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 National Music Museum, 1994).
The C. G. Conn dynasty ended on August 17, 1915, with the
entrepreneur's retirement and sale of the company, the capital stock of
which was fixed at $1,000,000. A corporation in which Carl Dimond Greenleaf
(1876-1959) was the principal stockholder purchased the instrument factory,
as well as almost all of Col. Conn's other Elkhart investments. The business
was renamed C. G. Conn Ltd., a seemingly minor name change, yet one which was
clearly marked on instruments and advertising materials produced after 1915.
Left: Photograph of Col. Conn taken after his 1915 retirement from
the instrument manufacturing business. Gift to the National Music
Museum Archives from Charles G. Conn, Sr., 1991. Right: Instruments
made after the 1915 sale of the company include the abbreviation "Ltd." in
the signature, as seen on an example from the National Music
Museum. Photograph by Simon R. H. Spicer.
© 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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