Music for a Wine Garden

 

It's heard when dining at a cafe or restaurant,
pushing a supermarket cart or
strolling through a shopping mall,
standing in line at an amusement park,
or even while pumping gas at a service station. 

In 2024 it doesn't matter where you are,
there is always recorded music playing,
whether you want to listen to it or not.

But in olden times music was a unique attraction
reserved for only certain events or venues. 
Music wasn't meant to be mindlessly consumed
but savored and enjoyed.
Nonetheless entertainers worked hard 
to sell themselves and promote the location of their performances.
In the early 20th century this required a promotional postcard
with a picture of the band. 

Today I present one such ensemble 
that played the music of old Wien–Vienna.
Though we can't know their musical program
we can still hear the style they played 
based on their name and instrumentation.

It was called Schrammelmusik.

They were the
Orig. Wiener Wäschermad'l Gesangs Ensemble
~
Original Viennese Washermaid Vocal Ensemble
mit Weiner Schramelmusik
“D'Lichtenthaler”
director - Franz Neubauer

This group had seven members, four men dressed in summer-white three-piece suits and three women wearing matching folk-like dresses with big bows tying up their hair. The photo looks like it was taken in a photographer's studio but they may be on a small stage at a salon or restaurant. Their instruments are on a side table: a button accordion, a violin, and a contraguitar—a type of harp guitar with an extended neck and extra strings. In front is a sign announcing the group's name, “D'Lichtenthaler” which refers to Lichtental, a part of the Alsergrund district in northcentral Wien, and the leader, Franz Neubauer, who is presumably the affable gentleman seated center.

Despite the group's connection to Wien, this postcard was sent from Dortmund, Germany on 9 May 1908. The message was written in pencil and the words have faded to a ghostly phantom of words.

The Weiner Schrammelmusik refers to a genre of popular music that was specific to Wien. It's name is derived from two brothers,  Johann Schrammel (1850–1893) and Josef Schrammel (1852-1895) who were musicians native to Wien. At an early age the Schrammel brothers demonstrated a gift for playing the violin. In 1878 they formed a trio with contraguitarist Anton Strohmayer, son of a noted Wien composer, Alois Strohmayer. They wrote their own songs and dances which they performed at wine taverns and inns around Wien. 

In 1884 the Schrammel brothers and Strohmayer were joined by clarinetist Georg Dänzer and their quartet became so successful that they received invitations to play at the palaces and mansions of the Viennese elite. Though Johann and Josef wrote their own music their popularity led some people to call earlier Austrian folkmusic forms, such as the Wienerlied dialect song, Schrammelmusik as well. By 1890 the Schrammel quartet was recognized throughout Europe and in 1893 the group was invited to perform in Chicago at the World's Columbian Exposition. 

In a very brief career of seven years, the Schrammel brothers composed more than 200 songs and tunes. Johann Schrammel died in 1893, and  was followed two years later by Josef, each just 43 years old at their death.

Viennese culture is most closely associated with the dance music and operettas of the Strauss family, Johann Strauss Sr. (1804–1849) and brothers Johann Strauss Jr., (1825–1899), Josef Strauss (1827–1870), and Eduard Strauss (1835–1916). Together they established Wien as the capital of  the waltz, a dance craze that captured the imagination of all Europe.  But the Schrammel brothers were equally influential in popularizing a softer more genteel music that came to be identified with a different part of Viennese society. 

The Schrammel quartet used two violins accompanied by a contraguitar and either a shrill piccolo clarinet in G or a button accordion. Their lighthearted, good humored, and often sentimental tunes appealed to the Viennese and soon were imitated by countless other small ensembles in Austria and Germany.

YouTube won't allow me
to include the Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln 
so you will have to click the link above to hear them 
performing at the Buschenschank Stift St.Peter,
one of the oldest Heurigen – wine taverns in Wien, Austria.
The performers are Peter Uhler, violin; Johannes Fleischmann, violin;
Helmut Stippich, schrammel accordion; and Peter Havlicek, contraguitar. 

