Harmonica

[pvtben]

Hello guys

I am in need of some major help. Maybe im looking on the wrong place but i cant find anything. I am trying to find some pictures of some original civil wr harmonicas. I want to know what i need to do to defarb them or what i need to add. If anyone has anything on what they were made of who made them what they look like please contact me.

thanks
email me at
civilwarfreak013@aol.com

ben jenkins

[Michael Semann]

Ben, The following web sight has quite a bit of info on 19th Century Harmonicas, and is one of the better online sites for Harmonica historyhttp://www.usd.edu/smm/Batespage.htm Hope this helps.

[hardtack1864]

Yes, I also would like to know where I could find a authentic or defarbed Harmonica. Contact me at reliccrazy@aol.com if you have info.

[va-yank]

I have seen a lot of supposedly dug harmonica parts from CW campsites. The items always consist of just the metal sound plate and reeds and maybe some small brass pieces. Never have seen the stamped metal covers that are common on all modern types. Either they were very thin and all have disintegrated, or maybe harmonicas of that era had wooden covers?

Its a missing part of the puzzle, and I wish you success.

[Lawg]

I have read in secondary soucres that the harmonica was popular because of its durability and easy playability. i was just wanting to know if anyone can tell me how much this instrument was really used and if there are in primary sources saying they had these readily available to the average soldier?
Thanks for the help.

Stephen Chavez
6th Tx Co. K

[Vuhginyuh]

I can't give you a primary source personally but I can say that they (the metal parts at least) are among the most common artifacts found in camps around here.

I do not recall a period site we have excavated that did not produce at least the partial guts of one.

[Charles Kaiser]

Hallo Kameraden,
for Portrayal of an Union Civil war soldiers, I am know learning to play harmonica.
So I am looking for any Information about periodical harmonicas .

[Jubilo]

Dear Mr. ,
Seeing how you appear to be a "Dutchman " , you wil be proud to know that the instrument was invented in Germany . Lincoln supposedly played "The Blue Tail Fly " ( which he called "that buzzin' tune ," ) , on his harmonica. Google up Hohner Harmonicas and read their fascinating ( if you like harmonicas ) , history .
all for the old flag,
David Corbett

[Charles Kaiser]

Hallo Kameraden,
in the compendium was writtten, that harmonica - plates are most common dug music relic, but I wonder that this Instrument was so common in civil war, because honer was fonded in 1857( They have this Year there 150th aniversary). So what is about the american made harmonicas?

[Rob Weaver]

Hohner was not the only nineteenth century maker. The majority were in Germany and had been producing quality instruments cheaply for thirty years before the War. Harmonicas always were cheap, portable and expendible instruments, and were hugely popular for those reasons. Also someone with very little musical training can get a pleasant sound.

[YoungCampaigner]

Hello All. All of the originals that I have seen are definately all-metal. The sound boards are commonly dug in camps. All of the ones that I have seen are either brass or pewter. I don't know, however, what the most common metal for the outside would be.
Talk to almost any relic hunter. Chances are he has found parts of harmonicas before and he will be a wealth of knowledge.

[Charles Kaiser]

Hallo Kameraden,
I will contact Hohner, if they have Informations of there early harmonicas. If I can get them I will post again.
Harmonica playing is realy very easy, if you are a little bit "musical". My conrades enjoy it on every Event, when I have learned new songs ( the american songs, and although the german folksongs, brought from home, and sung by the German Volunteers of the 17th Mo) . We often sit around the campfire, and sing these old songs.

[J.H.Berger]

Christof. Hohner was exporting harmonicas to the US during the CW and before. So a German made harmonica would be absolutely correct if the style matches the originals. Try to get more info about how they looked like tand have a look at ebay.de Maybe you will find one there. Maybe!

[markj]

Good news: there are several copiously illustrated books available on early Hohner harmonicas.

Bad news: Most, if not all, of them are "auf Deutsch" and tend to be quite pricey.

Good news: The odds are good you can obtain them through interlibrary loan without too much trouble.

