The Art of War, part 1

An attractive young nurse lights a wounded soldier's cigarette.

It's like a romantic scene from a old movie,

except this simple color illustration of that moment

was drawn before the golden age of cinema.

It's a postcard from the Great War of 1914-1918

created by the Austrian artist, Hermann Torggler, (1878-1939).

Raucher, Gedenket Durch Eine Spende
Der Verwundeten Soldaten!
~
Smokers, Make a Donation to Commemorate
the Wounded Soldiers!

Offizielle Karte
Zugunsten Der Kriegsfürsorge
No. 23
~
Official card
in aid of war welfare

Herman Torggler is one of my favorite artists, and I used this image in my story from August 2019, Up, Up, and Away!. It's an example of how artists during this turbulent period contributed to their nation's war effort by creating imaginative postcards that were sold for the benefit of wounded soldiers. I suppose it's a kind of propaganda, but it served an honorable goal since in 1914, regardless of which country, veterans and families of servicemen killed or wounded in action did not receive any government assistance. In this case, Torggler's appeal was targeted to civilian smokers who would easily imagine the hardship of a wounded soldier being in hospital but without the solace of tobacco. 

* * *

Another of my favorite Austrian artists, Fritz Schönpflug (1873 – 1951), chose a different theme for his contribution to a soldiers benefit association. In his postcard four stalwart soldiers, each in a different uniform take a heroic defensive stand. The short caption reads: Der Vierbund, or the Quadruple Alliance, which was the German term for the Central Powers in the war. Starting on the left, Schönpflug shows a soldier of the German Empire wearing their distinctive pickelhaube helmet; next to him is a soldier in the pale blue uniform of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; then a soldier in dusky brown of the Ottoman Empire; and finally on the right a soldier from the Kingdom of Bulgaria. 

Before the war, Schönpflug made hundreds of humorous postcards, often lampooning military life in Wien with stinging satire. But he was a skilled artist who knew how to manipulate a drawing and change a comic moment into a courageous image.

The card was never mailed but Schönpflug's signature has the number 915 beneath it which was a shorthand for the year 1915. Bulgaria also officially entered the war on 14 October 1915, so he was tasked with depicting Austria's allies in a way that would make plain their unified power. 

The irony is that in 1915 Bulgaria was a very young country, first established seven years earlier in 1908 as a supposedly constitutional monarchy under its leader, Tsar Ferdinand I. Previously it had been just a principality within the Ottoman Empire though with closer ethnic, religious, and political ties to the Austrian and Russian empires than to the Muslim Turks. 

In 1914 Bulgaria was very familiar with war because in October 1912 it had joined a coalition with Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro to fight the Ottoman Empire over territory in the Balkan region. This First Balkan War lasted only 7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day, but just three weeks after a peace treaty was signed in London, Bulgaria took issue with the settlement and started a Second Balkan War against its former allies Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro as well as the Ottoman Empire and Romania, too. 

The casualties from both Balkan Wars are very disturbing considering that the two  conflicts lasted from 8 October 1912 to 10 August 1913, barely a week over nine months in total. One estimate of casualty deaths in combat listed Bulgaria - 32,000; Greece  - 5,000; Montenegro - 3,000; Serbia - 15,000; and the Ottoman Empire - 30,000. Other estimates are even higher when including death from diseases. And there were hundreds of thousands of civilian who perished in the wars and even more were displaced from their homelands. The messy conclusion of these two short regional conflicts wars set up the conditions that caused all of Europe to explode into war in August 1914. 

Offizielle Karte für
Rotes Kreuz, Kriegsfürsorgeamt
Kriegshilfsbüro
Nr. 370
~
Official card for
Red Cross, War Welfare Office
War Relief Bureau

The notice on the back of this card shows it came from the same welfare office but it now included the Austrian Red Cross as well. The number 370 implies that the series involved many artists, so I may have to start a new collection category.

* * *

This third postcard from the Great War has a painting made by another of my favorite artists, Arthur Thiele, (1860 – 1936). Thiele was German and here he depicts a cavalryman playing his trumpet while what looks like a battle goes on in the background. The caption reads:

Behüt Dich Gott!
Auf Wiedersehen!
~
God protect you!
Until seeing you again!