This video is a concert by
the Neue Wiener Concert Schrammeln
playing the Schmutzer Tanz.
It's good but doesn't have the full wine tavern atmosphere.

* * *

In this second postcard of the Wiener Wäschermadl'n Ensemble the group has added another young woman. The men standing hold violins and a contraguitar and at the feet of Franz Neubauer is a button accordion which presumably was what he played. The word Wäschermadl'n or washer maid is odd and I've been unable to determine its German meaning in the context of Wien. Perhaps female workers at Viennese laundries were known for their fine singing while washing clothes.

This postcard was also sent from Germany, in this case from Dresden on 2 February 1914. 

For a more recent performance here is
the Ensemble Transatlantik Schrammel
performing Nussdorfer Walzer at a concert
at the Schrammel International Music Festival
in Litschau, Austria in 2010.

* * *

The last postcard of the Wiener Waschermad'l Ensemble “D'Lichtenthaler” is a proper photograph. The group has returned to seven members with only three women, who now wear polka dot dresses and bows. The leader, Franz Neubauer, looks older in this photo which leads me to believe the photos on the other postcards were taken in his younger years. It's an old show business trick.

This card was sent from Hamburg, Germany on 22 December 1912. 

And finally here are two vintage film clips that are perfect examples of how Schrammeln music was once an integral part of Viennese Gemütlichkeit – good cheer. The first comes from a 1944 German feature film, "Die Schrammeln". Produced in wartime by director Géza von Bolváry, the movie is set in Wien and and tells a fictional romantic story about Johann and Josef Schrammel and their quartet which has nothing to do with their true history.

The two Schrammel brothers have a disagreement over the quality of Johann's, the older brother's, compositions which he thinks are inferior and not worthy so he refuses to perform anymore. 

Josef, the younger brother, steals Johann's music and with the other members of the group begins playing it for the people of Wien who love the songs and demand more.

 

In this scene the brothers are reconciled after being invited to a music hall show featuring the love interest in the story, the actress Milli Strubel, die “Fiakermilli”. At the beginning she is dressed as a man having driven a Viennese carriage–a Fiaker onto the stage. She exits and returns in a beautiful gown to sing the song  "Wer no in Wien net war."  ~ "Who hasn't been to Vienna yet."

                        Wer no in Wien net war

                        und Linznet kennt,
                        wer net in Graz drin schon spazier’n is g’rennt,
                        wer Salzburg net hat g’sehn, das Paradies,
                        hat kein Begriff davon, was Öst’reich is.

                        Anyone who has not been to Vienna
                        and knows Linz,
                        who has not walked or run around Graz,
                        who has not seen Salzburg, paradise,
                        has no idea what Austria is.

The second song comes from "Wir bitten zum Tanz"  – "We ask you to dance" a 1941 German comedy directed by Hubert Marischka. The Austrian actor Hans Moser (1880–1964), who portrayed Anton Strohmayer, the contraguitar player in "Die Schrammeln", is here acting as the proprietor of a renowned Viennese dance school. At a tavern he meets with an old friend, played by Paul Hörbiger (1894–1981), who is also a dance school rival, and the two men sing a sentimental song accompanied by a Schrammel quartet. The song is "Ich trag im Herzen drin a Stückerl altes Wien" – "I carry a piece of old Vienna in my heart".

Paul Hörbiger played the part of Johann Schrammel, the older violinist in the first film clip. His younger brother Josef was played by Hans Holt (1909–2001) who appeared in this film, too, dancing with Elfie Mayerhofer in the last part of the clip.

The music can speak for itself,
but I think it beautifully demonstrates
how Franz Neubauer's
“D'Lichtenthaler” Schrammel Quartet
and Washermadl'n singers sounded.

I know I would have enjoyed listening to them
as I sipped a glass of wine in old Wien. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where free cocktails are served all weekend.

