Chamber Music

 

Chamber music is a phrase usually associated with classical music. But it's a very broad term that really just means music for a small place. It can be a parlor room or a cafe lounge or any chamber where a small musical group can make music for themselves or entertain a few friends or patrons. It doesn't require many musicians. It doesn't even have to be played indoors. A solo busker on a street corner is still playing a kind of chamber music. (Unless they are using an amplified Karaoke accompaniment!) 

But two—a duo—makes a nice mix for listeners.

These two young women, a violinist and a guitarist, posed for a beautiful portrait in Emporia, Kansas. They look like sisters to me, around age 16 to 20 maybe? Their cabinet card photo has only the photographers name so we have to guess the era. I think their slightly puffy shoulder sleeves suggests sometime in the 1890s. 

Emporia KS Weekly Gazette
25 July 1895

The photographer was the Cottage Studio of L. G. [Lyston G.] Alvord. Mr. Alvord began advertising in the Emporia newspapers in 1895. His studio was at the very top of a full page business directory for the city. "Finest retouching, finish and expression, making in all the finest photos..." There were three other photographers listed as well and a music dealer who specialized in "pianos, organs, violins, mandolins, guitars, and banjos." Emporia was also home to the Western Musical Conservatory that offered instruction and certificates for "vocal and instrumental music, also elocution and dramatic arts." 

A trio of two violins and a guitar opens up a larger variety of chamber music, since a guitar has the ability to provide chords, rhythm, bass line, and melody too. These three young men were arranged in a photographer's studio into a neat triangle. They have the look of friends not brothers. 

This postcard photo was taken at the Fritz Studio, 852 Penn St., Reading, Pennsylvania but was never posted and has no message to provide clues to date it. Unfortunately men's fashions are less specific to determining a decade much less a year. When did striped socks and polka-dot bowties first become a fad? I guess mid-1900s is a fair timeframe.  

When another instrument is added to a trio we get a quartet, which invites the classic voicing of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. This quartet even thought their numbers were sufficient to call themselves the "Big 4 Orchestra" written on a label beneath their photo. Two violins are balanced on bass by a cello but the true soprano in the group is a piccolo. That musician with his ivory-head piccolo would stand out even in a band of 100 musicians.

The photographer of this cabinet card photo was C. A. Schnell of Troy, Ohio. Coincidently "Schnell" is the German musical term for fast. Unfortunately I could find no information on this group, but their name may have a subtle meaning that could be a clue. Back in the time before air travel when people used trains, one of the dominant railroads in the Midwest was the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as "the Big Four". According to its Wikipedia entry: 

The railroad was formed on June 30, 1889, by the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway, the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway and the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railway. The following year, the company gained control of the former Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway (through the foreclosed Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway and through an operating agreement with the Peoria and Eastern Railway). 

Map of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway
Source: Wikipedia (OpenStreetMap)

Perhaps this quartet took their name from the four men's association with the railroad company. Maybe they worked on the railroad or at a depot. Troy, Ohio is just north of Dayton and was once a station on the Big Four railway. Maybe they each came from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis?

With five instruments a quartet becomes a quintet. This group is a true string quintet with two violins, a viola, a cello, and a double bass. The men wear formal style suits with long frock coats that i think marks them as professional musicians. They may be the principal string leaders of an orchestra. Four of the men appear to be in their 30s or 40s but the cellist on the right is a few decades older I think. He plays a cello without an endpin following the old traditional method.

This small carte de visite photo was produced by Aug. Röthig of Ebersbach and is typical of photos from 1870-1880. However this placename is hard to pin down as there are five historic towns called Ebersbach. My hunch is that it is the town now called Ebersbach-Neugersdorf in the district of Görlitz, in Saxony, Germany. It is on the border with the Czech Republic, just across from the Czech town of Jiříkov and in the 19th century would have been near the major music centers of the region like Dresden, Prague, and Berlin.