The curious caption is actually the title of a song from a well-known German opera from 1884, Der Trompeter von Säckingen, by Alsatian composer, Viktor Ernst Nessler, (1841–1890). It is based on an epic poem with the same title by German poet, Joseph Victor von Scheffe, (1826–1886). The storyline from its Wikipedia entry describes the opera best.

The setting is 17th-century Heidelberg and Säckingen, after the Thirty Years' War. The trumpeter Werner loves Maria, the daughter of the Baron, but her father and mother want her to marry the cowardly Damian. Werner proves himself a hero and is opportunely discovered to be of noble birth, so all ends happily.

In the 1890s and 1900s the character of Werner with his trumpet (bugle) proved tremendously popular in Germany as hundreds of different postcards were produced with an image of the gallant 17th century trumpeter. The setting in the small rural town of Bad Säckingen, which is in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany,  close to the Swiss border, was tied to Germany's violent history with France and the disputed region of Alsace-Lorraine which in 1914 was part of the German Empire. 

In the opera there is a slow sentimental song, Behüt Dich Gott!, that includes a famous trumpet solo. My English translation of the title follows a more literal meaning which, I believe, is how Arthur Thiele intended his picture to link this familiar song of the 1880s to a battle scene in 1914. The postcard was sent by a soldier via free military Feldpost and dated 16 October 1914 from Borkum, a tiny island on Germany's North Sea coast, practically part of the Netherlands, and a very long distance from Bad Säckingen. 

* * *

This next postcard artwork of the Great War is unsigned but made by a competent artist who certainly knew how to draw a horse. It shows a few cavalrymen vainly firing their rifles (and shaking a saber!) at a biplane high above them in the blue sky. A description is found printed in a caption on the back.

Ulanen beschießen ein feindliches Flugzeug
~
Lancers fire at an enemy plane

A larger printed caption identifies this card as another benefit for wounded soldiers.

Herausgegeben am Besten von Schwestern des
Verbandes deutscher Krankenpflege-anstalten vom
Roten Kreuz.

Preis 10 Pfg.— Dem Wohlfahrtszweck
fliessen 3 Pfg. zu.
~

Edited as best by sisters of
the Association of German Nursing Homes of
the Red Cross.

Price 10 Pfg. — 3 Pfg.
flows to the welfare purpose.

* * *

Some of the wartime artists took their inspiration from older wars. In this sepia-tone drawing, a fearsome medieval melee of soldiers fight hand to hand with bayonets and swords. There is a struggle over a flag. The back has a caption describing it:

Der grosse Krieg 1914/15.

Eroberung einer französischen Fahne bei Lunéville
~

The great war of 1914/15.

Conquest of a French flag at Lunéville

I believe this depicts, supposedly, the Battle of Grand Couronné from 4 to 13 September 1914, where the German army captured Lunéville, a French town on the border of German-held Lorraine. However a few days later the Germans withdrew, returning it to French forces. According to the Wikipedia entry the German 6th and 7th armies together lost 66,000 casualties, with an estimated 17,000 men killed in this battle. 

The postcard was never sent but on the back is a symbol of a German Iron Cross medal 

for a veterans organization honoring the years 1870 and 1914.
A large caption reads:

Wohlfahrtskarte
des "Reichsverband zur Unterstützung
deutscher Veteranen E. V."

für Kriegsteilnehmer des Heeres und der Marine
~

Welfare card
from the "Reich Association for the Support of
German Veterans E.V."

for combatants in the army and navy

Mindestertrag 3½ Pfg ~ Minimum yield 3½ Pfg.

* * *

The French also produced a great number of artist designed postcards. Instead of a picture, this postcard shows a clay sculpture of a bugler rising from the battleground to call his comrades. The artist is not identified on the card but the name on the model is T. Cartier. I believe this is the work of Thomas Francois-Cartier, (1879–1943), a French sculptor, born in Marseilles, who specialized in creating bronze works in the animalier style, a mid-19th century trend of naturalistic yet romanticized portrayals of animals, particularly dogs and big cats, i.e. lions. The title of this work is printed at the bottom with a quote at the top.