The Elegant Guitarist

 

The guitar is a versatile instrument.
It can be played solo
or in a group
by contributing melody,
accompaniment,
or both.

It's a very tactile instrument, too.
The guitar's strings and fretboard 

invite fingers to touch it
and make a sound
that vibrates the wooden body.

Whether strummed or picked,
chords and arpeggios
come naturally to the guitar
and create music
that is intimate and personal.

It's also lightweight and very portable
which makes it easy to make music anywhere.

Today a modern guitar can easily rock a stadium
with its amplification turned up to eleven,
but in earlier non-electric times it was known 
only in its acoustic form,
a shapely classical instrument
with a warm quiet tone.

 

Today I present
three vintage photographs
of young women who enjoyed
playing the guitar. 

 

My first guitarist posed for her portrait seated with her instrument in playing position. She wears a dark satiny dress made with tight sleeves and collar and a generous amount of material for the skirt. She looks about age 21 to 30 years old with attractive features of a high society woman of the 1880s. I can't say very much about her instrument except that the guitar's body seems smaller than most modern acoustic guitars. The ribbon bow tied to the headstock gives it a light-hearted style.  The photo has no annotation so the woman's name is unknown. Her dress and hair style fits with fashions of the late 1880s and early 1890s. 

Her photograph was taken at the studio of W. Kurtz in New York City at Madison Square & 233 Broadway. The back of the photo has the Kurtz business mark advertising its 12 first class medals from New York, Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia. The bottom imprint of Branch 233 Broadway  likely means the photo came from that studio which was located, I think, on Broadway across from City Hall park just two blocks up from St. Paul's Chapel. 

The proprietor of this studio was Wilhelm or William Kurtz (1833 – 1904) , a German-American photographer and illustrator. He is recognized as a pioneer in the development of halftone and color printing for reproducing photographs. Kurtz was born in Hesse, Germany in 1833 and as a young man trained to be a lithographer. However after serving his compulsory two years of military service he lost his apprenticeship and left Germany to seek his fortune. 

He first traveled to England where he joined the British German Legion and fought in the Crimean War. After surviving that war he set off for China only to be shipwrecked off the Falkland Islands. He was rescued and taken to New York City where he found work in a photography studio. When the American Civil War started Kurtz enlisted in the New York Seventh Regiment and managed to survive that conflict, too. 

William Kurtz photograph gallery, circa 1885
Source: New York Public Library Archive

Returning to New York he went back to work as a photographer and in 1873 opened his own studio on East 23rd Street opposite Madison Square. The building was five stories tall and Kurtz's studio was on the top floors to take advantage of window lighting. Later his studio was one of the first to introduce electric lights. In this illustration his studio is covered in advertising promoting his name, but it is interesting that he shared the building with the Remington Sewing Machine Co., too.

William Kurtz became very successful making portraits of New York's society people and theater and literary celebrities. The last decades of the 19th century were a time when photographs became a very popular medium largely because innovations in photo printing allowed them to be reproduced in great numbers. It's quite possible that this guitarist's photo is a souvenir photo of a well-known actress or socialite but without more clues she will have to remain anonymous.

 * * *

My second and third guitarists appeared together as a duo on the same cabinet card photograph. Both wear fine dresses of a dark color with tight sleeves but modestly puffy shoulders, a fashion that dates from the early to mid 1890s. The girl on the left seems rather young, perhaps 14 to 18 years old maybe, while the woman on the right it closer to age 22 or 30. They might be sisters but they don't share many facial features so I'm inclined to think this is a photo of a student and teacher. Their guitars are small like the previous woman's instrument. The girl on the left has a capo across the fretboard to transpose her strings to a higher key. 