To finish this post on chamber music
here is the St. George Quintet

performing an arrangement
of The Beatles' hit song "Eleanor Rigby." 

Technically they seem to be
in a great hall or a nave in a church
but it's still music with class.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where soothing sounds of music play all weekend.

The Well-dressed Flutist: Uniform Edition

 

The flute has perhaps the oldest heritage of all musical instruments.
(Okay, drums are older, but let's skip that debate today.)
Originally crafted in prehistoric times from hollow animal bones,
it's a simple instrument whereby a player makes a whistling sound
by blowing air over a hole at one end of a tube.
Over many millennium different cultures around the world
improved the flute by making it out of reeds, bamboo, and wood.
Eventually it became the familiar transverse flute. 

 

By the early modern era, flutes were commonly constructed
of dense African blackwood, also known as Grenadilla, (Dalbergia melanoxylon), 

the same timber used to make oboes and clarinets,
and fitted with several metal keys to cover the tone holes.
.

But in the early 19th century the German inventor and musician
Theobald Böhm (1794 – 1881) devised a new improved flute made entirely of silver.
His first patent for a metal flute with improved keywork was taken out in 1847
and it was first displayed to the public in 1851 at the London Exhibition.
This is the type of flute now played in orchestras and bands.

However Böhm's design was not immediately adopted
and in the mid and late 19th century
many flutists preferred the sound quality of a wooden flute
despite the advantages of a silver flute.

 Some players compromised by playing a flute
that had a wooden body for the keys

and a metal head joint for the embouchure hole.  

 

Other instrument makers used ivory.
This hard white dentine material,
taken primarily from the tusks of elephants,
was the plastic of the 19th century.
It was once used in many common household items
as well as for musical instruments
like the white keys of a piano,
the decorative accents on violin bows, 
and for head joints of flutes and piccolos.

Today I present five well-dressed flutists

who took pride in posing for a camera
in their best concert uniform.

My first well-dressed flutist is a young man holding a blackwood flute and dressed in a dark uniform embellished with a swirling line of contrasting embroidery that matches the curls of his hair. This style of jacket was used by musicians in both professional and amateur bands, but not in military bands. 

The portrait was produced at the studio of Ada Houseknecht, Artist, Batavia, New York. It is a rare example of work by a female photographer. Ada was born in 1868 and married to a photographer, Philon B. Houseknecht. Her obituary in 1949 described her as a "well-known photographer" in Batavia.   

On the back is a signature and date:  Walter Bernard, Geneseo, Sept 15, (18)99. I'm not absolutely certain of the last name as the letters are very spiky, but Bernard seems the most likely spelling. Geneseo is the county seat of Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of western New York. The town is about 25  miles southeast of Batavia, New York. Unfortunately the man's name is too common to make a positive identification as I found no exact match in the either town. But the date is surely correct. 

* * *

My next flutist holds a silver flute as he stands in a photographer's studio with his instrument case and sheet music on a tall wooden plant stand. His name is Albert and he signed the back of his postcard portrait and wrote the date 28-9-10 or 28 September 1910. It was addressed to a Madame Jeanne Guillaume of Paris. 

His uniform is neat but restrained without ornament. There are music lyre badges on his cap and collar. I believe he is a member of a regimental band but I don't see any unit number badge so he could be a member of a civic band from some French commune.

* * *

My third flutist chose an unusual narrow and tall cabinet mount for his portrait, perhaps to accentuate his height and his flute which he holds vertically on a side table. This flute is a hybrid design with a silver head joint and a blackwood body. His uniform has a jacket embroidered with a kind of trefoil design on the front buttons, sleeves, and epaulets and a broad stripe along the trouser legs. His cap appears to be without a brim and has five initials fixed to it:  W.H.P.D.C.  

The photo came from the studio of Rodgers Photographic Palace, 471 Main Street, Hartford (Connecticut). My estimate is that this portrait of a young man, age twenty-something, was taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s. There is a West Hartford and perhaps the letters stand for West Harford Police Department but I don't know what the C could stand for. I would instead expect the letter B which of course would stand for Band. 

