Ditson Special Orchestra Drum, ca. 1904 - 1910

As of January 1st, 1904, Boston's Oliver Ditson Company officially absorbed their former musical instrument manufacturing department, John C. Haynes Company, and began dealing musical instruments under the Ditson name. The Special Orchestra Drum featured here may or may not have been manufactured in Boston but is representative of Ditson's high end offerings during the first decade of the 1900s.



The makers label present inside the drum lists Ditson branches in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In 1910 the Philadelphia was discontinued ergo this drum most likely dates to between 1904 and 1910. The snare mechanism is a simple one which does an effective job of tensioning the wires but lacks the ability to quickly disengage the snares from the bottom head.

After a journey across eBay, the drum arrived missing half of its hardware so another set of six tension rods and claws was needed to reassemble the drum. The result is a subtle two-faced appearance where a different set of claws is visible depending on which side of the drum is in view.



The drum measures four inches deep and nearly sixteen inches across and is constructed not of solid maple, but of veneer. Advertising is careful to omit this fact as multi-ply shells were at the time seen as inferior. The outward appearance, however, is quite striking.

Other than the dimensions, the drum is a very close match for model #610 described in Ditson Wonderbook Number Four (1910) as "14 inch, bird's-eye maple shell, 3 inches high, rosewood veneered hoops, with metal top bands, 12 nickel plated rods and trimmings, 8 woven silk waterproof snares, 2 calfskin heads." The listed price was $15.00



Do you have a drum made by or for Oliver Ditson & Co.? I'd like to hear from you! Feel free to send Lee an email at lee@vinson.net. And for more on Ditson and their fellow drum makers of early 20th century Boston, please visit www.BostonDrumBuilders.com.

1880 J. C. Haynes & Co. Rope Tension Snare Drum

J. C. Haynes & Company served as the musical instrument manufacturing division of Boston's Oliver Ditson Company for the entirety of the Haynes Company's existence from 1861 through the end of 1903. During that time Haynes produced many styles of drums in a wide variety of sizes including those of smaller dimensions such as this dainty example dated September 29, 1880.



Measuring 8" deep by 14" across this drum was likely intended for a younger drummer, a child even, but is otherwise not so different from any other 1880s Haynes rope tension model. The workmanship is sound but perhaps short on fine craftsmanship. Haynes' drums were not generally given the same level of care as wind and brass instruments, much less bowed string instruments - not that this was so uncommon for a large instrument maker of the late 19th century. A company devoted only to drums and percussion was a novel concept which had yet to arrive in Boston as of the 1880s.



Affixed inside the shell is a wonderful dated makers label. The same style of label is known to have been used on many other Haynes drums from the early 1880s, some of which are dated and some of which are not. Dated labels such as this one help to place undated examples to roughly the same era of manufacture.



The 1883 J. C. Haynes & Co. Catalog lists a vast selection of musical instruments ranging from accordions, banjos, and bassoons, to violas, xylophones, and zithers, and of course drums. Included are rope tension wooden shell snare drums available in rosewood or maple, and 'Prussian' style rod tension drums offered with maple, rosewood, nickel, or brass shells. A 14 inch, maple shell drum with 2 calfskin heads and snare tightener, referenced as model No. 4, was priced at $9.10. And if a fourteen inch drum was still too large, 12" and even 10" diameter models were also available.



Do you have a drum made by Boston's J. C. Haynes & Company? I would love to hear about it! Drop Lee a note at lee@vinson.net. And for more on Boston's early 20th century drum makers, please visit BostonDrumBuilders.com.

1910s Oliver Ditson Nickel Plated Orchestra Drum

Boston's Oliver Ditson Company traces its roots back to the 1860s as a music publisher and musical instrument dealer. Before 1904, the John C. Haynes Company served as Ditson's manufacturing branch while the Ditson Company handled retail. All the while, Haynes and Ditson were essentially one in the same managed by singular ownership. In conjunction with Ditson's opening of their new quarters at 150 Tremont Street, John C. Haynes & Co. officially ceased to exist as of January 1st, 1904 though John C. Haynes remained as president of the Oliver Ditson Company as he had been since 1888.



Drums labeled as being manufactured by the Oliver Ditson Company first appeared in 1904 and were produced through the 1910s. The nickel plated model featured here dates to the 1910s. Drums produced during the first decade of the 1900s, circa 1904 - 1910, list three Ditson branches including one in Philadelphia which was closed in 1910. The label affixed inside this particular example lists only Ditson's Boston and New York branches placing the date of manufacture at 1910 or later.



