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Collection Overview
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Consists of original and published music, business records, correspondence, instructional guides and music examinations, programs, sound recordings, photographs, electrical and mechanical diagrams for several prototype Hawaiian guitars, music instrument catalogs, four original prototype Hawaiian guitars including the first 15-string acoustic guitar, Cruiser, Mini Surfer, and the experimental "Superaxe" guitar with 20 strings, 3 Epiphone Eharp 10-string electric guitars, and Alkire's original acoustic Hawaiian guitar that was used for 1000 radio broadcasts as director and lead guitarist of the Oahu Serenaders during the early 1930s. In addition the collection includes an original Rickenbacher Electro "Frying Pan" guitar. The papers and instruments document Eddie Alkire's career as a musician, music teacher, businessman and inventor. The collection also documents the evolution of Hawaiian guitar performance in America during its height of popularity between 1929 and 1960.
Biographical Note
Elbern H. "Eddie" Alkire (1907-1981) was America's most recognized performer, teacher, and innovator of the twentieth-century Hawaiian guitar. Born and raised in rural West Virginia Alkire utilized his skills as a guitarist and musician to become a teacher and composer for Oahu Music Company in October 1929 after having traveled to Pittsburgh to study electrical machines as an employee for a West Virginia coal company. He became music director for the Oahu Serenaders which performed on over 1000 coast-to-coast broadcasts for NBC and CBS that aired from Cleveland, Ohio during the first years of network radio. In 1934 Alkire started his own company in Easton, Pennsylvania to publish music and teach the guitar. He utilized his knowledge of electricity to create the first 10-string electric Hawaiian guitar and his music background to create new tunings that enabled him to play four-part harmonies and rapid melodic passages that became the hallmark of his new style of performance.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Accruals:
February 25, 2006
Access Restrictions:
None.
Other Note:
Pages
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Instruments and inventions],
[
Series 2: Publications, compositions and teaching methods],
[
Series 3: Business materials],
[
Series 4: Professional materials],
[Series 5: Personal materials],
[
Series 6: Recordings],
[
Series 7: Photographs],
[
All]
- Series 5: Personal materials
- Sub-Series 1: Personal records and correspondence
- Material dating from the time before Elbern H. Alkire became employed by the Oahu Music Company and moved to Cleveland (ca. 1930)
- Box 110
- Folder 18: International Correspondence Schools books, 1914
- Folder 19: International Correspondence Schools - electrical engineering exams, ca. 1920-29
- Box 113
- Folder 1: Autobiography of early years
- Note from control file: "Written to obtain passport, since Alkire had no birth certificate"
- Folder 2: Handwritten autobiographical notes
- Folder 3: Pages cut from Eddie Alkire's diary
- Folder 4: Letters and milestones
- Folder 5: Pay slips from gate K-30, Westinghouse, 1929-30
- Folder 6: Fairview High School notebook (tab notations)
- Folder 7: Autograph book
- Folder 8: International Textbook Company books, 1926-27
- Folder 9: English and math night school classes, 1929
- Folder 10: Selective service, 1942
- Folder 11: Personal business, 1954
- Folder 12: Contacts, personal business, 1957
- Original container title: "Immediate attention"
- Folder 13: Ka haawina Hawaii
- Hawaiian language lesson
- Folder 14: Newspaper articles, 1951-61
- Folder 15: Stenographer's notebook, 1955
- Folder 16: Handwritten electrical diagrams
- Box 114
- Folder 1: Instructional Correspondence School papers - mathematics, 1926
- Folder 2: Electronics correspondence course notebook, 1929
- Folder 3: _Westinghouse Magazine_, 1929
- Folder 4: Instructional Correspondence School papers, 1932
- Folder 5: Historical personal correspondence, 1954-55
- Folder 6: Holiday correspondence, 1976-78
- Folder 7: Alkire quartette, haggard, etc.
- Folder 8: Eharp programs
- Folder 9: Town Hall (New York) recital programs, 1950
- Folder 10: Cerebral Palsy benefit, 1951
- Sub-Series 2: Scrapbooks and memorabilia
- Box 112
- Folder 4: Concert poster (Astor, WV), 1956
- Folder 5: Scrapbook materials, 1937-41
- Box 114
- Folder 11: Scrapbook materials, 1935-39
- Folder 12: Scrapbook materials, 1940s
- Folder 13: Scrapbook materials, 1946-48
- Folder 14: Scrapbook materials, 1945-49
- Folder 15: Scrapbook materials, 1949
- Folder 16: Scrapbook materials, 1950
- Folder 17: Scrapbook materials, 1951-53
- Folder 18: Scrapbook materials, 1955
- Folder 19: Scrapbook materials
- Note from control file: "_Fretted Instrument News_ May 23, 1939, program at Providence, RI where Alkire premiered his 10-string Eharp;"
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Note from control file: "_Fretted Instrument Guild of America_, Sept-Oct. 1976, Notes on Alkire-Cuneo performance in Ashville, NC, where Alkire premiered the Mini-surfer, his last instrument"
- Folder 20: Guide to the World's Fair in New York, 1940
- Box 115
- Folder 2: Scrapbook, ca. 1929-32
- Box 116
- Folder 1: Scrapbook, ca. 1932
- Box 117
- Folder 1: Scrapbook no. 3, 1934-37
- Folder 2: Scrapbook, ca. 1932-42
- Box 118
- Folder 1: Scrapbook no. 4, 1937-42
- Folder 2: Scrapbook no. 5, 1933-39
- Box 119
- Folder 1: Scrapbook no. 6, 1935-39
- Folder 2: Scrapbook no. 8, 1941-42
- Box 120
- Folder 1: Scrapbook no. 7, 1940
- Box 121
- Folder 1: Scrapbook no. 9, 1942-47
- Folder 2: Scrapbook no. 10, 1940-47
- Box 133
- Folder 8: Correspondence school machine diagrams, ca. 1929
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Instruments and inventions],
[
Series 2: Publications, compositions and teaching methods],
[
Series 3: Business materials],
[
Series 4: Professional materials],
[Series 5: Personal materials],
[
Series 6: Recordings],
[
Series 7: Photographs],
[
All]
Holdings 