Oldest Known NAMM Member Photo Donated
NAMM Receives Donation of Photograph Depicting Membership In 1915 from Granddaughter of Past President Alfred LaMotte
NAMM recently announced that it has added a photograph of the association’s Membership from 1915 to its archives thanks to a donation from Sue Matthews, the granddaughter of NAMM Past President Alfred LaMotte and the daughter of NAMM Past Board Member William McNamara.
The panoramic photograph features Members in San Francisco during the NAMM Show.
According to NAMM Historian Dan Del Fiorentino, based on the number of NAMM Members in the photo, it appears that the majority of the association’s retailers from 1915 are pictured.
Now the second oldest photo in the NAMM archives, the picture was taken 14 years after NAMM was formed. The oldest photo, dating back to 1904, was purchased from eBay back in 2005 for $10.
“To me, this is a very important donation and addition to our growing collection as it documents a critical moment in our history when NAMM began to expand outside of its New York headquarters and the East Coast to represent music retailers from around the country,” Del Fiorentino said. “Our origins are tied to the piano business in New York, but it is clear from this photograph that within just 14 years the mission of NAMM could apply to music merchants around the country.”
In addition, Del Fiorentino said that this photograph serves as a reminder of how important it is to preserve the industry’s history.
“I only wish I had the chance to interview some of the people in that photograph who were there when NAMM was established in 1901,” he said. “Judging by some of the gray hairs in the photo, some of those NAMM Members were witness to the American Civil War, the industrial revolution and the development of the music publishing and piano industries in our country.”
According to Matthews, her grandfather LaMotte served as the president of NAMM from 1935 to 1936.
Matthews recounted the extensive history and influence her grandfather had within the industry, starting early on in 1904 as the manager of Benjamin Curtaz & Son in San Francisco.
“He was at the store when the 1906 earthquake struck and destroyed the entire establishment,” Matthews said. “But my grandfather kept a lot of records of people who owed money on scraps of paper in his pocket and that was the only record they had when it was all over—he was a hero to the management,” Matthews said.
So it is no wonder that LaMotte was able to preserve a significant historical image that will serve as a reminder to current and future NAMM Members about their involvement in a trade with such a rich history.
If you would like to make a donation of a historical item to the NAMM Resource Center, please contact Dan Del Fiorentino at dand@namm.org.