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.
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*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).

New York City Retail Store (1897-1902)

Conn's Worcester operation was phased out by 1898. In its place, ex-Congressman Conn put his efforts into establishing a retail store in New York City (October 1897) for the sale of his Wonder line of instruments, as well as his inventory of fine violins. Instruments sold at this outlet bore both the Elkhart and New York designations for about five years. However, following a relocation of the store in 1902, this practice was discontinued. Conn also purchased a New York-based mandolin factory in 1897, moving the operation back to Elkhart to complement his new Wonder violin manufacturing department.

Above (left): Conn Company signature engraved on one of the bells of a custom-made echo horn, ca. 1897, in the Museum's collections (catalog no. 2484). Instruments made between 1897-1902 usually bear both the Elkhart, Indiana, and New York factory designations, as seen here. Photograph by Simon R. H. Spicer.   © 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.

Not willing to fall behind the latest developments in the new recording industry, Conn added the Wonder talking machine to his inventory (1897) for a short time. The following year, Conn employee Ted Pounder made history by developing the first commercially available bell-up "rain-catcher" sousaphone. Patents for the Wonder portable reed organ and new Conn-Queror cornet were granted in 1901.

Above (right): Advertisement for Conn's "rain-catcher" sousaphone, invented in 1898. From a catalog in the Conn Archive at the National Music Museum.

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