Le Clairon
~
The Bugle

Et sur sa lèvre sanglante.

Gardant sa trompette ardente.

Il sonne, il sonne toujours!

~

And on his bloody lip.

Keeping his fiery trumpet.

It sounds, it still sounds!

The trumpeter stands next to a monolithic gravestone,
that has an engraving of the face of a bearded man and the words:

1914   Quand Même
~

1914   All the same

The image is of Paul Déroulède (1846–1914),  a French author and politician, and one of the founders of the rightwing nationalist League of Patriots. His early career started with the publication of a collection of patriotic poems (Chants du soldat) in 1871 during the time of the Franco-Prussian War. This quote may come from a poem in that work. After France's defeat Déroulède helped organize the League of Patriots to demand the return of Alsace and Lorraine from Germany. His opposition to the French government became so extreme that he was arrested in 1899 and tried for conspiracy against the republic. He was convicted and sentenced in January 1900 to banishment from France so he moved to Spain. When he died in January 1914, six months before war began, his funeral procession in Paris attracted the largest crowds since that of the novelist Victor Hugo. 

Clearly there is more context behind this trumpeter's sculpture that is not easy to recognize in the 21st century. In 1914 French politics was incredibly volatile and a "patriot" had a different meaning depending on whether it came from a leftist or rightist viewpoint. The back of this card has no postmark but was dated by the writer 18 January 1915. By coincidence it was sent to a young woman in Lyon who lived at 12 rue Victor Hugo. 

UPDATE:

There was something familiar about the image of Paul Déroulède that triggered a memory of one of my other stories on a French political postcard. In my story Music as Metaphor from 15 January 2015, days after a terrible terrorist attack in Paris, I featured a postcard of a band made up of French politicians. The face of Déroulède is in the upper right corner as the leader of the the Ligue des Patriotes  or League of Patriots. 

* * *

My second French postcard links to Cartier's bugler with a impressionist painting of a troop of French drummers and buglers. They march down a street dressed in blue jackets and bright red trousers. A caption reads: Les Zouzous, a nickname for young soldiers from the Zouave light infantry regiments of France's North African colonies, principally Algeria. The zouave soldiers wore distinctive uniforms characteristic of their North African origin with short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers, sashes, and a chéchia, a fez-like head-dress. The artist is not identified except for the initials L.V.C. painted in the lower corner.

There is no postmark but the writer sent the postcard
to another soldier of the 3rd Zouave regiment
staying in a temporary hospital in Marney, (?) France
and finishes their message offering best wishes for: 

une bonne sante et que cette mauvaise guerre sera finie en 1917

~
to good health and that this bad war will be over in 1917 

* * *

My last art work depicts another regimental trumpeter blowing his instrument and holding a rifle too. (Actually it's a crudely colorized photo, but it fits with my trumpeter theme anyway) The frilly black-green plume on his hat marks him as a Bersagliere, a soldier in the special troop of marksmen in the Italian Army's infantry corps. The plume is made of hundreds of feathers from the black capercaillie bird, a Eurasian wood grouse. This distinctive decoration on the Bersagliere's uniform served a practical purpose of camouflage and as a sunshade for the marksman's shooting eye. The postcard's sender has added a translation of Sharpshooter under the imprint on the card. 

The soldier's bugle is unusual because unlike other bugles, this one has a single piston valve. This gives the instrument a second overtone series that is one whole-step lower in pitch which greatly increases the melodic potential of its bugle calls. I suppose this is should not be unexpected for an Italian musical instrument but Italian army bugle calls must have been far more complicated than those of other nations as I've never seen it used in any other bugle corps. 

The two 5 centesimi stamps have the face of King Victor Emmanuel III and a postmark of either 2 or 12 October 1914, coincidently sent almost the same week as the postcard of Thiele's cavalry trumpeter. It was mailed to James J. Martin of Lincoln, England. The writer here added a rubber stamp of his name and address: Michele Atlante di Gius, Bari (Italy), which is a port city on the Adriatic Sea on the heel of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula. 

Please send me, if
you can, some English
papers with war pictures.
Thanks for.
Your friend
M. a. d. G.

