E. G. Wright, Early American Brass Instrument Maker

In his 1979 “Early American Brass Makers”, Dr. Robert Eliason wrote an excellent and comprehensive history of four makers that included all the facts known at the time. These were Thomas Paine, Joseph Lathrop Allen, Elbridge G. Wright and Isaac Fiske. This booklet was so well researched that in the decades since, very few sources have offered additional facts, in spite of great interest and discovery of dozens more instruments made by them. Below is an attempt to present what has been learned about E.G. Wright since then along with some speculation on what is still missing.

Elbridge Gerry Wright was born on March 1st, 1811, in Ashby, Massachusetts, to Elijah and Lavina Wright. According to Eliason, the Wrights were successful farmers there. The extent of his education is unknown, but E.G. must have grown up working on the farm and understanding that business. Ashby is 33 miles from both Lowell, which was quickly industrializing with its water power, and Winchester, New Hampshire, where Graves & Company began making musical instruments in about 1825. Even closer was Fitchburg, where in 1833, the 22 year old Mr. Wright married Emily Augusta Curtis, known as “Augusta”. With it’s water power generated on the Nashua River, Fitchburg was already a booming industrial town, known for manufacturing machine and woodworking tools, firearms, clothing and paper. Wright’s occupation in Fitchburg is not known.

His next known home was in Lowell, a center for textile and other manufacturing and one of the country’s first railroad lines connected the city with Boston in 1835. It would have been an ideal location for a young man wanting to learn about manufacturing, the use of machine tools and other manual trades. In 1837, he was listed in the city directory without trade and the next year as a blacksmith.

The earliest known instrument made by Wright, at which time he was in his late 20s and working in Roxbury, is a bass ophicleide, about 1839, as reported by Eliason. It is still the only extant instrument made by him before moving to Boston in 1840. It is still unknown where he learned the trade of brass instrument making, but it is almost a certainty that he was acquainted with Graves & Co. and James Keat, who made keyed bugles and other brass instruments in Winchester, New Hampshire and Henry Sibley who, in about 1835, designed an Eb keyed bugle in Boston. Sibley, Wright and Thomas Paine all displayed instruments at the Massachusetts Mechanics Charitable Association Exhibition in Boston in 1841. Sibley’s entry was described as a silver bugle and Paine’s and Wright’s as “One Keyed Trumpet” that were both entered too late for examination by the judges. Perhaps the latter were miss-described keyed bugles since keyed trumpets were not known to have been used in Boston at the time. We can’t know for sure; they may have been “natural” trumpets that played in only one key. Eliason states that Paine spent some time in Boston in that year and “seems to have worked some of this time with E.G. Wright”. These two makers were at the beginning of their careers and perhaps working out the “bugs” together for this short time.

Starting in the 1870s, the Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory, which was a continuation of Wright’s workshop, claimed to have been founded in 1841. This is likely when E.G. Wright began making instruments in Boston, less than a year after moving there. His address listed in the city directories from 1842 until 1847 was at 8 Bromfield. His earliest known products there are Eb soprano keyed bugles, close copies of those made by Henry Sibley in the previous five years. Both Sibley and Wright made keyed bugles with both the simpler “box” mounts, similarly decorated as those by Graves & Co, but also the more elaborate style with posts and hinge tubes with distinctive heart shaped flanges.

One unique instrument made in the Bromfield shop is a trumpet in F in the “Mainzer” style with double piston (Vienna) valves as described and illustrated in Bob Eliason’s 1979 article. The small Mainzer style trumpets Bb and Eb soprano made in the US at this time were known as “post horns” and this example in F may have also been known as such. However, in a newspaper advertisement in the Zanesville (Ohio) Courier in 1846 for John H. Mellor’s music store in Pittsburgh, states: “…having received the Agency for sale of Graves & Co’s, manufacture of Band Instsruments…Trumpets in F with three valves and crooks. Post Horns in Bb and C with three valves and crooks. The valve Post Horn is taking the place of Cornopeans and is much more brilliant and correct in tone.” Also, Graves’ entry in the 1844 Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Society included “One Valve Trumpet, Two Valve Post Horns, and One E. Flat Bugle”. This trumpet in F is also unique in that it is the only instrument marked “Wright & Baldwin, Makers, Boston”. This partnership was listed in the Boston city directory in 1845 only. Wright’s partner then was most likely William Baldwin, listed in later city directories variously as “machinist” and “musician” until his death in 1869. It is not known if, in later years, he contracted work with Wright or the other Boston makers, but it seems likely that his machine skills enabled Wright to produce instruments with valves for the first time.