* * *

My fourth uniformed flutist is posed seated and gazing off to his left. The photographer has faded the image edges for a dreamy effect but it actually looks as if the studio is on fire and filling with smoke. In the young man's lap are a piccolo and flute, both in blackwood with ivory head joints. His uniform has large fringed epaulets and a single row of shiny brass buttons. The diagonal belt across his chest is to carry a small satchel for his music. 

I suspect he is a member of a state guard band. In the 19th century United States' regular army was quite small and whenever there was a crisis requiring a large military force it depended on state militias to provide the manpower. These state guard regiments often hired professional  bands to play at the unit's annual training sessions, typically 12 to 14 days each summer. For parades the bandsmen would wear this type of formal uniform. 

This cabinet card was produced at the studio of B. F. Freeman of East Somerville, Massachusetts. The style looks like late 1880s to me or perhaps early 1890s.   

* * *

My final flutist has the best uniform, I think. His short jacket is adorned with full fringe epaulets and three rows of 24 brilliant brass buttons. His military forage cap has a two-color feather plume which must have made a splendid effect when his band was marching. In his right hand he holds a piccolo made of blackwood with an ivory head joint and in his left is a blackwood flute. On the table next to him is a third blackwood flute as well as lyre for his music. It looks like it would be attached to a wrist band worn on his left arm.

His belt buckle has a wreath design with three initials in the center. The first letter is definitely a D but the next two are unclear. Like the previous flutist, I think his elite uniform marks him as bandsman of  a state guard regiment. Unfortunately his cabinet card has no photographers name or other marks so I'm only certain it was taken in America, likely in the 1880s or 1890s.

Let's finish with a rendition
of the famous piccolo solo from John Philip Sousa's
march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever". 
The soloist is Staff Sgt. Kara Santos of the United States Marine Band
performing at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2013.

Her instrument is made of blackwood 

but appropriately for the 21st century without an ivory head joint.

Sousa claimed he composed his iconic American march
on Christmas Day 1896 on board a steamer returning from England.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that ever since then
 this short tune has been memorized and played
by every flutist from every nation around the world.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the market has special offers this weekend
on flutes & piccolos fruits and pickles.

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.

The Atkins Family Band

 One of the fun games to play
with family photographs
is comparing faces.
Who has father's chin
or mother's eyes?

 

 

 

 

 

The larger the family,
the more similarity or variety
there is to find.

 

But it's a rare photo that reveals
what musical instruments
everyone played.
Who played tuba?
Who was the second clarinet?

 

 

Today I introduce the seven members of the
Atkins Family Band and Orchestra.

 

 

A long time ago, Mr. and Mrs. Atkins and their five children, one girl and four boys, posed for the camera in the studio of Gibson Art Galleries in Chicago, Illinois. The photograph is a standard cabinet card size but turned to a landscape format in order to get all seven of the family and their twelve instruments. Each of the children, from left to right, holds an instrument—clarinet, cornet, piccolo, violin, and slide trombone. Father holds a cornet and mother a violin. On the floor in front of them are a tuba, clarinet, alto horn, tenor horn, and euphonium. The photographer has artfully illuminated them from the right with a side light that gives each face a warm glow. The only minor fault is that the youngest boy on piccolo twitched and his face is a bit blurred.

Conveniently on the back of the photo is a handwritten name and address: 

Professor F. P. Atkins & Family
5732 5th Ave  Chicago

 

 

Professor Atkins was not difficult to find
as he was listed in the 1892 Chicago city directory as:
Frank P. Adkins, music teacher, 5732 5th Ave.