When the Great War started no one, from Kaisers down to generals, politicians, journalists, and eventually to the proverbial man-in-the-street, expected the war to last more than a few months. The expectation was that like the two recent Balkan Wars, or the Russo-Japanese War, or the Spanish-American War, the conflict would be brief and end quickly. No one expected or understood the terrible consequences that would come from over 4 years of total global warfare. It was unimaginable.

By 1914 photography was already a well-established tool for documenting a war, and it was used by all the belligerent nations to promote and define their national goals. Though a good writer might describe a war in bold, even terrifying words, once a reader saw a picture of a battlefield's devastation their emotional response was intensified more than any polished prose could accomplish. 

Fine art was an even older and more familiar medium that people were accustomed to seeing in advertisements, propaganda, posters, and postcards. What intrigues me is the way artists used their imagination and artistic skills to provoke a more immediate reaction from the viewer. People were moved to contribute to a veterans' charity because the image of an attractive nurse and handsome soldier sharing a moment caught their attention. It's the essential quality of all advertisements. Grab the eyes. Then persuade. 

In the 21st century we daily, even hourly, endure an endless barrage of competing media trying to change our focus. People in 1914 probably felt the same, even though the scale of their media was smaller, required live voices, and was only on printed paper. But these small postcards were important because this was a media that people regularly used for communication and the images were how they interpreted what was happening in this tempestuous time. I hope that Michele Atlante di Gius's English friend was able to oblige and send him British postcards if not newspapers with pictures of the war. 

The Bersaglieri were renown for their unique style
of marching in parades, and that tradition continues
in the Italian army corps of our modern time too.
It's a very unusual style so I can't resist finishing
with a short video of a Bersaglieri band in Bologna, Italy
on the occasion of the rally for the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment.

I can't decide who has the more impressive technique,
the tuba players or the trombonists.
In any case it is a brass method
that must require lips of steel.

Watch out for the little mascot
who follows the band. 
Apparently they start training
at a young age in Italy.

This topic of art in the Great War of 1914-18
is one which I plan to revisit soon
as I have acquired many more postcards on this theme.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where it's always best to follow a nurse's direction.

Musical Fashions for Women

 

My collection of antique photos of musicians
usually focuses on musical instruments and ensembles.
But I'm equally fascinated by the diversity of costumes and uniforms
that entertainers of the past wore when performing.

Back in the olden days,
concert dress for men generally meant
a military style uniform or a variation of a black suit
which has seen very few changes over time.
A gentleman violinist from 1899
wearing a formal white tie and tailcoat
would have no trouble matching the dress code
of a modern symphony orchestra in the 21st century.

Women, however, have always been more accustomed than men
to following fashion trends and back in earlier times,
women got to chose their concert apparel
from a much larger wardrobe.
Though they never wore regulation military attire
female musicians regularly appeared in a wide variety
of uniforms, costumes, and fancy dress.   

Today I present portraits of four female musical artists
dressed in exotic finery that made them
the center of attention at any concert.

 

My first model is a young violinist and trumpeter dressed in a traditional national costume that is actually not her own, She wears a Scottish tartan dress that is too long to be a a kilt; an enormous tam o'shanter bonnet topped with a tall feather; and a rather pathetic sporran, the "handbag" accessory worn by a Scotsman over his kilt. 

Her fashion may be Scottish but she is actually German. Her postcard was sent from Dresden on 3 April 1916 though I feel sure it was printed several years before that. Her picture has no caption but I recognized the tartan motif because for many years I've been collecting  postcards of her orchestra.

She was a member for the Janietz Elite Damen Blas Orchester which I featured on my blog in 2012. In this colorized postcard we can see 17 musicians in the Orchester or band, 10 women and 7 men, and all the women wear an identical outfit. The men, however, are in black tie formal suits. Standing center is the leader, Robert Janietz, who founded the group. They are an unusually large group with a plethora of brass instruments including saxophones, French horns, and crisscrossing the front of the band, four long straight trumpets with valves. 

I believe the postcard of the violinist is one of his daughters, but I'm not certain if she is in this picture. Maybe the woman standing left with the tenor horn? This postcard has a postmark of  15 October 1912. 