Henry Esbach, a German trained mechanic from Klingenthal, Saxony, emigrated to the US in June of 1847 and was working with Wright at 115 Court Street by 1848. Klingenthal is just a few miles from Markneukirchen in which many musical instrument makers worked, then and still do today. Esbach’s specific skills at the time are not known, but he travelled back to Germany shortly after and returned in September of 1850 with his occupation on the ships passenger list as “Instrumentmacher”. Another German (Prussian) musical instrument maker, Theodore Berteling, arrived in June of 1848, and was working at the same address by 1850. He was a woodwind instrument maker, but may have also contributed work to Wright’s production, perhaps making and fitting keys. It is possible that Berteling was conducting a separate business making woodwind instruments, but he later shared shops with Graves & Co. and J.L. Allen before he moved to New York in 1859.

Wright did not make an entry into the fourth exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in 1844, but in 1847 (fifth exhibition), he entered a silver bugle with gold keys. The judges report states that it was entered late and removed before judging. In 1850, he entered a gold bugle that was made for the leader of the Lowell Brass Band (bronze medal). In 1856, he entered a silver bugle (bronze medal), in 1860, a silver bugle with gold keys (bronze medal), in 1865, a full set of musical instruments. (silver medal) and a newly invented book rack (bronze medal). Lastly, in 1869, entries were by both E.G. Wright and Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory (silver medals).

An 1850 federal census of businesses in the US listed E.G. Wright with three employees, only hand power (no steam power) and annual production of $2750 and raw materials used: Gold $200, Silver $150, Brass $150 and Copper $25. The lack of nickel silver or German silver on that list conforms with what is observed in surviving instruments made by Wright. None are of that metal until about 1852, although the NY MET’s cornet/post horn illustrated below has nickel silver trim. An interesting exercise would be to estimate the wholesale cost of these materials at that time, giving more evidence towards estimating the total production of instruments. However, this would be tentative, since we can’t know if that included just sheet metals or also casting metals and/or parts cast in another shop. For that matter, it may or may not include parts purchased from an independent maker such as valve assemblies.

Wright was also a professional musician, especially busy during the winter dance seasons. In his article Eliason presents two letters written to D.C. Hall for which he was making a keyed bugle during the winter of 1845/46. In them, he explained that he was too busy playing to get much done in the shop. In the second letter, he mentions (Ned) Kendall’s band, although not specific about his playing in that band. In 1855, he was partner in Whitcomb & Wright’s Quadrille Band, then in 1860 and 1861 in Wright & McDonald’s Band and presumably others for which documents have yet to be found.

European saxhorns and cornets were being introduced to the US in the late 1840s, making earlier styles obsolete. While virtuoso players of the soprano keyed bugle allowed the popularity of that instrument to hold on into the next decade, the very small bore of post horns and trombacellos (alto, tenor and bass in the same style) caused them to loose popularity quickly. E.G. Wright responded by making his first cornets by about 1850, again with double piston valves, although with the updated “neu-Mainzer” style mechanism with side action levers. The most important details that differed from the post horns was that it had a larger bore through the valves, .425” compared to .330” to .360”, as well as being larger through the taper and flare of the bell. These were almost exact copies of what had been made in Europe a few years earlier, although termed “trumpets” in the German and Italian states. A unique example of a Wright instrument in C with slides and crooks for Bb, A, Ab and G with the old “Mainzer” double piston valves is in the collections of the New York Metropolitan Museum or Art. The author has not examined this instrument, but in photographs appears to have similar cornet proportions to the later example pictured below. It may have been manufactured before 1850 (ca. 1845, according to the MET).