Two outstanding pieces of provenance appear inside of the shell. A penciled-in date and name, presumably that of a previous owner, perhaps even the original owner, reads "Apr. 26, 1917, Harry Scully, Pittsfield, Mass." There is also an ink stamp from a dealer who may well have sold the drum: "L. E. Page, Pittsfield Agent for Ludwig Drums and Traps, 47 Reed St. Pittsfield, Mass." World War I draft records from 1917-1918 list Lewis Elliot Page, born August 31, 1887, as a machinist and musician in Pittsfield employed by the General Electric Company. Richard Harry Scully's draft card, complete with a signature matching the one found inside of his drum, lists his date of birth as November 28, 1890 and his profession simply as farmer.



The shell is formed from a single sheet of metal riveted at the seam and rolled over at the bearing edges. Snare beds are rather crudely hammered into the snare side bearing edge. The wooden counterhoops are described by Ditson advertising as "maple hoops, ebonized, with top metal bands". The metal bands are rolled over on the inner edge much like the shell's bearing edges and, beyond cosmetic flair, provided protection against damage from rimshots.



Ditson offered their Orchestra Drums in a variety of shell materials including bird's-eye maple, white holly, mahogany, and rosewood. These options and more are listed in Ditson's "Wonderbook Number Four" published in 1910. The catalogue spans more than seventy pages in length and lists instruments ranging from drums, cymbals, bells, and percussion accessories, to wind instruments including flutes, piccolos, trumpets, and bugles. As Ditson was a large music house with multiple branches, they were no stranger to the practice of selling instruments made by other manufacturers including Chicago's Lyon & Healy with which Ditson shared deep roots and an ongoing business relationship. It is often times ambiguous as to where a given instrument was sourced with makers labels sometimes reading "made expressly for" Ditson. That said, it is assumed that a fair percentage of the instruments cataloged in 1910 were still manufactured by Oliver Ditson in Boston.



Do you have a drum made by or for Oliver Ditson & Co.? I'd like to hear from you! Feel free to send Lee an email at lee@vinson.net. And for more on Ditson and many other Boston based drum makers of the early 20th century, please visit www.BostonDrumBuilders.com.

Prussian Drums

Towards the end of the 19th century, American musical instrument retailers began cataloging drums described as "Prussian" models. These were not generally instruments imported from Prussia, but rather early rod tension drums as opposed to the more traditional "regulation" style of drums which used rope and leather tugs to tune the heads. Prussia was of coarse the powerful German state which in the 1860s and 1870s had claimed a series of resounding military victories including the Seven Weeks War in 1866 against Austria, and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 - 1871 which ultimately lead to a united Germany. So labeling an American made instrument as "Prussian" at this time would have not only related it to the style of drums actually carried by the Prussian Army, but also would have held connotations of great strength and might.

All of this being said, the most important takeaway is to know that the "Prussian" drums manufactured and sold during the 1880s and 1890s in the United States were some of the first widely produced rod tension drums. The Lyon & Healy Handbook of Musical Instruments (1896) further describes Prussian drums relative to the so called "regulation" drums of the day.



The American made Prussian style drums of the late 19th century may have been progressive in their use of metal hardware, but the instruments themselves weren't necessarily high end. Many were of the mass produced variety sold through band instrument dealers and mail order catalogs. These drums were often very basic in construction with crudely riveted metal shell seams and clumsily hammered snare beds. The metal hardware used to tension the drum was functional but typically rough and bulky.




Labels applied inside Prussian drum shells usually list the retailer who sold the drum, but not necessarily the maker. Identical drums exist bearing differing labels thus the true origin of many drums is ambiguous. Shared catalog artwork between advertisers leaves the matter of determining a specific manufacturer even more dubious.

Prussian drums were sold by a vast number of music houses including John C. Church (Cincinnati), Oliver Ditson (Boston/New York), Lyon & Healy (Chicago), Thompson & Odell (Boston), J. W. Pepper (Philadelphia), Whaley & Royce (Toronto), John C. Haynes & Co. (Boston), the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company (Cincinnati), C. Bruno & Son (New York), Julius Bauer & Company (Chicago), and William Tonk & Bros (New York). Even mail order companies such Sears Roebuck & Company cataloged Prussian drums among their selection of musical instruments.



Based on the prevalence of surviving examples, metal shells appear to have been most popular. This in and of itself was a significant evolution as American made drums to this point had traditionally been formed from wood. Nickel, German silver, and brass shells were common for Prussian drums. Wooden shell Prussian drums are not uncommon however. Drums constructed around maple, white holly, or rosewood shells are typically offered alongside metal shell models in advertisements. Hoops were normally wooden, often painted black or stained in a faux rosewood finish. Gilded and more ornately decorated hoops were also offered in many catalogs.

Tensioning hardware was comprised of multiple sets of large square headed tension rods passing through claws clasping each hoop. The rods passed loosely through the claws holding the top hoop and threaded into claws grasping the bottom hoop. This was an efficient way to tighten or loosen both heads at the same time but lacked the ability to tune the heads independently.

