The Well-dressed Trombonist - Valve and Plume Edition

The trombone has the simplest design for brass instruments.
Just by sliding two parallel metal tubes
you can change the length of the instrument
and get all the good notes of a musical scale.
(And unfortunately all the bad ones in between.)

Locating those various positions of the trombone slide
requires skill and a good ear in order to play in tune.
And if that precision tubing is bent
the instrument is effectively disabled.

Marching with a slide trombone can also be problematic
especially when poking the bandsman in front
who's a step too close.

And in the era when mounted cavalry bands were common,
riding a horse and playing the trombone at the same time
was not easy for either man or horse.

So it was for all these musical frustrations
that the valve trombone was invented to solve.
At the end of the 19th century
tenor trombones equipped with three valves
were once very popular in American bands,
yet by the 21st century they have disappeared
in favor of the traditional slide trombone.

The preceding four trombonists are excellent examples
of low brass musical plumbing
but this esoteric history is not really the reason
their photos are in my collection.

It's their dazzling uniforms
and splendid plumed hats.

The first young man stares directly into the camera lens as he shows off his piston valve trombone. He doesn't look more than 18 years old, maybe less, and yet he is dressed in a fine military uniform with gold epaulets, braid, and dozens of shiny brass buttons. He is bare-headed but on the photographer's studio column next to him, competing for space with a forlorn flowerpot, is the bandsman's tall feathered custodian helmet, with a large badge of the U.S. Army eagle emblem.

The photographer was Keagey, of no. 112 West Coal Street, Shenandoah, PA. His full name was William A. Keagey and he operated a photography 'art studio' in Shenandoah from about 1866 to 1901. His business address was different in the early years and his Shenandoah location on West Coal Street began about 1887. A few years later in June 1894, Keagey and his family moved to Newport, PA, a small town north of Harrisburg.and 75 southwest of Shenandoah. He sold his studio in 1901 and died in October 1910.

An interesting connection to his photo of a trombonist, is that William A. Keagey served in the 11th regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers and was wounded in the summer of 1862. Born in 1840, Keagey, like many young men from the northern states who fought in  the Civil War, became a proud member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the G.A.R. This Union Army veterans association provided aid and assistance to former soldiers with post chapters all around the country. Keagey was an officer in the Shenandoah and Newport posts and his name appeared in the local newspapers more frequently in connection to the G.A.R. than to his photographer business.

As the G.A.R. was one of the first major advocacy groups in American politics it understandably had a prominent role in Pennsylvania's big cities and small towns. If there was a reason to have a parade, the G. A. R. veterans would march in it. And if there was marching there had to be a band, preferably a proper military band. So I believe this trombonist is a member of a regimental band from the Pennsylvania National Guard, and that Keagey took his photo at some patriotic event held between 1887 and 1894. Perhaps it was for the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg which occurred in July 1888. Gettysburg is only 100 miles southwest of Shenandoah, PA. 

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The second valve trombonist is also quite young with a uniform similar to the first bandsman with maybe a little less braid but just as many buttons. His headgear is a shako, instead of the Pennsylvanian's custodian helmet, and with a two-color feathered plume. The young lad has adopted the classic Napoleonic gesture of a hand tucked into his jacket. Though the emblem on his hat is a standard musical lyre and not an eagle, his fancy jacket, trousers, and uniform accessories are hallmarks of a professional band probably hired out to a regiment of the New York National Guard.

The photographer was W. Russell of Albion, New York so we must assume this bandsman was also from somewhere near there. However Albion. is a small village in Orleans County, NY on the Erie Canal about half way between Rochester and Buffalo. It's more likely that his band came from one of those big cities centers. Unfortunately I could not find any information on this photographer but the style of W. Russell's initialed back stamp, with chemist bottle and artist palette, is similar to cabinets from 1878 to 1888. To judge by the pathetic houseplants in his studio, the photo's green cardstock is probably as close to a green thumb Mr. Russell ever got.

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My third valve trombonist offers a relaxed pose, almost a modern casual stance by leaning on a faux plinth and crossing his legs. His uniform has wonderful embroidery along with epaulets, buttons, and braid. He wears a French style military cap that above the brim has four initials too faint to read except the last one, B for Band. On the plinth is his marching helmet with a very tall plume and a lyre motif emblem. Like the musician from Albion, I think this kind of uniform was too expensive for any amateur small town band.

This cabinet photo is very clear with nice sepia tones, but the photographer and his location is unknown as there are no marks on the front or back. My estimate is that the photo dates from the 1890s.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this trombone does not have piston valves. Instead is has rotary valves with an arrangement of three keys atop the valve covers that is a characteristic of an American-made instrument. The rotary valves of German and Austrian brass instruments have a different design for the key mechanism. Pistons valves are fairly easy to mass produce and assemble, while rotary valves must be individually machined. These valves don't actually rotate 360° but only move back-and forth a quarter turn, directing the musician's air/lip vibration into a length of tubing that changes the pitch. Both piston and rotary valves give the valve trombone the same range and sound as a slide trombone.

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My final valve trombonist is one of my favorites as the print quality and the lens focus on his cabinet card is superb. He wears a full dress uniform coat instead of short jacket and has a white diagonal shoulder and waist belt. It's similar to a military officer's Sam Browne belt except that those are typically worn over the right shoulder. Attached to the belt on his right side is a white pocket case for his sheet music. His hat is a tall custodian style with extra thick braid and instead of feathers he sports a white horsehair plume. But most noticeable is the eagle on the helmet badge. He is surely a trombonist with a professional military band. It is not unlike the uniforms worn by the United States Marine Band in the 1890s but still dissimilar enough to belong to another band. But which one I have yet to discover. In any case his trombone is a high quality instrument with silver plate and an elaborately engraved bell, the mark of a professional and possibly a soloist too.

His photo was taken by Clow, Photo Artist of Lisbon, La Moure and Edgerley (Edgely), North Dakota. I could not find a photographer named Clow anywhere in North Dakota. Of the three towns, roughly arranged east to west in a straight line 55 miles long, Lisbon is the largest now with a population of 2,100, but in 1890 it had only 935 citizens. LaMoure had 309, and Edgely was even smaller. These are very small towns on the vast American prairie that seem unlikely to support a skilled photographer, much less a band dressed as extravagantly as this trombonist. One small clue is that N.D. shows that Mr. Clow was working after North Dakota became a state in November 1889. Prior to that photos would have D.T. for Dakota Territory.

I suspect this trombonist was a member of a military style band that was on a concert tour in the late 1890s. As travel back then was by train, I also suspect Mr. Clow was a traveling photographer with either a railroad photo car or a portable studio tent. Maybe one day I'll find more musicians from the same band.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where sometimes the themes go

from pillar to post.