As I shared in the previous post, one of my favorite things to have happen when I engage in research is to stumble upon something I wasn't even looking for, and that happened again the other day!
While researching Warren G. Harding, and his history as a helicon player, I found the original photo of Herman Conrad posing with the very first Conn Sousaphone back in 1898 (or perhaps late 1897). The source of the photo had no idea who was in it, or when it was taken (and why it showed up in a search for Harding is a mystery to me!).
Conn used this photo in his publications for a few years, but the newsprint version, which is all I had up to this point, is pretty grainy. Now we can see Conrad, and this first version of Conn's Sousaphone, in glorious detail. Take particular note of the valve cluster, as that is what Conn replaced pretty quickly with version two, a year or so later.
Enjoy!
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