 

1892 Chicago city directory

 

His full name was Franklin Pierce Atkins, born 1854 near Odell, Illinois, and as a young man Frank lived in Streator, IL where he played cornet in a regimental band of the Illinois National Guard and gave music lessons on various instruments. In 1880 he married Catharina (or sometimes Katherine/Catherine) E. Bursk and for a time worked as a flour dealer there. In 1888 the family moved to Chicago where Frank played in various bands, sometimes directing them, and kept a studio for private music students. Evidently his wife, Catherine was also an accomplished musician too.

Together they raised five children, neatly spaced two years apart. The children in order of age and with instrument were Harry W. Atkins, clarinet, born 1883: Emma F. Atkins, cornet, 1885; Willard E. Atkins, violin, 1887; Alfred 'Fred' B. Atkins, trombone, 1889; and Franklin 'Frank' E. Atkins, piccolo, 1891. All this information comes from obituaries, census records, and family trees found on Ancestry.com.

 

I was impressed that Frank and Catherine Atkins gave their children a musical education which was, and is, often the case with children of a professional musician. I've featured several stories on family bands from this era, most recently Master Tommy Purcell, The Little Vernon Brothers, and The Noss Family Band - Practice Makes Perfect. The Atkins family photo resembles the style of these professional entertainers but I couldn't be certain until I found another clue.

 

Catherine Bursk Atkins died in September 1951. In her brief funeral notice was a statement that "she was the widow of Frank P. Atkins, Englewood (Chicago suburb) music teacher and band leader, and toured the Chautauqua circuit with him and five children until 1907 as the Atkins Family Band and Orchestra."

 

Using this clue I was able to find them in newspaper reports of several summer Chautauquas in Illinois and surrounding states like this one from Springfield, IL.

 

 

Springfield Illinois State Register
14 August 1900

The earliest Chautauqua event that I could find which included the Atkins family band was in July 1899 at Spirit Lake, Iowa. This small town is the county seat of Dickinson County which encloses the Iowa Great Lakes, the largest group of natural lakes in the state. Located near the border of Minnesota, it is abut 440 miles west of Chicago. In 1900 Spirit Lake's population was only 1,219 but the surrounding community had over 8,000 people, so it's not surprising that the town would organize a "Chautauqua". These small-town cultural fairs were named after the Chautauqua movement which started in Ohio in 1873. They typically engaged traveling educational speakers and family-oriented entertainers combined with local talent to present a continuous series of lectures and performances which proved to be very popular in the Midwest. Often a small musical ensemble like the Atkins family would be hired to perform concerts during the event which might last a weekend or sometimes as long as a week or more.

Professor Atkins probably found this summertime work through his connections in military and town bands around the region, or maybe through his church as many Chautauqua fairs were associated with Methodist or other Christian denominations. Usually a Chautauqua was set up in large tents in a rural setting like a farm field. A Chautauqua "assembly" might present talks from distinguished naturalists, famous preachers, noted educators, or world travelers along with performances by magicians, storytellers, jugglers, vocal groups, chamber music ensembles, or professional concert bands. The Atkins family called itself an orchestra in order to demonstrate a musical versatility suitable for both indoor and outdoor venues. They may never have received top billing but their music received praise in simple reviews like the one above.

 

Judging from the number of references I found in newspaper archives, from 1899 to 1907 the Atkins Family Band seemed to get engagements each summer at two or four Chautauqua fairs and then returned home to Chicago in September. Their programs were never listed so I can only guess that it consisted of arrangements of traditional hymns, popular songs, and classical pieces arranged by Frank Atkins. In later years, Miss Emma Atkins was listed as a "reader" to add a spoken element to their program. 

 

Their show was never a sophisticated theatrical act so I don't believe the professor and his wife ever held any ambition for their family band to join the vaudeville theater circuit. However the Atkin's family portrait was surely designed to promote their prospects on the Chautauqua circuit. It's quite possible that Frank Atkins used it in a printed brochure that described his family's talented children. Since Franklin (Frank) E. Atkins, the blurry piccoloist, was born in 1891and looks no more than age 6-7 in this photo, I believe it was taken in 1898 at the start of the family's Chautauqua career.