I think she is definitely in this next image of the Janietz Elite Damen Blas Orchester, seated left of Herr Janietz, a likely place for a talented daughter. There are 20 musicians here, 12 being women, again dressed in a kind of Scottish style tartan. There is no postmark for this card but Herr Janietz looks much older without his toupee, so I believe this was taken just before WW1, maybe 1914 or 1915. 

In other postcards the Janietz ensemble shows off more string instruments which demonstrated they could cover all kinds of music. But the flashy number of wind instruments suggests they preferred a big brass sound, as Janietz himself holds a trumpet. Why the women of the Janietz band chose a Scottish fashion is a mystery. Despite displaying a wide variety of instruments there is no set of bagpipes.  

As much as I love the quality of sepia tone images,
there are times when I wish I could see them in real color.
So for this post I took advantage of new software advances
in digital imagery and artificial intelligence
and colorized my postcard of the Janietz Scottish-German violinist. 
Maybe it's not as good as the illustrators of the Leipzig publisher could do 

but it's decent enough to give a sense of what her tartan really looked like.

* * *

My next model is another young violinist dressed in an exotic costume with wide sleeves, a flowery dress, a brimless cap with embroidery, and lots and lots of beaded necklaces. I interpret this as either a Gypsy style or possibly a Hungarian/Slovak/Romanian folk costume. She is only identified by a word stamped on one corner,  OZITA, which fits a number of different languages. I don't think it is a place name, so I believe it is the violinist's name. This is likely a promotional postcard for a strolling Gypsy violinist who was featured at some restaurant or beer garden.

The back has a message and date of 1 April 1910. The stamp is from Bayern or Bavaria. 

My colorizing of Ozita isn't quite right I think, as her dress is too dark
and probably had more green, red and yellow in the fabric.
But I like how her costume looks similar to
a folk musician's garb of the 1970s and 80s.

* * *

My next fashion model is a real puzzle as she looks into the camera lens with a hint of a smile. She seems to ask, "Do you know who I am?" Unfortunately there are very few clues. This young cornet player is dressed in white trousers and riding boots and sporting a tight velvet or satin jacket covered in beautiful oriental embroidery. The lower pattern is definitely part of a dragon. On her head is a kind of deflated turban which I suppose is connected to the Far East style of her outfit. She stands outside a natural area with trees overhanging water which adds to the mystery. 

Her postcard was never mailed and the back has only the printed correspondence/address divisions typical of a  North American card from 1907 to 1917. The oriental embroidery is unusual and may be a clue to dating her photo. Foreign patterns and designs like that often became popular after appearing in exhibits at a world's fair. It's possible that she was a member of a women's band performing at some Chinese or Japanese pavilion that was part of an international exposition. But her masculine cavalry trousers seems a bit daring for that and my guess is that she played in a circus troupe. Her gaze is probably directed toward her horse, tethered behind the photographer.

Her photo was the first one I tried colorizing
and because the process improved her image so much
I was inspired to use it on the other women's photos.

* * *

My final fashion model is trompeter, Kätie Iboldt, who was the director and bandmaster of the Damenorchesters – women's orchestra "Diana". In this postcard she wears a smart woolen hunting outfit while she rests atop the rail of a fake rustic fence in a photographer's studio. It's a fine portrait of woman who was obviously a star entertainer.

But in this second postcard, Kätie Iboldt, has the same rotary valve trumpet but wears a very different frock that looks very unsuitable for hunting. The effect is mimicking a folk costume like Ozita's, complete with blousy sleeves and flashy beaded necklaces. She wears a soft hat, maybe of velvet and vest/jacket is tied around her waist in a huge bow. It's odd that her hemline is so short and her boots so tall, almost like a lumberjack's. 

This card was sent on 24 September 1910 from Volklingen, Germany a town in the district of Saarbrücken, in Saarland, Germany, just south of Luxembourg. Today Volklingen is near the border of France but in 1910 it was near the region of Alsace–Lorraine, which was then part of the German Empire. 