This photo is in remarkably perfect condition with a high gloss finish that makes it look as if it was taken yesterday. It has none of the surface abrasion or faded contrast that I usually find in antique photos of this period. The photographer was F. T. Bannister of New Richmond, Wisconsin. His business imprint on the back announces that "Pictures like this may be had at any time, for $2.00 per dozen, after the first dozen."  For this kind of quality that sounds like quite a deal.

The photographer's name was Frank Truman Bannister. Courtesy of one of his descendants who posted his family tree on Ancestry.com, I learned he was born in 1854 in Rome, Michigan. In 1888 Frank Bannister set up his own photography shop in New Richmond, Wisconsin with a specialty in "General Viewing of Railroads, Bridges, Mills, Residencies, Life-size Photographs, Fine India Ink and Crayon Portraits." 

New Richmond is in St. Croix County, Wisconsin about 40-35 miles northeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. In the 1890s it was a thriving small town of about 1,500 residents that served a larger region of farms and timberlands. 

On Monday, 12 June 1899, New Richmond was welcoming many visitors because the Gollmar Bros. Circus was in town. The weather was not ideal and the afternoon brought heavy rain with hail that spoiled the show, but by suppertime the rain let up and people began heading back to their homes and to the town's center.  

Suddenly the sky grew very menacing with flashes of lightning and rumble of thunder. Within seconds a tornado touched down near the southwest corner of the town in a residential neighborhood where many of New Richmond's prosperous families lived. In an instant over fifty homes were destroyed. 

The tornado then rapidly advanced on the town's central business district where many people had sought refuge in the stone and brick commercial buildings. Yet these masonry structures were no defense against this tornado's monstrous energy and fury. All were demolished killing many people sheltering inside. In moments it hit the circus grounds, shredding the tents and killing a few horses and an elephant. The town of New Richmond was almost completely obliterated and hundreds perished with many more injured. 

Minneapolis Tribune
13 June 1899

The 1899 New Richmond cyclone was estimated as an F5 tornado, the most  powerful kind with the highest velocity winds. That evening of June 12th it ripped a 45-mile path of devastation through St. Croix, Polk, and Barron counties in west-central Wisconsin. Within New Richmond and the surrounding area 117 people were killed, and at least  twice as many more were injured. Hundreds were left homeless. The wind peeled the bark off trees. Houses were totally destroyed. Damaged tanks of flammable material caught fire setting off a secondary wave of destruction. This next image taken the next day shows only part of the damage. It was clipped from a larger panoramic photo that gives a better view of this terrible tragic event.

Elevated view of New Richmond after the tornado hit on June 12, 1899.
The Willow River is visible in the foreground.
Source: Wisconsin Historical Society image 61758

Reports on the destruction of New Richmond continued through the week as the world learned of the horrendous disaster. Mr. Bannister's business appeared in one account which was repeated in several newspapers around the country.

        The people are still so dazed that, with few exceptions, the bereaved ones evince no grief or apparent emotion.   This gives the impression of indifference, but physicians say they are so dazed by the disaster that they do not realize its extent or their losses of friends and property.  One old man was looking over the ruins of Bannister's photograph gallery.  In answer to a question as to what he was looking for he replied, in a perfectly indifferent manner:

        "Oh, I was just looking for a picture of my wife and children.  They were all killed and my house went, too."

        This is a fair sample of the state of mind every one is in who lost part of or all they possessed.  Money and supplies are coming in constantly, but as far as money is concerned, it is not enough to give the desolate town anything like a new start.  It is problematic whether or not this once thriving community will rise from its ashes, or rather debris, and attain the prosperity which prevailed before it was demolished.

A few weeks later in another newspaper, Mr. Bannister told a reporter that he had begun building three small buildings to restart his photography business. By the 1910 census Frank T. Bannister listed his occupation as photographer and included his eldest son, also named Frank, in the business. He died in 1919 at age 65. 