Wright started producing instruments with rotary valves shortly after this, possibly before 1850, but more likely after Henry Esbach returned to the shop in that year. The earliest example known is an alto horn with four valves and bell over the shoulder that is described on its own page. It has important similarities to the cornet illustrated above, including the style of valve levers, braces, pull rings and the valve slide crooks that overlap the inside slide tubes, rather than being attached with a ferrule. This is the earliest use of string linkage for Wright, although is combined with the mechanical pivot between the lever and push rod. Eliason reported that Thomas Paine had first used string linkage for rotary valves in 1847. Aside from the string linkage, all of these design features changed within two or three years.

The next oldest example known is a cornet in Bb in circular form. It still retains the style of pull ring flanges and overlapping slide crook joints as well as the design of the valve stop arms and cork plates as the alto horn. The valve lever springs have rollers at the ends as in the post horns and trombacellos and was also used by Graves & Co. for rotary valve levers in 1850 or 1851. The rotary valves used by Graves at this time also had the same stop arm and cork plate as seen on these two instruments and were likely from the same valve maker. These valves may have been imported from Markneukirchen, but they also may have been made in Boston, using technology imported from Germany.

The design of the rotary valve stop mechanism in instruments by both Wright and Graves changed in about 1851 to those seen in the baritone or Bb tenor horn in the photos below. This exhibits the same style braces seen in the alto and neu-Mainzer cornet, but with the stop corks mounted in the stop arms that strike against a single post on the bearing plate. Most extant instruments indicate that this design continued with Wright’s instruments until 1855 or 1856, at which time the stop mechanism changed to one with the corks in holders adjacent on the stop arm and with two strike posts on the bearing plate, 180 degrees from one another and the spring coiled around the lever pivot tube rather than a leaf spring under the lever. However, there is one soprano valve bugle made by Wright and presented to R.W. Twichel, bandmaster by the citizens and bandmembers in Bath, Maine in 1851 that has the later style stops and springs. The easiest explanation would be that the final “1” in “1851” is actually a “7”, otherwise, we will just have to accept this contradiction. This is also one of only two extant rotary valve instruments made by Wright of solid silver (Sterling or similar alloy), the other dated 1861. After the shop changed to “Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory”, the option of solid silver Eb sopranos was continued until at least 1874, although none are known to exist from that later company.

The 1853 Boston city directory indicates that E.G. Wright had moved from 115 Court Street to 121 Court Street and Henry Esbach remained at the former address. Both of these addresses were in the same building where Court Street, Sudbury Street and Tremont Row met. The data doesn’t indicate if these were two separate businesses or one, but Esbach was likely providing services or material for Wright’s production.

Just a few instruments survive with both Wright’s and Graves’ names on them. Below is pictured the engraving on an Eb keyed bugle that is believed to have been made by E.G. Wright for Graves in the several years after Graves had closed their shop in Winchester, New Hampshire in 1849, before moving in with Wright. The second example is an Eb contrabass or tuba, with the bell over the shoulder that was likely made after Graves was sharing Wright’s shop at 68 Albany Street, from 1856 through 1859. Graves & Co. had occupied this address starting in 1855. The shop on Albany may have been the first time that these makers had access to steam power to run lathes and other machines. In Winchester, Graves had power from a water wheel, but most shops in Boston relied on human power until the 1850s.

Ships arriving in New York with immigrants from Europe and Britain were routine in these years and on June 29th, 1854, the Nelson Sworn arrived from Bremen (then part of Austria-Hungary) with nine passengers listed as “Instrumentmaker”. This included (brothers?) Ferdinand (26) and Ehrhardt (29) Hüttl, also Anton Hüttl (30), “gunsmith” and elder Anton Hüttl (59) “glover”. It seems likely that they were all related, if not immediate family. Other instrument makers on board were Emmanuel Riedl, Joseph Wolrab, Vinzenz Joseph, Joseph Koesttler and Johann Böhm. Travelling with this group were at least 15 other family members and servants, indicating that the move was intended to be permanent. Franz Hüttl had arrived in New York on April 7th, 1854 from Wurtenberg on the ship St. Denis. He was listed as “farmer”, but according to Eliason, was working for brass instrument maker J.L. Allen, along with Anton and Erhardt Hüttl, Joseph Koestler and August Doelling (another instrument maker that arrived from Germany on June 1st, 1854) by 1858. Anton, Erhardt and Ferdinand continued to be listed as musical instrument makers in Boston directories and census until 1880. Erhardt’s son, Adolphus and Ferdinand’s sons, Charlie and Otto were also listed there as musical instrument makers in the 1880 census. Emanuel Riedl was listed as a musical instrument maker in Boston until his retirement after 1908. Joseph Koestler worked as musical instrument maker, but at the time of his marriage in 1867, he was a die sinker. He was likely responsible for making the stamps and dies for the name plates seen on instruments by Wright, Graves and Allen in the late 1850s and early 1860s and those needed for forming parts for small curved tubes. He moved to New York by 1870. Gerhard Hüttl, Joseph Wolrab and Vinzenz Joseph were musical instrument makers in Boston in the first decade after arriving, but are not found in the records after that.