Like Fräulein Janietz, Kätie Iboldt came from a musical family. She was the lead trumpet player in the Damen-Trompeter-Corps "Diana" directed by her father, Herr O. Ibolt. (The old German typeface uses a character for the letter I that looks like a modern J.)  In this postcard of the 10 piece Diana brass band, there are six women and four men, including Herr Ibolt. The women are all dressed similarly in a folk style costume with big bows and soft hats. Kätie sits to the left of her father and is the only one with beads. 

I finish with Kätie Iboldt's costume
transformed into vivid color. 
Her folk costume came out very nicely
and accentuates how her bow, beads, and hat
must have swayed as she played her trumpet. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where all the hip people meet every weekend.

Two Tales of Pointy Hats

Clothes supposedly make the man, and once upon a time, a musician's wardrobe made a particular fashion statement. An extravagant formal uniform was a visible mark of a bandsman's special occupation and a measure of his group's success and popularity. Today I present some old photos of well-dressed bandsmen who wear tall pointy hats, once considered the elite headgear for a musician. They all have a story to tell.

My first tale begins with a small ferrotype, i.e. tintype, of a piccolo player wearing a tall hat with a top spike about 4 inches long and a light color frock coat with three rows of brass buttons. As his white shirt collar is visible and contrasts with the coat's material, I think his uniform has a cream or yellow pastel color. Though the image is not very clear, his instrument appears to be a wooden piccolo, though it is also the same length as a simple fife.

The photo is unusual because it's been preserved in its original paper envelope frame. On the back is a date, Sep. 9. 1889 and a stamp of the photographer:

Quartley's 
Baltimore
Photograph
Gallery
11 E. Baltimore St.

Baltimore Sun
19 October 1889

The photographer advertised in the Baltimore Sun newspaper, but for cabinet photographs, not tintypes. The price was $1 for 6 "nice cabinet photographs" or $2 for 13 "finely finished ones." Though ferrotypes required some time for developing, they were not mounted on card stock but simply inserted into paper matte envelopes. I suspect since the quality was not as sophisticated the  photographer charged much less than for fine cabinets. Each image is unique as the ferrotype metal sheet becomes its own "positive" photo, no duplicates can be made. Usually they are a mirror image but some cameras had lens adaptors with prisms or mirrors to correct the image as a realistic view. That is the case here, as the musician holds his piccolo in the proper manner and the center button seam on his coat is oriented to the right side. 

The young man looks maybe age 18 to 24, though the hat makes him appear older. The bright emblem on his spiked hat could be the eagle with shield pattern used in the U.S.  Army and State Militias, but it is too blurred to see more than a shape. His tall hat was an American style introduced in the 1880s that borrowed its design from the British custodian hat and added a Prussian spike and helmet plate. 

Germany did not become a unified nation until 1871, but Prussian military uniforms were  admired and imitated by many countries around the world. Bands in particular chose this hat style because when plumes were attached it caught the attention of the public as the band marched. 

Though we don't know his name, the penciled date on the envelope of September 9, 1889 is the clue to the occasion that caused this musician to be in a dress uniform. It was on this day that the city of Baltimore opened the Maryland Exposition in celebration of the anniversary of the successful defense of Baltimore during America's second war with Great Britain, the War of 1812-15.

Raleigh NC News and Observer
3 September 1889

The festival lasted six days and began on September 9th with a "Baltimore Industrial and Civic Procession "of "200 floats and 50,000 uniformed men in line."  Latter on the 13th 5,000 troops of the U.S. Army and State Militias staged a reenactment of the Battle of North Point along with a mock bombardment of Fort McHenry by eight U.S. Navy warships. 500 Floating Torpedoes! 500 Bomb Shells" 3,000 Rockets! 100 Search Lights! Visitors even got to watch a ship on fire and a munitions magazine explode at the fortress! 

And amidst all the bombs and rockets there were "50 Bands of Music and a Grand Vocal Concert of 5,000 Voices" to add some musical culture to the spectacle. 

