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| The so-called "Original Sousaphone" in the Greenleaf collection at Interlochen |
The November/December edition of Crescendo, the digital newsletter of The Interlochen Center of the Arts, features the story of the wonderful Leland B. Greenleaf Musical Instrument Collection. You can read the whole thing here, but let me highlight the paragraph that caught my attention. Speaking of the two historically significant Conn Sousaphones in the collection, the article states that:
The oldest of them was touted by Conn as 'the original sousaphone' [see photo below]. Although it was not the first one manufactured (that honor goes to a prototype made by the J. W. Pepper company), it was among the first batch made by Conn specifically for use in John Philip Sousa's band (the Pepper company never produced a commercial version). After many years of use, this large instrument with the upward-facing bell (known as the 'rain-catcher') was returned to the Conn company, and eventually became part of their [Conn's] museum collection.
While Interlochen has always gone with what Conn had claimed, as seen on the framed info sheet that has accompanied the instrument for years, it's nice to finally see them set the record straight (in the first parenthetical note in the paragraph above). It may be that my correspondence with the great folks there (initially John Beery, and later with Leo Gillis) helped to clarify that Pepper did indeed make the first Sousaphone.
Although, to say that their horn was "among the first batch made by Conn" is almost certainly not correct. Conn built its first Sousaphone in 1898 (or perhaps late 1897), and the Interlochen instrument can be dated no earlier than 1903, so five or six years later.
And was it featured in Sousa's band? Perhaps! Here's Herman Conrad holding the same model of Conn Sousaphone in 1903, while Sousa and his men were on tour in England:
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