 * * *

My third photo and fourth guitarist is posed standing in a photographer's studio while leaning her head on her instrument's headstock. This is not how you tune a guitar. She wears dark skirt with a a loose blouse made of a broad crisscross pattern satiny fabric with big puffy shoulders. That fashion and her hair tied into a top knot, (along with the ornate rattan chair, too) are a typical style of the late 1890s. Her direct gaze at the camera also gives her a subtle provocative quality that is not common in photos of this era. Her guitar is similar to the others but has a darker varnish. 

The photographer was E. E. Spracklen of 101,103 & 105 Allen St. in Webb City, Missouri. Webb City is located in the southwest corner of Missouri, west of Springfield and near the border corners of Kansas and Oklahoma. It was developed partly on 200-acres owned by a farmer named John C. Webb who drew up plans for a town in September 1875. He incorporated his self-named city in December 1876 when it already had a population of 700. 

Mr. Webb knew the value of the land as he had discovered lead ore there while plowing. In this great age of the industrial revolution it did not take long for mining companies to start digging. By the late 1890s when this photo was taken there were over 700 mines located within the limits of Webb City and adjacent Carterville. The region was also rich in other minerals, especially zinc ore. By 1880, just a few years after its incorporation, Webb City's population more than doubled to 1,588. By 1890 it jumped 217.6% to 5,043 residents. After a decade it was 9,201 in the 1900 census and then 11,817 in 1910. 

In 2020 Webb City has a modest but respectable population of 13,031, but in the 1890s it was clearly a prosperous place with enough wealth for a photographer to make a good living producing fine photos like this one of a young woman with her guitar. 

The photographer's full name was Edwin Eveliegh Spracklen. Courtesy of information posed on the FindaGrave.com website, Edwin E. Spracklen was born in December 1853 on the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. As a child he immigrated with his family to London, Ontario where he evidently got a good Canadian practical education. He trained as a photographer in Chicago and after a period traveling around the west, Spracklen settled in Webb City opening his own photography studio there in 1880. He was remembered as an artistic photographer and dealer in picture frames and art sundries. In 1898 he was elected mayor of Webb City, a position he held of two years. He died in March 1941 at the age of 87 and is buried in the Webb City cemetery. 

We may never know the names of anonymous people in old photographs but sometimes we can make a sketch of their lives by learning more about the person behind the camera. I'd bet good money that Mr. Kurtz, Mr. Bannister, and Mr. Spracklen each got to hear their guitarists play a private concert in return for a beautiful photograph.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where things outside always look better
if you clean the windows.

The Squeeze Box

 

There are many ways to make sound and musical instruments come in a bewildering variety of shapes and sizes. In the past few years I've expanded my collection to include photos of musicians who played unusual instruments that are rarely seen today, but once were common members of musical ensembles.

This trio, for example, has a violin, a button accordion and an unusual guitar called a contra or Schrammel guitar. It's a string instrument first popularized in Vienna, Austria in the late 1840s. The design combines a traditional six-string guitar with a secondary fretless neck that has nine longer bass strings. 

In this kind of group, the violin would generally play the melody; the contraguitar the chords and bass line; and the button accordion could add sustained sounds that covered both the tune and the accompaniment. 

Here is a short video of
the Wiener Salonschrammeln,
a similar quartet of two violins, accordion,
and the Schrammel guitar
performing outdoors in a Viennese wine garden.
The music reflects Gemütlichkeit,
the Germanic tradition
of warm friendship and good cheer.   

* * * *

But my theme for this week's collection of photos of musicians is really the accordion. It's not an  obscure instrument like the contraguitar but it does come in a wide assortment of types and sizes. In this postcard Rensi and Truco, Akkordion-Orchesterkünstler, a music-hall duo act, sit in a photographer's studio posed with their two accordions. Their instruments are examples of an early style of squeezebox, or to use its proper music family name, the free reed aerophone. The sound of an accordion or concertina begins with air supplied by bellows which vibrate brass free-reeds, the  same as found in mouthblown harmonicas or pump-action parlor reed organs.  At each end of the squeezebox are buttons or keys that activate the reeds. 