One of the tunes surely sung by that gigantic chorus was "The Star Spangled Banner." Its lyrics were written by a Maryland lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key. who witnessed the 25 hour long bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships during the Battle of Baltimore on 14 September 1814. But Key's words would never have become famous without the musical inspiration of his brother-in-law, Joseph H. Nicholson. After Key showed him the poem, Nicholson recognized that its metre pattern fit a melody used in "The Anacreontic Song" by English composer John Stafford Smith. This tune was composed in about 1783 for the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Several versions of the "Banner" were already well-known in 19th century America, and in 1889, perhaps for this event, one was adopted as the national anthem of the U.S. Navy. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson ordered a special committee of five eminent musicians and composers to standardize the musical arrangement, (It is notoriously difficult to sing), but "The Star Spangled Banner" did not become the official anthem of the United States until 1931.

The Baltimore festival/exposition had numerous events planned with many speakers including the newly-elected President of the United Sates, Benjamin Harrison, who traveled up from Washington, D. C. to review the gala parade which opened the festival. A few days before, the paper published a long list of every person and organization that would participate in the parade. 

Baltimore Sun
9 September 1889

There were six "divisions" in the parade beginning with the entry of various dignitaries and grand marshals, descendants of veterans of the War of 1812, and numerous delegations of the Grand Army of the Republic who were union army veterans of the Civil War of 1861-1865. Interspersed in this enormous parade were hundreds of floats, many depicting the battle for Baltimore in 1814. The second division followed with companies of volunteer firemen from around the region which connected to the third division of even more firemen from the city of Baltimore, all of them marching in formation with their uniforms, hooks, ladders, and water pumps. The fourth division featured dozens of secret and benevolent societies with illustrative floats and  long companies of "knights" in fancy uniforms and with ceremonial swords. In the fifth division came Baltimore's German-American community represented by German singing societies, German athletic groups, German breweries, and German-American business groups. Finally the sixth division finished the parade with sundry trade unions and workers associations who would return a few days later for another parade of Baltimore laborers.  

And since you can't have a parade without music, there were bands. Lots and lots of bands. In the newspaper's list I counted over 23 bands and 11 drum corps but I feel certain there were many more. Some were attached to "state militia" or national guard regiments. Several fraternal societies had professional quality bands and often included a drum corps just to set the march cadence. 

The premier ensemble was the Unites States Marine Band which in 1889 was led by an up-and-coming composer named John Philip Sousa. Only the year before in 1888 his famous march for the U.S. Marine Corps, "Semper Fidelis", was first introduced to the public and in 1889 two of his greatest marches, "The Thunderer" and "The Washington Post" had their first performances earlier in the year. So surely thousands of Baltimoreans and President Harrison got to hear these toe-tappers in the parade. 

To his credit the President gamely stood on the Baltimore grandstand for over four hours until the last parade unit had passed. Reportedly he returned a salute to every man, woman, and child that presented honors to him that day. Later that night Harrison returned to Washington as he probably had better things to do that week than visit industrial exhibits or watch mock battles with fireworks. I bet he fell asleep on the train dreaming of piccolos and drums. 

Baltimore Sun
6 September 1889

* * *

My second tale comes from two cabinet card portraits of two well-dressed clarinet players. They were companions purchased separately from a dealer who did not recognize that both bandsmen were wearing identical uniforms. The first man holds a little E-flat clarinet, the high treble voice of early brass and wind bands. He wears a dark color frock coat  with contrasting cuffs and frilly epaulets. On a faux studio pedestal is his tall spiked hat with a white horsehair plume. The  painted backdrop behind him depicts a Moorish garden with palm trees. There is no mark for a photographer on this photo but there is on his companion's portrait.

This bandsman stands with his clarinet at the ready, dressed in the same dark uniform, perhaps scarlet or green, with a the tall spiked hat on his head. His instrument is longer than the other clarinetist's E-flat, but I think it is shorter than a standard B-flat, which would make it a C clarinet. Based on the style of their uniforms, the two bandsmen are probably members of an Illinois National Guard band. In this era the number of regular soldiers in the United States Army was quite small. States were responsible for maintaining guard regiments which often employed professional bands to accompany the guard soldiers in parades or during their annual training duty.

