A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*

by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Senior Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota

© Copyright 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.
All Rights Reserved.
No portion of this site, including this page and any of the separate pages, may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated or otherwise used without the express written permission of The National Music Museum.

*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion, South Dakota: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1994).

Are You a Former Conn Employee?

If you are a former employee of the Conn Company and would like to participate in preserving the history of the Conn Company, you can assist Dr. Banks in any of several ways: 1) send your recollections of your years with the company either in writing or on a cassette tape; 2) donate or loan copies of catalogs, price lists, Conn periodicals, photographs, films, blueprints, correspondence, and related documents for inclusion in the Conn Archive at the National Music Museum; and/or 3) advise Dr. Banks of your first-hand knowledge concerning the production of specific instrument models.

Right: Postcard showing Conn employee drawing tone holes from a saxophone body, ca. early 1950s. From the Conn Archive at the National Music Museum.  © 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.

Donations of research materials to the Conn Archive at the National Music Museum will be acknowledged by the NMM and qualify as tax-deductible donations to a non-profit institution (for additional details about donating items to the NMM, click here).

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