This postcard was sent from Buchholz, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on 10 May 1903. The recipient lived in Mügeln, a town near Leipzig in upper Saxony. 

To demonstrate the sound of two accordions
and give an idea of what kind of music-hall act
Renzi and Turco might have performed,
here is a British Pathé short film from 1935
entitled "Four Handed Melody - Isidoro And Catarina".
Their accordions use a piano style keyboard for the right hand.

* * * *

This next postcard shows a sextet of men dressed in matching vests and knee pants. The caption identifies them as the Bremer Schrammel-Capelle „Arion“. Here the melody instruments are flute, trumpet, and violin with a double bass, and two accordions handling the accompaniments. The ensemble also has two drums available too. They were essentially a dance band and probably performed at beer halls or outdoor restaurants.

The accordions are a type of square squeezebox called a Chemnitzer concertina. They were originally produced in Chemnitz, the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony. Simpler versions of the Chemnitzer concertina have anywhere from 38 to 52 buttons, but more professional models can have an amazing 65 or even 76 for a full three octave range with extra buttons that add a function for chords too. 

This postcard was sent from Bremen, Germany on 8 October 1906. If I'm not mistaken, each musician is identified with a name written in pencil on their shirts sleeves. 

For this kind of accordion music
I found this delightful couple on
Ruud Sligchers YouTube channel.
They call themselves Duo Alpen-Gold
and they are playing a dance tune
called "Schneewalzer" on two different accordions,
one with a piano keyboard and the other with buttons.
Wait until about 2:00 when someone gets the giggles.

* * * *

Finally I present a large band where the main instrument is clearly the Chemnitzer concertina as there are seven in this group of 17 musicians. Even with four brass players, two clarinetists, one violinist (look for the bow) and two drummers, the sound of concertinas would have been very dominant. Two of the men sit on beer kegs marked with S11. The postcard was never used so there is no date or identification but the bass drum has lettering. Using the magic of image software I was able to better highlight the words. The top word is still obscured but the second is "Falkenau" over the year 1911. Falkenau is a village in Saxony, Germany only 10 miles east of Chemnitz. Perhaps these men might have worked at the factory which made these concertinas. 

But if you think seven concertinas
are a lot of squeezeboxes
you should hear a 3 or four dozen!
Here is a concertina jam session
at the 2022 Polka Festival in Pulaski, Wisconsin.

I suspect this music is best appreciated
while consuming lots of beer, pretzels and string cheese.

Encore!

I can resist adding this 1940 British Pathé video
of The Two Eddies performing on accordions
using an unusual acrobatic technique.

Don't try this at home!

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the sound of music

is best heard in sepia tones.

La Sérénade des Clowns

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tonight, I present to you
the celebrated and world famous duo

Les Conches

Comedians and Musical Virtuosos
all the way from Paris, France.

 

 

 

This pair of French entertainers appeared on a postcard of unknown date. However on the back corner is a single clue showing that the card originated from a studio in Paris. Based on the style of photo, these two musical comedians likely performed their violin and guitar in European music halls and circuses sometime from 1905-1915. It should be obvious which was the funny one.

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where every duo has a story to tell.

Classic Rock in Kansas

What makes a good vintage photograph?
Is it the clarity? The tonal contrast?
The artful pose and framing?

Sometimes it's a good photo for what we don't see.

A superior image might let us feel the warmth of sunshine and
a cool breeze through the shade of cottonwood trees.
It conjures up the aroma of freshly mown hay
mixed with the scent of crisply starched linen.

A good snapshot can resonate
with the music of laughter
and friendly conversation.
It can sparkle with animation,
letting us see the flicker of movement.

The good photo invites us to travel to a distant place
and experience a moment frozen in time.

It stimulates our imagination
to enjoy a sense of life and vitality
that the camera could not record.

It makes us feel as if we were there that day too.
.  