The photographer was McCure of Dixon, Illinois, a small city on the Rock River about 100 miles west of Chicago. In the 1880s when this cabinet card photo was likely taken, Dixon had a population that was growing rapidly from 3,658 residents in the 1880 census to 5,161 in 1890, a 41.1% increase.  However this clarinet player ended up on the deficit side of the town's demographic statistics. Written in ink on the back of his photograph is a name and a fate.

Sam Legge
                           dead

Its an odd epithet to find on a photo. Sam obviously didn't write it himself but who did? A family descendant would likely add a relationship, i.e. "Uncle Sam Legge, grandma's brother" and maybe a full date of death. "Dead" seems too blunt for a family member. I think it was added by one of Sam's friends, a contemporary who was maybe another bandsman who possessed a full set of individual photos of each band member and annotated this man's name and earthly status as an aid to posterity.   

In any case, it didn't take long to find Sam Legge's name in the Dixon newspaper published on 7 January 1890.

Dixon IL Evening Telegraph
7 January 1890

               —Samuel W. Legge, died at the Keystone house in this  city last night at 9:20.  He was born twenty-four years ago in London.  He came to this city from Chicago last June  and being by trade a plumber has been employed by Appleford & Manard.  His parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Legge, have arrived from Chicago.  Death was caused by pneumonia.  Funeral to-morrow at two p.m. from St. Lukes' church.

That might have been the end of this sad tale except that this young Englishman's name appeared in several newspapers around the country that week, from Kansas to New York to Mississippi. The brief report noted that "Samuel (W.) Legge from London" died in Dixon, Illinois on 6 January 1890 of "la grippe", i.e. influenza. "This was the first fatal case in this city, although over 300 people are afflicted with the disease at present."

Samuel Legge was a victim of the 1889–1890 pandemic of a respiratory viral disease, sometimes called the "Asiatic flu" or "Russian flu" which killed about 1 million people worldwide. The pandemic was initially described in the 19th century as an influenza pathogen but more recent studies in the 21st century suggest it may have been caused by a human coronavirus. 

Rochester NY Democrat and Chronicle
9 January 1890

It supposedly began in May 1889 in the Central Asian city of Bukhara in the Russian Empire , now in modern Uzbekistan. The first case in North American was reported on 18 December 1889. Within days it quickly spread along the East Coast and westward to Chicago and Kansas. The first American death was reported on 25 December in Canton, Massachusetts. Before the end of the year cases were reported in San Francisco and other U.S. cities and from California this deadly virus spread to Mexico and South America, reaching Buenos Aires by 2 February 1890. The total death toll in the United States was around 13,000. 

St. Louis, MO Globe-Democrat
10 January 1890

Over the winter of 1889-90, newspapers reported on the surge of this virulent influenza, "la grippe" around the country and the world, regularly including the full names of individuals who succumbed to it. In the 19th century medical science did not yet understand how most diseases were transmitted, and epidemics of tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever were common. Viruses did not begin to be identified until 1898 and wasn't until several decades later that scientists isolated them and determined their behavior in animals and humans. 

Chicago Tribune
8 January 1890

Young Sam Legge's death at age 24 was an exception, as the pandemic of 1889-90 killed a disproportionate number of elderly people. At the time there was no treatment or preventative for influenza and many doctors mistakenly believed it was caused by "bad air" rather than by an infectious contagion. It was disturbing to read in several reports on the pandemic that a number of people allegedly resorted to suicide to seek relief. Of course the standards of living, hygiene, and access to medical care in 1889-90 were very poor which increased the risk for vulnerable people.  Further outbreaks of "La grippe" occurred in March to June 1891; November 1891 to June 1892; the northern hemisphere winter of 1893–1894; and finally in early 1895.

I believe, based on Sam Legge's short obituary, that he and his fellow clarinetist had their portrait taken in 1889, coincidently the same year as the Baltimore piccolo player's ferrotype. By themselves the images of these bandsmen in their flashy uniforms and silly pointed hats seem quaint mementos. But by the addition of a date or a name these photos are transformed into remembrances of a larger cultural history of America. They connect us to an era of patriotism and a time of great suffering too that is not that different from our modern era. What will future generations think of our photos? 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone knows that helmets
make a sensible fashion statement.