While we can’t know who was accomplishing which tasks in producing finished instruments, the makers in Boston all seem connected. While this is seen stylistically in the musical instruments, the main evidence is in the addresses listed in the city directories. B.F. Richardson shared an address with Henry Sibley in 1847, then with J.L. Allen in 1852 to 1853, then English cornetist and inventor John Bayley, Sr. in 1862, then with the Lehnert brothers, from 1865 until 1877 (last decade with Carl Lehnert only). Wright himself, who was known to have connections with Graves and Co. in the early 1850s, shared a shop with Samuel and George Graves from 1856 through 1859 and with George Freemantle the last two years. He was in the same shop as Allen in 1860 and then various combinations of Henry Esbach, Louis Hartmann, Anton Hüttl, Samuel Graves, George Graves and Patrick Gilmore until 1869, when the Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory was founded. During the years 1858 through 1860, Wright and his family, by then with two children, George C. and Lizzie A., were also listed in directories and the federal census in Lowell again. However, his business in Boston continued with the Graves and George Freemantle.

Each of these men would have had certain skills in producing parts or subassemblies, and/or assembling and finishing instruments. Earlier in his career, Wright may have been making more of the parts for his production of keyed bugles from purchased raw materials such as sheet stock and metals for casting. It is possible that he contracted with one of the many foundries in Boston that could have made rough castings for keys and other parts from his patterns. He also may have contracted to have other parts made, such as screws and drawn tubing for tuning slides. As he started making instruments with valves, more specialized skills and tooling were required. Before the Boston makers developed larger shops with the capacity to accomplish more within, there had to develop a web of shops of skilled workmen with the variety of skills needed. Unfortunately, the recorded information hasn’t given us a complete picture of this industry.

Louis Ferdinand Hartmann, whose father was a member of the musical instrument making guild in Markneukirchen, arrived in the the US with his family in 1839 at the age of 12 years. At some point, he travelled back to Germany, returning in 1848 with his occupation listed in the passenger list as “Instrumentmaker”. Travelling with him was another “Instrumentmaker” August Kessler, but no documents have been found to indicate where he worked after arriving. Hartmann was living in J.L. Allen’s home by the time of the 1855 Massachusetts census and working in his shop by 1858 as indicated in the city directory. In that census, he was listed as “laborer”, but he must have been becoming a capable instrument maker during those years.

Wright continued making keyed bugles, but the instruments pictured below are typical of his production in the late 1850s.

E.G. Wright made a solid silver 12 keyed bugle in 1861 that was presented to George R. Choate just before Christmas of that year. It was paid for and presented by the members of the 35th New York Volunteer Regimental Band. This is the last keyed bugle known to have been made by Wright.

According to the Rhode Island’s “Detailed Statement of Expenditures of the Quartermaster General Thomas J. Stead”, $202 was paid to E.G. Wright on September 20, 1861. This was likely for musical instruments for a band of the state militia.

Two price lists have come to light, neither complete, but both from the years 1861 to 1863, when Wright and Graves shared the shop at 18 Harvard Place. The earlier described E.G. Wright as an agent selling instruments made by Graves & Co. The later states that E.G. Wright had “ formed a connection in business with Messrs. Henry Esbach, and Louis F. Hartmann, and have made arrangements with Messrs. Graves & Co., to produce the FINEST INSTRUMENTS TO BE FOUND”. Intriguingly, these list all the instruments that are known, but also instruments of which there are no known examples. These are valve trumpets in Eb and F, alto and tenor in Ab (mezzo-soprano?), bass in Ab, contrabasses in F and pure silver cornets in Bb (only Eb examples are known and listed in later catalogs). An 1862 Indiana newspaper article describes a silver Eb cornet, worth $200, given to C.G. Conn, who later manufactured brass instruments. This instrument would be a very important piece of musical instrument history if it ever surfaces. The only other reference to a pure silver Bb cornet made by Wright, was a newspaper article describing one that was given to H.D. Brooks of Lowell in 1867.