 

 

One of the unfortunate shortcomings about investigating the history of the bygone musicians in my photo collection is that I rarely find any program or review of music that they played. Even more sad is that because my research is confined to census records and old newspaper reports I have no access to letters or interviews that would add a personal character to the subjects in my photos. Despite my efforts to give a context to the Frank and Catherine Atkins' family photo, it still seems too dry and dull. I wish there was some way to give them a voice.

 

And then I discovered a report in the 18 October 1962 edition of the Spokane, Washington Chronicle. The reporter is unknown but they interviewed four of the children in my photo 60+ years after it was taken. It's very brief but we get to hear Emma Atkins Jacobs tell her story herself.

 

Spokane WA Chronicle
18 October 1962

 

 

 

Reunion Here Recalls Midwestern Family Band

 

   The lilting "Merry  Widow Waltz" and the rollicking "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" that the Atkins Family Band brought to midwestern turn-of-the-century Chautauquas were recalled here over the weekend at the family's  reunion.

   Ironically, the marriages that led to dissolution of the family band 55 years ago prompted the recent reunion at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Jacobs, W3617 Alice. The former Emma Atkins, Mrs. Jacobs relinquished her position as pianist and second cornetist in the family band to marry 55 years ago.

   Sharing in the weekend celebration were Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Atkins of Davenport, Iowa. For many years national secretary of the American Poultry Association, he also retired from the Atkins Family Band to marry 55 years ago.

   Joining the two couples here were Fred Atkins, now retired from the Pullman Co. and living in Covina, Calif., and his wife, and Willard E. Atkins, professor emeritus and former dean of the Department of Economics at the University of New York, and his wife.
   The three brothers and their sister on Sunday counted 207 years of married life since the Atkins family bowed out of the Chautauqua circuit in 1907.

   "The marriages did it," Mrs. Jacobs explained with a laugh. "It was a family venture right from the start and when two of us left, that was it."

   Along with their mother and father, the five Atkins children, one of whom died seven years ago, were billed throughout the Midwest in the 1890s and early 1900s. With the youngest brother making his "debut" on the triangle instrument at the age of four, the family performed at lodge programs, torch-light political rallies and receptions in their hometown of Chicago and appeared in Chautauqua tent shows throughout Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and South Dakota.

   Each of the children and their parents played at least two instruments so they could provide either a brass band or a string orchestra, depending upon the occasion. Wit youngsters doubling on the tuba and clarinet and the flute and alto horn, they presented popular tunes and semiclassical works with equal aplomb.

   The Atkins' children's talent stemmed from a rich musical heritage. Music was the life of their father, Franklin Pierce Atkins. A music teacher and brilliant solo cornetist, he established bands in small farming towns throughout Illinois. He was selected to organize and direct a band that played at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

   But it was his wife, Catherine, who engineered the Atkins Family Band with herself as violinist, pianist, and flutist, Mrs. Jacob said.

   "Mother was the organizer because she knew that father was essentially the artist and the dreamer," she said.

   Now a grandmother and the author of seven children's books, Mrs. Jacobs looks back on her family's role in the era of Chautauqua meetings and band concerts in the park with the observation that "Our way of life was an education in itself."

 

 

 

CODA

Bandleader and cornetist, Franklin 'Frank' Pierce Atkins died on 17 June 1935 at age 81. His wife and violinist, Catherine E. Bursk Atkins, died 12 September 1951 at age 88. Their eldest child and clarinetist, Harry William Atkins, died in 1967, age 84. Their only daughter and cornetist, Emma F. Atkins Jacobs, died in 1983, age 87. The serious violinist, Alfred 'Fred' B. Atkins died in 1964, age 77. The trombonist, Willard E. Atkins died in 1971, age 82. And the youngest child and piccolo player, Franklin 'Frank' E. Atkins died in 1952 at age 61.

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where every family has a smile to share.