henry B. Horton, for improvements in mechanical musical instruments that play perforated paper strips. In the patent description the inventor uses the term “autophone” to describe the instrument.

This music stand was made by an unknown maker in the United States, from 1878 to 1882, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is made of Japanned iron.

John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. This item is described as made of “Japanned Iron, folding like an umbrella, the best quality made” in an 1880 J. Howard Foote catalog, and sold as a music stand for "bands on excursion duty" (#7249) for $3.00.

This snare drum was manufactured for the firm of J. Howard Foote in New York, from 1878-1882. It has a brass shell, two inlaid wood hoops, two skin heads, and a gut snare. The tensioning mechanism is missing. The top hoop features a brass medallion inscribed with the J. Howard Foote logo.

J. Howard Foote (1833-1896) originally trained as a clockmaker and machine worker, began his employment at the firm of Rohé & Leavitt at No. 31 Maiden Lane in New York around 1853 and acquired the company after Rohé and Leavitt retired in 1863. Foote established a branch store in Chicago in 1868, remaining in business until his death in 1896. This instrument listed in an 1880 J. Howard Foote catalog, sold as a Prussian model Tenor or Snare drum (#7039), for $11.00.

This music folio was made by an unknown maker in the United States, from 1878 to 1882, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is made of blue cloth covered cardboard, stamped and labeled “Music,” in gilt.

John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. This item is described as made of “plain cloth back, imitation Morocco sides, fancy colors” in an 1880s Foote catalog, and sold as a music folios with spring backs (#7269) for $11.70 per dozen.

This clarinet was made by Thomas Key in London, England around 1813 to 1825. It is a 5-keyed clarinet in F, made of ebony with ivory ferrules and square brass keys. This clarinet is stamped:

KEY
LONDON
[unicorn head]
CHARING CROSS

This bow was made by Albert H. Karr in Independence, Missouri, around 1940-1945. It is a violin bow with a beefwood stick, with a plastic frog and plastic fittings. The bow is stamped:

A.H.KARR

Albert Homer Karr (1885-1971) was an American bow and violin maker (1885-1971). For most of his career, Karr was the proprietor of musical instrument shop in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to repairing and selling other instruments, Karr made over 1,300 violins during his career and several dozen handmade violin bows. During WWII, Karr was contracted by the U. S. government to produce quality student bows.

The Violinist magazine for January 1921 featured an article about Albert H. Karr as well as an advertisement of his shop:

ALBERT H. KARR
Exclusive Violin Shop
306 East Tenth Str., Kansas City, Missouri.

The Albert H. Karr Handmade Violins, finest
imported wood, sent at my expense on ten days’ trial
to responsible parties.
Large collections of old Violins including a Stradi-
varius, a Guarnerius, an Amati, a Villaume and a
Lupot.

One of the finest equipped shops in the United
States for repair and adjustment of fine old
instruments. Mr. Karr attends to this work per-
sonally. All work guaranteed.
Correspondence invited.

This pitch pipe was made by an undetermined maker in Germany, early 1900s. It has 10 single holes and 10 reeds. This pitch pipe has a red-brown stained wooden comb with a metal cover plate attached with screws. It is stamped:

C.B. & S. INC. [Bruno logo] N.Y. Sole AGENTS
MADE IN GERMANY

This pitch pipe was made for C.B. & S., Inc. [C. Bruno & Son, Inc.], a musical instrument importer and dealer in New York City.

This snare drum was manufactured for the firm of J. Howard Foote in New York, from 1865 to 1880. It has a mahogany-veneer wood shell, two wood hoops, two skin heads, and a gut snare. There are eight sets of nickel-plated hooks laced with rope, through leather ears, used to tighten the hoops. The top hoop features a brass medallion inscribed with the J. Howard Foote logo.

J. Howard Foote (1833-1896) originally trained as a clockmaker and machine worker, began his employment at the firm of Rohé & Leavitt at No. 31 Maiden Lane in New York around 1853 and acquired the company after Rohé and Leavitt retired in 1863. Foote established a branch store in Chicago in 1868, remaining in business until his death in 1896.