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The Conn Company Archives
Highlights of the Archive...
The National Music Museum houses the world's
largest collection
of documentary
materials and artifacts pertaining to the history and products of the Conn
Company of
Elkhart, Indiana. The Archive was assembled and is administered by the
Museum's Curator of Musical Instruments, Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, who is
currently writing a book about the company's history.
Assembling the archive has been a challenge, since all
of the company's
early records were destroyed in two factory fires in 1883 and 1910.
Furthermore, almost all of the company's historic records since 1910 were
systematically destroyed in the early 1970s, when Conn's corporate
headquarters were moved out of Elkhart for the first time in the company's
history.
The Museum's archive includes the following types of source material:
- More than 500 musical instruments and other products made by the Conn
Company
- Published company catalogs and price lists
- Published company periodicals
- Annual Stockholder's reports
- Miscellaneous company photographs and films
- Correspondence
- Patents
- Microfilm copies of Elkhart city newspapers ca. 1870 to 1920
- The Dr. Earle Kent Department of Research Archives
- Secondary sources, including relevant books, articles, and
dissertations
About the Conn Company...
 Click on
arrow to access a brief history of the Conn Company (1874-present) written
by Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, Curator of Musical Instruments.
Many instruments from the Museum's Conn Collection
are on
display in
the Everist
Gallery. Others are available for examination by
appointment (see guidelines for
access to instruments) in the Museum's study-storage areas.
Some material from the Conn Archives is available for examination
by appointment (see guidelines for
access to archival and library materials).
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
E-mail: Margaret.Banks@usd.edu
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