[Harp-L] Civil War Harmonicas

[Winslow Yerxa]

Harmonicas being depicted in instruction books of the 1870s and '80s show single reed, 10-hole and 12-hole harmonicas with coverplates. Rick Epping's mention of John R. Neill's illustrations in the Oz books is puzzling, as Neill was born in 1877, around the time those books were published, and would have been familiar with harmonicas with coverplates.
We know that in 1830, illustrations of harmonicas without coverplates were published in an English tutorial book Some are shown applied to the players' mouths, while others have handles that seem toindicate that they were to be played like panpipes
You can see and read about them here on Pat Missin's website:https://www.patmissin.com/history/aeolina.html

Photos of young men with harmonicas dates 1861-1865 can bee seen on the SPAH website: https://spahstore.org/about/spah-archives/
I think it's safe to say that the harmonicas being played in the US around the time of the civil war were close to what we know today. However, the note layout wasn't identical in the book I have from 1870, the Oliver Ditson Company's Mouth Harmonica Instruction Book. The middle octave was tuned like a modern diatonic, but the top and bottom octaves were not. 
By 1886, though, with the publication of Ryan's True Harmonica Instructor, the note layout we know today was shown. 
https://archive.org/details/RyansTrueHarmonicaInstructor/page/n17/mode/2up


Winslow Yerxa
Bandcamp music for listening and purchaseYouTube videos
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition: ISBN 978-1119700128
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1119694519
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.comPresident emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica 

    On Friday, October 6, 2023, 06:04:51 AM PDT, Richard Sleigh <rrsleigh at xxxxx> wrote:  
 
 Does anyone know what kind of harmonicas were around during the American
Civil War?

I contacted Rick Epping and he replied:

"Regarding Civil War harmonicas, I recall hearing that Hohner wasn’t yet
selling in North America at that time, only having established the company
in 1857. But I really don’t know. You might try contacting Martin Häffner
at the Deutsches Harmonikamuseum.

I remember a drawing in one of the Oz books I read as a kid, of a Munchkin
playing a harmonica, and me wondering why it had no cover plates. The book
would have been written in the first decades of the 20th Century when
harmonicas all had cover plates, but John R. Neill, the illustrator, was
surely remembering how they looked when he was young."

I am in the process of contacting the Deutsches Harmonikamuseum, but in the
mean time, if anyone has information of=n this subject, I am all ears and
eyes...

Thanks!

Richard Sleigh





-- 
Richard Sleigh
531 Boalsburg Pike
Boalsburg Pike Boalsburg PA 16827
rrsleigh at xxxxx
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