And every so often a great photo can speak to us.

My first example of a great photo is a postcard of five young musicians, three men and two women sitting on top a rock wall with their string instruments. The quintet has two standard mandolins on the left and two larger mandolas on the right, with a guitar in the center. 

The group looks dressed as if for a summer Sunday. The women wear white frocks, and the men are in crisp white shirts and ties. All are wearing freshly shined shoes. They appear to be in their late teens or early twenties. 

The postcard was sent to Miss J. Ainsworth
of Marion, Kansas on 24 August 1908.

Dear Jim - I have the
goods. I found it.
I will send it
sometime this week
just as soon as I get
it cut off. How are
you getting along?
It's pretty rainy isn't
it?  We have got the 
cutest little pup. –  Emma 

Florence is a small town in Marion county, Kansas, established in 1870 along the proposed route of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, at the point where the railroad would cross the Cottonwood River. Today the population of Florence, Kansas is only about 435. But in 1908 it was nearly 3 times that number with 1,168 citizens. This meant it was large enough to have a music store.

Florence KS Bulletin
27 February 1902

The Emporia Music & Book Co. advertised in the Florence Bulletin, "Music!  Muisc! (sic) We carry everything in the musical line from the (c)heapest that's good to the best that's made."  The price of a piano in 1902 cost from $150 and up, but mandolins started at $5.00 and guitars at just $3.00 since they had two fewer strings. This was also the price of a Kodak No. 2 Brownie camera which took photos 2½ x 4¼ inches.

Florence KS Bulletin
4 June 1908

The Florence Bulletin, might have benefitted from a better spell checker, but it still provided a wonderful variety of social news about this little town in east central Kansas. Every week the people of Florence could learn about their neighbors' activities and other local events. The newspaper's regular edition printed 8 pages, and though it included state and national news, its reports were primarily about its local readership.

Florence KS Bulletin
10 May 1906

In May 1906 the paper noted that "A guitar and mandolin club, composed of Misses Addie Bender and Mause McCollum and John Stamp, furnished music for the supper given by the ladies of the Christian church last Friday evening."  

The mandolin is an instrument that can be played with the same fingerings and level of virtuosity as a violin. It can also be strummed using simple chords just like a guitar or banjo. Its popularity in America is tied with Italian immigrants to the United States in the late 19th century, and somehow it became a favorite instrument for the young people of Kansas. Using an admittedly unscientific method, the word "mandolin" did not appear in a search of American newspapers in Newspaper.com until about 1885 when it got just over 1,000 hits. By 1897 the references peaked at 57,616, declined to 32,200 hits in 1908, and plateaued to a ±20,000 level over the next two decades. Presently our 21st century, "mandolin" gets a mention about 3,000 times annually in newspapers. 

 

My second example of a great photo is another postcard. It's a picture captioned Main Street, Florence, Kans. and shows an impressive row of two story mercantile shops facing a wide dirt street with a dozen horse-drawn wagons parked in front. A barber's pole is on the far right of the street. In the foreground is a small white donkey pulling a cart driven by two children, a girl and younger boy.  

Street scene postcards like this were once very popular in America during the early 20th century. Florence's town plan was typical of many towns in the Midwest which followed a simple grid layout  of streets and avenues. This postcard was posted from Florence, Kansas on 8 September 1909.  Like the other postcard it was addressed to Miss Jimmy Ainsworth in Marion, Kansas, which was the namesake and largest city in Marion county, with a population of 1,841, though in 1910 this was only 800 or so more people than in Florence. 

Dear Jim:
Billie and I both
like the small or first
one the best but then
you go ahead and have
the one finished that
suits you.  Remember the
donkey in this picture.
Dont study too hard.    Goodbye
                                         from Emma.

One of the wonders of our internet age, is Google Maps street view. The engineers who dreamed up this  amazing concept were probably intending it to used by people navigating in the 21st century. But for amateur historians like myself, it lets me travel time and space to compare the Before image with the After.

