No question - Pepper built the first!

Toward the end of the 19th century, Arthur A. Clappe started a music journal in Philadelphia called The Dominant. At the end of the July 1896 edition, where he reports on some of the companies advertising in the journal, we find this:

Did you catch it? Here are the last three sentences of that long opening paragraph:

During the last year the members of Sousa's famous band were furnished with instruments from this factory, and among others, Mr. Pepper produced, especially for Mr. Sousa, a monster circular tuba, the lines of construction differing very materially from those of other tubas. To this instrument, made, I understand at Mr. Sousa's suggestion, is given the title of Sousaphone. It is readily distinguishable in the band by its enormous but symmetrically shaped bell, which points upward, instead of forward as it the case with other circular tubas.

This is further confirmation that the very first Sousaphone was:

• built by J. W. Pepper
• in 1895 ("During the last year")
• in his factory on 8th and Locust streets in Philadelphia
• especially for John Philip Sousa
• who had suggested the idea sometime earlier
• and it was a modifed helicon bass ("other circular tubas"), where the "enormous bell points upward."

And all of this is confirmed almost two years before Conn's first Sousaphone appeared. This is now the second reference to Pepper's Sousaphone, prior to 1898, that I have found outside of Pepper publications (here's the first reference). There really is no question that Pepper designed and built the original Sousaphone - although the current C. G. Conn website persists in claiming otherwise:

C. G. Conn also continued on a series of "firsts," building the first American made saxophone and the first sousaphone, built to John Philip Sousa's specifications.

This claim has been made by Conn since at least the early 1920s, and perhaps even earlier than that. But it just isn't true, as we have seen.

Finally, just for fun, here is the full page Pepper ad featured in The Dominant at that time (starting with the June 1896 edition):

Of particular interest are the musicians who were supposedly playing or endorsing Pepper instruments at that time. Included is Herman Conrad, who was playing the Pepper Sousaphone in Sousa's Band that year. Here's a closer look at that paragraph: