Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Collection of James M. Caselli and Jonathan Mark Scharer
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Collection of James M. Caselli and Jonathan Mark Scharer
Photograph album documenting the Leedy Manufacturing Company, a maker of precussion instruments.
Scope and Contents:
This album documents the Leedy Manufacturing Co.'s production of a variety of percussion musical instruments, such as drums, tympani, xylophones, vibraphones, etc. There is a group portrait of the executive staff, assembled near the door of the plant: it is marked "Indianapolis" and "1925," along with the names "Leedy," [George H.] "Way," "Elsie Way," "Kuerst," and "Winterhoff." The work force stands outside the factory in another image, and interiors depict office scenes and manufacturing stages for several types of instruments. Machine shops and other work areas show workers and craftsmen operating belt-driven machine tools, lathes, drill presses, stamping presses, saws, etc. Storage areas for lumber and hides (for drum heads) are shown, as well as stock rooms for finished instruments and packing and shipping operations. The album contains 38 silver gelatin photoprints mounted on canvas pages, 6-3/4" x 10-3/4", several imprinted "Hoosier Photo Co." The album cover is plain and untitled.
Arrangement:
One album of photographs. Photographs unarranged; they were separated from the album covers and the original image order, which did not seem significant, was not preserved.
Biographical / Historical:
As a child, Ulysses G. Leedy (1867-1931) bought his first drum from a Civil War drummer near his home in Fostoria, Ohio, and played for coins near the Baltimore & Ohio railroad station. He joined the 15th regimental drum corps in Ohio at age 14 and the Fostoria town band and orchestra at 18. Later, he became a member of the Great Western Band and was featured on drums and xylophone. He traveled widely as a musician and realizing the need that he and other percussionists had for a snare drum stand, he invented the first practical folding snare drum stand in 1890. Also in 1890, Leedy purchased parts from various manufacturers and made his first drum with the assistance of his father, a cabinet maker. After taking a position with an Indianapolis theater orchestra, he concurrently manufactured and sold drums, obtaining the wooden shells from his father and assembling drums in his basement.
Eventually Leedy resigned his theater position in order to devote his full attention to his burgeoning manufacturing business. In 1895 he and Sam Cooley, a clarinetist from the same orchestra, pooled $50.00 each and began to make Leedy drums, at first under the name of Leedy & Cooley , then the Leedy Manufacturing Company. The original factory was established in a room of the Cyclorama Building in Indianapolis. The firm prospered and a variety of instruments gradually were added to its product line. In 1902 Herman Winterhoff, a cellist, trombonist, and theater orchestra colleague, joined Leedy and Cooley to tune bells and xylophones, and Leroy Jeffries was hired as a mechanic and designer.
Leedy became sole owner in 1903. A brick factory building was erected in Indianapolis in 1903, but the rapidly expanding firm soon outgrew this facility and a three-story concrete building was erected adjacent to it in 1910. In 1920 the first building was razed and additions were made to the second building. By 1927 the expanded Leedy factory contained 78,450 square feet of space.
In 1916 Winterhoff, then a vice-president of the firm, began experimental work on vibrating tones in the steel marimba (Marimbaphone) and produced a device called the Vibratone, which had two rows of resonators moving up and down alternately. This and another model, with butterfly fans in the tops of the resonators which rocked back and forth in a semicircle, were unsuccessful due to noise. Finally in the 1920's Winterhoff and the Leedy engineers devised a practical instrument with rotating fans in the resonators which made complete, even revolutions. This Vibraphone, as it was called, soon became a familiar instrument in dance bands. The company's failure to realize the professional potential of this instrument led to the introduction of copies of the unpatented design by competitors.
The firm's line expanded to over 900 items, including sound-effect instruments for silent films. The most important products were the tympani designed by factory superintendent Cecil Strupe (patented 1923), using a foot pedal with a ratchet-and-pawl system clutch, linked to cables connected to the tensioning screws, with copper bowls formed in a hydraulic press.
C. G. Conn Co. Ltd., a leading band instrument manufacturer in Elkhart, Indiana, the "band instrument capital of the world," acquired control of Leedy in 1929, and in 1930 Leedy's operations were moved to Elkhart. The production of "Leedy" instruments was discontinued in 1958.
Sources
1. J-Leedy Mfg. Co., Inc. "Fifty Years of Drum Progress." Elkhart, Ind., 1945. Photocopy in Division of Musical Instruments. This publication contains several reproductions of images from the album as well as similar pictures not found in the album.
2. Leedy publications, including the catalog above, give 1895 as the date of the firm's inception, although 1900 is cited in the article on Leedy Manufacturing Co. by Edmund A. Bowles in: Stanley Sadie, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1984, Vol. 2, p. 512. Perhaps 1900 was the date of incorporation under the Leedy Manufacturing Co. name.
3. Leedy, op. cit ., p. 2
4. Bowles, op. cit
5. Ibid. Again, Bowles disagrees with Leedy company publications, stating that the Conn purchase occurred in 1927. The Leedy catalogs presumably are more reliable. Other articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments provide additional information about connections between Leedy and other firms: Bowles, "Ludwig," Vol. 2, p. 543; Bowles, "Slingerland Drum Co., Vol. 3, p.405; and Carolyn Bryant, "Conn," Vol 1, p. 473.
6. Small captioned portrait of George H. Way in Leedy Mfg. Co., Inc. Leedy. World's Finest Drummers' Instruments, Catalog T. Elkhart, Ind. [1933], p. 1. Catalog in Warshaw Collection, National Museum of American History Archives Center. Cf . group portrait in album.
Provenance:
Purchased in 1985 from Keith Douglas de Lellis.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Probably public domain due to expired copyrights. SI Negative Nos. 86-403 to 86-440. Fees for commercial use.
Boston, Mass.: New England School Band and Orchestra Festival drew 2,200 children.. Photo shows the tallest and smallest boys who played in the festival. 5/24/26. 1915 Photonegative
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Great day is contained in two folders consisting of 1 published four-page piano vocal score and 12 published parts in Eb Major concert, and 1 one-page conductor score and 1 two-page conductor score in F Major concert -- in ink, pencil and photocopy -- in unidentified hand (Whaley?).
Folder A contains piano vocal score, parts and one-page conductor score. Piano vocal score lyrics begin "When skies were dark came Noah's ark ...". Parts for violin 1 (2); 3 reeds - alto 1, alto 3, tenor 2; 2 trumpets - 1, 2; trombone; bass; banjo; drums; piano. Conductor score does not indicate instrumnetation and appears incomplete.
Folder B contains two-page conductor score. Score indicates parts for 2 reeds - alto, tenor; trumpet; bass. -- from the Duke Ellington Library.
General:
One-page conductor score in Folder A (photocopy) is originally noted on the verso of "Who we are." Handwriting and other details have been reported based on the notes of David Berger, Andrew Homzy, Dr. Theodore Hudson, Walter van de Leur, and Dr. Mark Tucker.
Publication:
New York, N.Y., Miller Music Incorporated., 1929
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the original and master audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Copyright restrictions. Consult the Archives Center at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Paul Ellington, executor, is represented by:
Richard J.J. Scarola, Scarola Ellis LLP, 888 Seventh Avenue, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10106. Telephone (212) 757-0007 x 235; Fax (212) 757-0469; email: rjjs@selaw.com; www.selaw.com; www.ourlawfirm.com.
Topic:
Music -- United States -- 20th century Search this
Genre/Form:
Sheet music -- 1920-1930
Manuscripts -- Music -- 1920-1930.
Conductor scores
Music
Parts (musical)
Sheet music
Piano vocal scores
Photocopies
Collection Citation:
Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Sponsor:
Processing and encoding partially funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