Here are the EBay USA links for several tomes currently for sale on EBay Germany:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110189388765&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fse arch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D 110189388765%2509%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200170247232&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fse arch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D 200170247232%2509%26fvi%3D1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320179031333&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fse arch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D 320179031333%26fvi%3D1


Hartmut Berghoff's Zwischen Kleinstadt und Weltmarkt. Hohner und die Harmonika 1857-1961 (Between the Little Town and the World Market: Hohner and the Harmonica, 1857-1961) is probably the most in-depth review of how Hohner became a marketing giant. It's also well-illustrated, but is also exclusively printed in German, and hideously expensive here in the States (hard cover copies are now running upwards of US$140). You'd do better to get it through interlibrary loan or even pick it up in soft-cover from Amazon Germany (list price is around US$50 + shipping).

Here's the U.S. listing for the above work:

http://www.amazon.com/Zwischen-Kleinstadt-Weltmarkt-Unternehmensgeschichte-Gesellschaftsgeschichte/dp/350670785X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195020400&sr=8-4

You can also access portions of it on Google Books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cq3wrFSVg1QC&dq=Hohner+Zwischen

Viel Glueck,

Mark Jaeger

P.S. If I can dig them up, I'll see if I can post two 1860's cdv's I own, which show children posing with harmonicas, which, from what I can tell, appear pretty much identical to modern Mundorgels. One of the images has a San Francisco backmark.

[J.H.Berger]

Hi Mark, I think Christof and I can manage that "auf Deutsch" thing:):p
Thank you for the reference . We will see what we can get out of it!
Hohner does not have any information about early harmonicas. I have contacted them yesterday.

[VIrginia Mescher]

but I wonder that this Instrument was so common in civil war, because honer was fonded in 1857( They have this Year there 150th aniversary). So what is about the american made harmonicas?

I haven't done much research on mouth harmonicas (if you do a database search on just "harmonica" you will get an entirely different instrument for the late 18th and early 19th century) but mouth harmonicas started being patented in the US in the mid-1870s. You can do a Google Patent search and find some of them and then go to the USPTO site and do a classification search for a more complete list.

I don't know how many of the early patents were manufactured in the US but with the number of German toys imported into the US it is not surprising that the harmonicas were an imported product.

I just found an advertisement for a 1867 concert in Lowell, MA that included a selection by Professor Wallach, a celebrated Mouth Harmonica performer. He played a Swiss March and a Scotch air with variations. Apparently it was a popular performance because it was listed over several months.

I did find an 1879 advertisement for the German Harmonica Co. that apparently was a US company that was located in Shelburne Falls, MA. The advertisement stated that their product was "superior to the Langhamer, Richter, Concert, or Knitlingen harmonicas in style, durability and quality of tone."

Another advertisement from 1887 was for the John F. Stratton Company who was an importer of "all kinds of Mouth Harmonicas." They were located in New York.

[Charles Kaiser]

Hallo Jan, Hallo Kameraden,
a good Idea to use the good old telephone, by email Honer dont reognize my question.
I will contact by phone the" Deutsches Mundharmonka Museum", which now owned the Hohner- Fabric Collection, a Collection with more than 25000 exhibits. I hope they can help

[tiger_rifles]

Good Day to All,
My thought would be how common were these items? What would it have cost then? Would ever other soldier had one in his pocket? I don't remember reading about too many harmonicas in the personial accounts.
How does this compare to the good old "Juice Harp"?
Paul Bennett

[VIrginia Mescher]

Good Day to All,
My thought would be how common were these items? What would it have cost then? Would ever other soldier had one in his pocket? I don't remember reading about too many harmonicas in the personial accounts.
How does this compare to the good old "Juice Harp"?
Paul Bennett

Although I haven't done a great deal of research on harmonicas, I haven't run into their sale in store ledgers. Since they didn't seem to be manufactured in the US until after the CW, they would have had to have been imported but German imports were very common in the US so it is very possible that they were readily available.

I did find the prices of harmonicas in an 1885 catalogue and the prices ranged from $ .40 to $2.00 each. Brands listed were Richter, American Professional, Emmet and different models of Richters.

Jaw harps were very common in the CW period. They were listed in Historic Accounts (1859-1861) and ranged in price from $ .02 to $ .13 each.