The circa 1863 price list above indicates that Wright was importing some instruments and sold drums and cymbals of all sizes and clarinets. Nothing more is known about this activity, but the price list itself is pasted to the inside of a bass drum belonging to collector Steve Ward. It seems most likely that these were made elsewhere for E.G. Wright & Co. Also in Ward’s collection are two fifes that also date from this period, although are not mentioned in the price list. They are both double wall, all metal construction, one of nickel silver in Bb with four keys. The second is all silver (Sterling or similar alloy) in C with engraved presentation, including the date: December 30, 1862. These follow the design of fifes that Walter Crosby made, both while sharing a shop with Henry Sibley and after, although all known examples are wooden construction with metal ferrules. Sibley’s and Crosby’s shop at 19 Hawley Street had been sold after the former’s death in 1859 and Crosby moved to 59 Court Street, which was less than 1/4 mile walk from Wright’s at 18 Harvard Place. The Hawley Street shop was even closer and it is tempting to make connections between these craftsmen that are not documented. The possible scenarios are that Crosby made these fifes for Wright to sell or that Wright had used Crosby’s design for his metal instruments, just as he had with Sibley’s bugles.

In March of 1864, while still at 18 Harvard Place, Wright advertised in the Boston Herald (third image below), wanting to hire 25 musical instrument makers. Even if he knew that he wouldn’t attract 25 experienced musical instrument makers in Boston, the shop must have been expanding to meet increasing demand. Indeed, based on surviving instruments, this was the most productive period of his career. Later the same year the shop was moved almost half a mile north, to 71 Sudbury Street, leaving the Graves behind but taking with him Henry Esbach and Louis Hartmann. This must have been a larger shop space; we know that they took the entire fourth floor of this six story building, or roughly 7400 square feet. The building on Harvard Place had five stories, but was on a crowded ally with many small shops, theirs being no more than 1300 square feet, which may have been doubled when it was expanded into 19 Harvard Place. The Daniel A. Sanborn fire insurance maps show two large steam boilers at the end of Harvard Place. While it doesn’t indicate the location of the steam engines, they would have been very close, on either side of the two boilers, one for each side of the ally and the 1866 advertisement below indicates the situation in the building just across Wright’s shop. As you can see in the image from the fire map, the majority of the shops in all these buildings were occupied in wood turning and sawing. The shafting driven by these engines provided not just power to most if not all room in these buildings, but a low rumble throughout the work days and into the night. The building at 71 Sudbury Street would also have had steam power throughout. Other tenants there included manufacturers of wood planing and molding machines, steam engines and boilers and others that would have required or benefitted from the power.

In May and June of 1866, Wright placed advertising in the Boston Post and Boston Evening Transcript, with an image of his Bb rotary valve cornet with four side action levers. The three valve version of this cornet and the Eb valve bugle with side action levers are the most often found of his products from the late 1860s. By taking careful measurements of these Bb cornets, it can be shown that they were fairly close copies of Courtois’ Arban model cornet and the later Arbuckle’s Model. Courtois Bb cornets were the choice of most cornet soloist by this time. This 1866 ad. is the earliest mention found of the new (Perinet) piston valve cornets. These had the exact bore dimensions (mouthpipe, valve and bell) of the rotary valve versions and were later developed into the very popular Boston Three Star Cornet.

Instruments found engraved “Made by Wright, Esbach & Hartman” were also made during the 1860s, possibly as early as 1860 when all three of these men were first listed at 18 Harvard Place or as late as 1869, just before the founding of Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory. It is more likely that these were made about the time of the circa 1863 price list illustrated above or as late as 1866/1867, based on design features such as the presence of bell garlands that Wright stopped using by that latter date. This name appears to have been the official name of the partnership throughout the 1860s, even as most instruments were engraved “Made by E.G. Wright & Co.” and is found in several documents. The 1866 Boston Business Directory lists “Wright, Esbach & Hartman” at 71 Sudbury St. and the “Catalog of Bankrupts of the State of Massachusetts”, 1873, states that “Louis F. Hartman of Wright Esbach & Hartman” had petitioned for voluntary bankruptcy on July 20, 1869, which was discharged May 4, 1870. Lastly, the catalog published by Boston in 1874 lists the different firms at the address in the past: “Wright, Esbach & Hartman”, “E.G. Wright & Co.”, “Wright, Gilmore & Co.” and “Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory”. We can’t assume that this list is strictly chronologic, but possibly is.