Prussian models were often equipped with leg rests making it easier to play the drum while standing or marching. The leg rests commonly were connected to the metal drum claws. Snare strainers were simple allowing for the tightening and loosening of gut snares.



From these early rod tension snare drums, the modern snare drum would eventually evolve. As Prussian drums were smaller than regulation rope drums, "orchestra" models were more shallow than Prussian drums. Similar tensioning methods to those used on Prussian drums would soon be scaled down and refined giving rise to the more modern instruments of the early 20th century.

Drum Catalogs from Yesteryear

Simply put, drum catalogs are an ephemeral form of advertising material. Small trade publications such as these were entirely disposable after a very short period of use. As soon as a new catalog was issued, the old one was irrelevant. Little thought was put into what would happen to these bound sheets of paper once their short term purpose had been fulfilled. But for those who collect and study antique drums and the now defunct companies that produced them, one hundred year old drum catalogs are a priceless treasure trove of information about long gone manufacturers and their wares.

The catalogs pictured below from John C. Haynes, F. E. Dodge, Thompson & Odell, Nokes & Nicolai, Oliver Ditson, and George B. Stone & Son depict a fairly broad view of drum making in Boston from the late 19th century up through the mid 1920s. And though all of these companies would in one way or another cease operation fairly soon after this time, the evolution of the snare drum can quite literally be be traced through the pages of these trade publications. Over a period of nearly 50 years, the snare drum morphed from an old fashioned, rope tensioned instrument during the mid 1800s, to a primitive single tension thumbrod style drum around the turn of the 20th century, and finally to an all but modern showpiece by the mid 1920s where finely crafted wooden and metal shell drums featured fully functioning snare throw-offs and separate tension lugs which allowed for either head to be tuned independently.

The Boston Drum Builders were at the same time experimental yet generally slow to evolve. The offerings pictured throughout these pages allow us to compare and contrast the instruments made in Boston with those of their Midwestern counterparts. In particular, Leedy of Indianapolis and Ludwig & Ludwig of Chicago were quicker to modernize and faster to grow allowing them to swiftly overtake the Boston makers in terms of size and influence. The relative scarcity of ephemera left behind by the Boston companies as compared to their peers is evidence of this trend.

The catalog cover photos shown below are a far from comprehensive depiction of the advertisements published by the Boston Drum Builders. Surely, many other trade publications exist. Stone published "Booklet L" sometime after Catalog K and presumably had printed something resembling Catalogs "A" through "F" before arriving at "G" sometime around 1912. It would be a logical assumption that some form of catalog preceded Nokes & Nicolai's "American Drummer No. 5". Perhaps Nos. 1 through 4 were printed earlier, or maybe picking up with number five indicates that F. E. Dodge had already issued four full catalogs before Nokes & Nicolai succeeded them in 1912. Many more J. C. Haynes & Company catalogs are known to have been published, mostly dating from the 1880s and 1890s and including a plethora of musical instruments, not just drums. The same is likely the case for Oliver Ditson whose "Wonderbook Number Four" (1910) corresponds with the volume number within a given year of publication rather than an issue in a chronological series.

The two more prominent boutique builders in Boston during the early 1900s, Harry A. Bower and Charles A. Stromberg, bear mention here as well though there are no catalogs to show. Neither maker left much behind in the way of advertising as compared to the other Boston makers. Some Bower advertising does appear in trade publications, but no full size drum catalogs by either Stromberg or Bower are known to exist. Stromberg appears to have hardly advertised his drums at all, perhaps because he was such a small, high end maker working with a broad diversity of instruments including harps, banjos, and finally guitars for which he would ultimately become best known.

Some of these catalogs are viewable online in part or in their entirety. The 1907 F. E. Dodge Catalog and Geo. B. Stone & Son Catalog K (1925) can be found at VintageDrumGuide.com. The 1883 J. C. Haynes Catalog, held by the Winterthur Museum Library in Wilmington, Delaware is viewable online at the Internet Archive. The remaining catalogs included here are from the authors collection.

George B. Stone & Son Catalog G - ca. 1912

George B. Stone & Son Catalog H - ca. 1915

George B. Stone & Son Catalog I - 1919

George B. Stone & Son Catalog K - 1925

F. E. Dodge Company - 1907 Photo: VintageDrumGuide.com

Nokes & Nicolai The American Drummer No. 5 - mid 1910s

Nokes & Nicolai The American Drummer No. 6 - ca. 1918

Thompson & Odell by Vega - ca. 1915

Oliver Ditson Company Ditson Wonderbook Number Four - 1910

J. C. Haynes & Company - 1883

Do you have a catalog from one of Boston's early 20th century drum makers? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to send Lee an email anytime at lee@vinson.net. And for more on the history of drum manufacturing in Boston, Massachusetts please visit BostonDrumBuilders.com.