* * *

* * *

Here are three more historic street views of Florence found at KansasMeory.org.

They let us better appreciate that bucolic nature of Florence
was sometimes disturbed by the fierce natural forces of America's Great Prairie.

People in flood waters in front of the gallery
in Florence, Kansas June 7, 1906
Source: KansasMemory.org

Flood in Florence, KS 1906
Source: KansasMemory.org

Notice that sign on the porch of the small building
behind the men in the boat:
BULLETIN – Florence's local weekly newspaper.

Flood in Florence, KS
Horner Block, 1906 or 1905
Source: KansasMemory.org

I think my two postcards are both great photos because they each attract our attention in different ways. The 1909 picture of Florence's Main Street tells more about Kansas life than a thousand words could.  And the 1908 photo of the guitar & mandolin club is a beautiful portrait of American youth at the start of the new century.  

Of course the best part is that both postcards bring us the voice of a young woman named Emma writing to someone oddly named Miss Jimmy Ainsworth. Was Emma a friend, cousin, or sister? Once I added the surname it wasn't hard to find Emma Ainsworth. In the 1900 census for Marion, Kansas, Emma Ainsworth, born August 1886, age 13, lived with her mother, Elizabeth, age 51; four sisters Villa, 22; Myrtle, 16; Inez, 11; Clara, 8; and brother Roy, 20. 

However in the Kansas state census of 1895, the family included her father, William, a farmer born in Vermont, and four other siblings, all female.  Unfortunately only initials are listed and not always correctly. It would seem that Emma had an older sister born in 1880 with the initials J. L. Ainsworth. In the 1905 Kansas state census for Marion, mother Elizabeth Ainsworth is listed as the head of household with four daughters, Myrtle, Emma, Inez, and Clara. By 1910 only one daughter, Clara, is still at home with her mother.

In these postcards the person to whom Emma is writing seems to be a younger school age girl. I think the name Jimmy or Jim is Clara's family nickname. There may be other complicated reasons for this relationship, and I've considered cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. but between 1900 and 1910 there were only six Ainsworths living in Marion and none of them had a J in their name.

However in Florence there were only a few people connected to either a mandolin or a guitar.

 

Florence KS Bulletin
16 April 1908

In April 1908, the Florence Bulletin reported that John Stamp and Will Hudson spent an evening at a family party and "entertained with mandolin and guitar music." Since is was in that order, I believe Stamp was on mandolin and Hudson on guitar. 

Just two month's later, J.W. Hudson's name made the front page of the Bulletin, alongside Miss Emma Ainsworth.

Marion KS Review 
11 June 1908

In June 1908, the Marion Review ran an announcement that "J. W. Hudson of Florence and Miss Emma Ainsworth of this city were married at Emporia on Wednesday June 3rd. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson will make their home in Florence.

"Emma Ainsworth is one of the finest girls Marion has produced and that is saying a good deal. she was for several years in the telephone office here and was one of the best operators and most accommodating employees the company has ever had. Mr. Hudson is the wire chief of the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Co and an expert electrician. He helped install the present telephone plant in this city."

In both postcards, Emma was writing as the newly married Mrs. Hudson. In other reports I learned that she visited Marion to stay with her mother Elizabeth Ainsworth, and that Clara Ainsworth visited her sister Emma in Florence. Emma's husband's full name was John William Hudson. By the 1925 state census John and Emma were living in Marion and had four children, three boys and one girl.  

Was Emma one of the young women on the rock wall with a mandolin? I can't really say for sure that she was. The two women may be the two mentioned in the 1906 report on the guitar and mandolin club. But I think a better bet is that the handsome guitar player is John William Hudson. It would be a very good reason for Emma to have the photo and send it to Clara. And also a reason why she felt no need to identify him either. Sometimes it's what hidden in a photo that makes it really interesting.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is rocking and rolling this weekend.