In 1867, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was listed as sharing the shop at 71 Sudbury after three years of partnership with Graves & Co. at 18 Harvard Place. The very few instruments signed “Wright, Gilmore & Co.” seem to be exactly the same as those signed only by Wright and was the last effort at promoting brass instruments with his fame. An announcement published in the Boston Herald stated that on March 2, 1868 the partnership had ended and Gilmore went on to much more fame and success in his own right.

Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory was formed in 1869 by the partnership of Wright, Esbach & Hartman with Samuel and George Graves continuing to work there. It is likely that one or more of the Hüttl brothers, Emmanuel Riedl and other German trained makers continued to work there, but not clear in documents. Wright ended his partnership with Esbach and Hartmann in 1870, perhaps related to the bankruptcy, and went to work with Hall & Quinby at 62 Sudbury Street. A new junior partner, William Goldman Reed, was taken on as bookkeeper at Boston, likely needed for both his skills and capital needed after Hartman’s bankruptcy. He stayed with Boston until his death in 1905.

Hall & Quinby were across the street and a few doors north from Boston. If they had been somewhat cooperative in business in past years, this wasn’t likely the case at that time. One can imagine invectives called across the street during lunch breaks. For a time some instruments produced in the Hall & Quinby shop were engraved “Made by E.G. Wright & Co., Boston”, and are easily identifiable by a wreath of conventionalized leaves surrounding the signature that was somewhat of a trademark for Hall & Quinby in those years. The designs of these instruments were largely the same as Hall & Quinby, with some modifications. A good example is the Eb soprano pictured below. The most notable difference is that the tuning mouthpipe is fixed to the instrument, whereas on those signed by Hall & Quinby or D.C. Hall, this assembly was almost always detachable.

1870 is also the year that E.G. Wright was granted his only patent. It protected a process that involved masking a surface with varnish and nitrocellulose or other composition and then engraving a design or pattern, thus removing the composition from the engraved surface. The object is then electroplated, depositing the plated metal only on the engraved surface, after which the remaining composition was removed. Only one instrument has come to light that seems to display this method of ornament. It is a solid silver Eb pocket cornet that is otherwise a mystery, not appearing to have been made in either the Boston or Hall & Quinby shops. Pictured below, it also is featured on its own page on this site. Because this instrument displays more design characteristics of those by Lehnert, there is no way of knowing if Wright had anything to do with it or that it was produced before his death. One speculation is that Wright had it made in the shop of Carl Lehnert and B.F. Richardson in order to keep the patented process separate from Hall & Quinby’s business.

After Wright’s death on March 15, 1871, the administer of his estate, Horrace E. Morse, offered to sell the trademark “E.G. Wright & Co.” to Hall & Quinby, which they turned down. Morse then sold the trademark to Esbach, Hartman & Reed. Hall & Quinby continued signing instruments with this name, claiming ownership left to them by the deceased. This provoked restraining order from Morse et al. in July. The defendants filed a demurrer, and after arguments in court, it was overruled. Esbach, Hartman & Reed continued using “Formerly E.G. Wright & Co. in advertising and catalogs for just a few more years thereafter. Hall & Quinby continued to claim to be “owners and managers of the entire stock and tools of the late firm of E.G. Wright & Co.”, at least in advertising in another city (see below).

The final images are from Boston’s first catalog, published in 1869. All of the instruments illustrated are the same designs that had been manufactured by E.G. Wright in the several years previous. His last keyed bugle that we know of had been made about eight years previous. Notice that there are bell garlands on most, but not all of the instruments. The former would have been woodcuts made for a catalog designed before about 1867, after which garlands were no longer installed on the bells. This catalog resides in the Winterthur Museum Library.