Unknown Zither Club

Do you have an item of historical interest to share with the zither community? Did you have an ancestor that played the zither? This is the place to share your stories.

Moderator: Dave

Post Reply
User avatar
Dave
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:55 pm
Location: Chestertown, Maryland
Contact:

Unknown Zither Club

Post by Dave »

A reader of the web site, Colin R., shared these photos and is hoping to identify the zither club shown, which may be German or American. He provided the following background information:

"About 15 years ago, I found a group portrait of a zither orchestra in a Philadelphia thrift shop. I went to a few music shops locally, but nobody could help me identify the group. The group is large (26 members) with men, women, and kids, and looks 1890s based on clothing. It is taken in a studio, without (unfortunately) any identifying info, and I do not know if it has any connection to Philadelphia. They all wear ribbons and a distinctive lapel button which may be a clue. I would love to find more info about the group."
Attachments
unk_club_a.jpg
unk_club_a.jpg (151.63 KiB) Viewed 2121 times
unk_club_b.jpg
unk_club_b.jpg (129.22 KiB) Viewed 2121 times
unk_club_c.jpg
unk_club_c.jpg (121.11 KiB) Viewed 2121 times
unk_club_d.jpg
unk_club_d.jpg (137.14 KiB) Viewed 2121 times
We do not take humor seriously enough. —Konrad Lorenz
Rudy Mueller
Posts: 603
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:33 am
Location: Grafton WI 53024 RMUELLERMKE@GMAIL.COM

Re: Unknown Zither Club

Post by Rudy Mueller »

there were 20+ adults in the photo. a good guess is that 10 copies of the photo were made. elsewhere at another section of this forum is reference to the german societies of pennsylvania and 5 zitherists. it would not be surprising if one or more of these had the same photo in a locker somewhere.

another point of interest: is that guitar to the front-right a customized kontra??? and they said it couldn't be done!

happy hunting. at one of the sheboygan werdenfelser trachtenfests, my friend emil pulled out an old photograph, and said,"rudy, we can identify every one in the picture except this young girl. do you have any idea who it is?" i replied "yes emil, i have the identical picture at home, and that is my tante ella". it's a small world. keep on looking. btw, ella was also a zither player, and worked as a nanny in sheboygan at the time.

rudy mueller
Rudy Mueller
Posts: 603
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:33 am
Location: Grafton WI 53024 RMUELLERMKE@GMAIL.COM

Re: Unknown Zither Club

Post by Rudy Mueller »

the guitar on the right hand front looks like it has four additional (kontra???) strings. any comments anyone??

rudy mueller
Post Reply