That would mean that our trumpet could not be older than 1915, which did not add up with our serial number. Conn retired and sold it to Carl Greenleaf in 1915. Conn Ltd.” However, the company did not change its name to this until after C. As cool as it would be to have a 122-126 year old trumpet in good condition in our collection, it ended up being too good to be true.Īfter some research on the Conn Company, we learned that it was founded in 1876 by Charles Gerard Conn, and it went by various names, mainly “Conn” or “Conn Instruments.” Our trumpet is engraved with “C. What we thought was the serial number on the trumpet was “33351,” and according to the Conn Loyalist webpage and the Conn-Selmer site, this would date the horn sometime between 1891-1895. We began the identifying process by searching up the serial number on Conn trumpet databases. ” This gave us a start on our hunt: it had to be at least manufactured before 1962. This trumpet was used in the cadet band before they changed to a drum and trumpet band. Porter’s trumpet sold to Sydney Horton in 1962. It arrived with a small tag that gave us just enough information to launch our investigation.

One of the most important things to remember when donating items to any heritage organization is to provide as much background information on the item or items as possible. USA,” on the bell and surrounding the text is a gorgeous floral pattern. Last year, we acquired a trumpet in our collection as a part of some old Wolfville School memorabilia. Our very first blog post of the 2017 season is upon us! Lauryn Wadden, an aspiring music teacher and the museum’s Heritage Interpreter (seriously if you haven’t been given a tour by her you should come right now and get one!) has written this interesting piece about one of our newest acquisitions to the permanent collection!Ī Sleuth in Action: Solving the Trumpet Mystery

Conn trumpet serial number lookup