A Grand Gran Cassa

The ties between Boston's Oliver Ditson Company and Chicago's Lyon & Healy are evident in the similarities between the two firms' products. It is no mystery as to why, since in 1864 it was Oliver Ditson & Co. who provided the capital to help establish P. J. Healy and George W. Lyon in Chicago. The companies obviously maintained some form of business relationship for many decades to come and the instrument featured here is just another example of that arrangement.

From Elise Abrams Antiques in Great Barrington, Massachusetts comes an enormous rope tension bass drum dating from circa 1890 which bears a label telling us that it manufactured by Lyon & Healy for Ditson. The geometrically patterned wooden marquetry adorning the shell is a common feature on Lyon & Healy's "Monarch" drums around the end of the 19th century. The hand engraved silver plaques, or oversized 'badges', are beautifully engraved with wording stating, again, that this instrument was manufactured for Oliver Ditson, not by Ditson.

Oliver Ditson Bass Drum by Lyon & Healy, ca. 1890

Ditson Bass Drum Wooden Marquetry

But the most striking thing about this bass drum is its sheer size. The reported diameter is a whopping 40 inches! Instruments of this size were not frequently produced for a number of reasons. For one, shells this large were difficult to build and drumheads of the necessary size were challenging to locate. Also, transporting such a behemoth would have presented logistical problems for most drummers. And given the amount of sound that a 40 inch bass drum could generate, an instrument of this scale would have been best suited for performance applications involving a very large group of musicians such as a full concert band or symphony orchestra. From the lettering on the drumhead, it appears that this instrument hasn't traveled far from its home in Bangor, Maine where it belonged to the Bangor Band.

Lyon & Healy for Oliver Ditson Drum Label

Lyon & Healy for Oliver Ditson Drum Badge

Amazingly, after more than 100 years, the Bangor Band still exists. And even more incredibly, a historical photo on the band's website taken on Memorial Day in 1898 shows a group of musicians posed for a picture with their instruments including what may be this very drum! The wording on the head is a very close match to the one still mounted on the drum minus the logo in the center. And if nothing else, the size of the drum looks to be quite large, the height reaching higher than the waist of anyone who stands next to it.

Bangor Band, Memorial Day, 1898

Oliver Ditson Bass Drum by Lyon & Healy, ca. 1890

Do you have a drum made by or for Oliver Ditson & Co.? I'd like to hear from you! Feel free to send Lee an email at lee@vinson.net. And for more on Ditson and many other Boston based drum makers of the early 20th century, please visit www.BostonDrumBuilders.com.

1883 J. C. Haynes & Co. Catalog

One would think that a company which vanished more than 100 years ago would be difficult to research, but there is actually quite a lot of information to be found on John C. Haynes & Company, the musical instrument manufacturing branch of the Oliver Ditson Company. It is a testament to the Haynes Company's size and influence that such a great deal of ephemera and other advertising was left behind.

An original 1883 John C. Haynes & Co. catalog is held in the Winterthur Museum Library in Wilmington, Delaware. And thanks to modern technology, and sponsorship from the Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation, the full catalog has been digitized and is viewable online at the Internet Archive.

1883 J. C. Haynes & Co. Catalog - Front Cover

1883 J. C. Haynes & Co. Catalog - Inside Cover

Listed in the catalog amongst a myriad of other instruments ranging from accordions, banjos, and bassoons, to violas, xylophones, and zithers, are of course drums. Included are a couple of different styles of drums notably rope tensioned wooden shell drums available in rosewood or maple, and 'Prussian' style rod tension drums which were offered with maple, rosewood, nickel, or brass shells.

Rope Tension Field Drums and Orchestra Drums

Rod Tension 'Prussian' Drums and Rope Tension Bass Drums

Both rope tension and rod tension 'Prussian' style bass drums are catalogued as well. Timpani are listed in two styes: "French" which utilized brass shells, and "best American" which employed hammered copper shells. Eight models of polished snare drum sticks are offered in a variety of woods including ebony, rosewood, cocoa wood, and snakewood.

Rod Tension 'Prussian" Bass Drums

Kettle Drums and Drum Sticks

The catalog lists a full selection of calfskin and sheepskin drum heads, and a variety of drum snares including natural gut and "clock cord" which was likely made from braided linen. A full selection of drum fittings for both rope drums and rod tension 'Prussian' style drums is also offered. The last drums pictured are "Toy Drums" which were smaller sized, more simply built drums for children and young drummers.

Rope Drum Fittings

Toy Drums

Do you have a drum made by John C. Haynes & Company? I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to send Lee an email at lee@vinson.net.