A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*
by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota
© Copyright 1997 by The National Music Museum.
All Rights Reserved.
No portion of this site, including this page and any of the separate
pages, may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated or otherwise
used without the express written permission of The National Music Museum.
*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition
to
Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th
Anniversary of the Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion,
South Dakota: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1994).
Carl Greenleaf wrote that the development of the national school band
movement was the most significant endeavor with which he, and consequently
the Conn company, was ever connected. Although he was sensitive to the fact
that some might view his involvement as self-serving - creating a new
market for his products - in fact, a new market did emerge, one which
would forever change the direction of the company. In 1923, Greenleaf helped
organize the first National Band Contest in Chicago and, in 1928, committed
the Conn company to supporting Joseph Maddy's establishment of the National
Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. At Greenleaf's direction, C. G. Conn Ltd.
contributed $10,000 in company funds to support the building of this camp.
In addition, Greenleaf offered the resources of the Conn company in the
initial publication of T. P. Giddings' Universal Teacher method for
training young band musicians. Finally, to help prepare the nation's new
band directors for the public school classroom, Greenleaf established the
Conn National School of Music in Chicago in 1923, naming trombonist
Frederick Neil Innes the first director.
High school band students tune their instruments to the Stroboconn, a
chromatic tuner invented by the Conn company in 1936. The Stroboconn was
commonly found in school band rooms between World War II and the
1960s. From a postcard in the Conn Archives at the National Music Museum.
© Copyright 1997 by The National Music Museum.
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Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069-2390
E-mail: mbanks@usd.edu
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