American Historical Ephemera & Photography

8 x 10 in. image of Vincent Lopez (1895-1975) holding a tiny piano. American band leader, pianist and actor. Harold Stein, photographer.

8 x 10 in. photo of a woman sitting amid drums, xylophones, horns, and other instruments. Moody, NY.

4 x 5.75 in. photo on card of a man playing a trumpet beside a pile of stringed instruments, etc. Banjo, guitar, violin, mandolin, possibly an organ, dulcimer, and more.

4 x 5.5 in. photo of three women, one has a trumpet, another has a mandolin. Identified on verso in pencil as Mrs. Klein, Mrs. Schrader and Mrs. Burgund??.

Large format albumen, 6 x 8.25 in. of a man playing what appears to be a homemade instrument of some sort (some kind of horn). Mount chipped, cracked.

6.5 x 8.75 in. image of a band member (military band? Has eagle on hat) with a Sousaphone. 

Another smaller (3.5 x 5.5 in.) photo of a man with a Sousaphone has his 5-mo.-old son in the horn, apparently in a bubblebath! On verso: “5 mo old Baby Ernest Gerald Willis and father E.E. Willis. At least 3 more have children in bells of large horns, plus one with a dog in the horn of a tuba.

Nine cdvs include: William Campbell playing his bagpipes, with backmark of West End Portrait Rooms, Edinburgh; a man playing an Alpin horn, dated 1870; a child playing a drum captioned “Of Strobl Family, Musical Wonders;” a man playing a lyre of some kind; and more. A small photo (1.75 x 2.75 in.) seems to show a man playing a harmonica.

Also included are: 5 cyanotypes; one stereoview of a man playing a dulcimer (hand-colored); one man has an interesting guitar with necks for both 6- and 12-strings; one tintype (cdv-sized); a realphoto postcard of a “pianoman” with a bunting-draped upright and a sign on the back of his chair reading “NO Request Music;” and another realphoto postcard of a man sitting under a large tree with over a dozen instruments around – guitars, mandolins, banjos, string bass, harp, bass drums, a couple lyres, and we suspect more in and around these. 

And many more, of course. There are business cards with photos on them, Christmas/Holiday cards from musicians, other advertising, etc.