Samuel Swaim Stewart (January 8, 1855—April 6, 1898), also known as S. S. Stewart, was a musician, composer, publisher, and manufacturer of

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

s. He owned the S. S. Stewart Banjo Company, which was one of the largest banjo manufacturers in the 1890s, manufacturing tens-of-thousands of banjos annually. He also published the S. S. Stewart Banjo and Guitar Journal from 1882 to 1902. He is known today for his efforts to remake the banjo into an instrument of cultural sophistication and for his high-quality banjos.Gura, p. 139 For Stewart, that sophistication included learning to properly sight-read music, so as to be able to play the "proper repertoire" for middle-class citizens.Gura, p. 140-141

Childhood

Stewart's father was a physician and "medical director" for Swaim's Panacea, a

patent medicine A patent medicine (sometimes called a proprietary medicine) is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders a ...

. His family was well off and pushed Stewart toward a music career.Gura, p. 140 He began training on the violin when he was 12 under Professor Carl Gaertner.Gura, p. 139-140 Stewart was inspired to play the banjo by hearing banjoist Lew Simmons play at a concert, when Stewart was a boy. He purchased a tack-head banjo (banjo with skin sound-table nailed to the instrument's head with tacks) to learn to play and was disappointed with the instrument's quality, especially when comparing it to his violin. Although discouraged by his initial banjo experience, he got instruction in 1872 from George C. Dobson of Boston and Joseph Ricket of Philadelphia. With his earlier training toward a classical-violin career, he didn't need much musical instruction; he became a good enough player, that after "several lessons, " he himself began teaching others to play.

Teaching, publishing and sales career built on standards

When Stewart began learning and teaching the banjo, the instrument was embedded in an era of the

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minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

and variety shows.Gura, p. 138, 144, 163 Initially, he taught what was standard for banjo performing repertoire, organizing a minstrel show.Gura, p. 143-144 Then he took a step away from the minstrel music that was the popular music of its day, embracing European music and society culture and envisioning the banjo in that setting. He pushed European music as proper for the banjo, to make it the equivalent of the violin. In his efforts to change the banjo's image, he was facing an established culture which he considered "vulgar", the banjo frequently being the instrument of the "variety parlors and drinking saloons" and dance halls instead of in middle class homes with ladies and gentlemen. Using his ''S.S. Stewart's Banjo and Guitar Journal'' he promoted performances and recitals. As he began selling his banjos and publishing, Stewart began competing to with his former teacher George Dobson, who had come out with a simplified way of teaching people to play. Dobson's method didn't teach students to read sheet music, and Stewart felt they would be struck at the level of picking out simple songs. He felt students should learn to read sheet music from the beginning so that they could progress into more complex and satisfying songs.

Building an S. S. Stewart banjo

Alongside teaching, he began making banjos. His banjo rims were made of a layer of

German silver Nickel silver, maillechort, German silver, argentan, new silver, nickel brass, albata, or alpacca is a cupronickel (copper with nickel) alloy with the addition of zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver ...

outside of a wooden layer.Gura, p. 161-162 The silver folded over a wire on top of the wooden rim, and the silver and wire were sandwiched between the wood rim and the skin. Stewart felt that the silver-and-wood combination would produce the best tone, a combination of the silver ring of metal with pure tones from wood. Having arrived at this conclusion, he committed to it, while his competition continued to develop their banjos, which eventually may have reached a quality to surpass his. His company became a major manufacturer, competing with Lyon and Healy, A. C. Fairbanks and William A. Cole. These men and their companies were producing some of the highest quality banjos of the '' Classic Era'' (1880s-1910s). Stewart and his company were part of a larger movement to create the banjo into an instrument of concert halls. Others participating in this movement included Fred Van Eps, Vess Ossman, Frederick J. Bacon, Alfred A. Farland and George W. Gregory. These players were to take on European works by Beethoven, Paganini and Mendelssohn. He associated with some of the better banjo players of his time, including E. M. Hall, Horace Weston, John H. Lee and William A. Huntley, promoting them in his journal and printing their endorsements of his products.

Gallery

File:Lew Simmons.jpg, Lew Simmons, a 19th century musician who played blackface minstrel music inspired Stewart to learn the banjo File:Advertisement for S. S. Stewart Concert, Orchestras and Parlor banjos.jpg, 1884. Stewart declares the intended venues of his instruments, concert halls, orchestra music and women's parlors. File:S S Stewart orchestra banjo number two at the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City.jpg, S. S. Stewart orchestra banjo #2, at the American Banjo Museum. File:Advertisement, S. S. Stewart’s Little Wonder Piccolo Banjo or Mandolin Banjo.jpg, S. S. Stewart’s Little Wonder Piccolo Banjo or Mandolin Banjo File:S.S. Stewart Little Wonder Piccolo, 1892, American Banjo Museum.jpg, Stewart designed the Little Wonder piccolo banjo to play very high notes in a banjo orchestra. File:S. S. Stewart's Presentation Banjo.jpg, 1883 Advertisement: S. S. Stewart's Presentation Banjo, in Horace Weston's "Seek No Further March" sheet music. File:S S Stewart Presentation Banjo, 1894, sn 15667, at the American Banjo Museum.jpg, S. S. Stewart Presentation Banjo from 1884 at the American Banjo Museum File:Headstock of a S S Stewart Presentation Banjo, 1894, sn 15667, at the American Banjo Museum.jpg, Headstock a S. S. Stewart Presentation Banjo sn 15667 File:Pocahontas carving on neck of S S Stewart Presentation Banjo, 1894, sn 15667, at the American Banjo Museum.jpg, Pocahontas carving on neck of a S. S. Stewart Presentation Banjo, depicting Pocahontas File:Pocahontas carving and decorated interior of banjo head on S S Stewart Presentation Banjo, 1894, sn 15667, at the American Banjo Museum.jpg, Rim of layered

and wood. Wood here is inlaid. Presentation banjos were meant to be fine works of art. File:Sss basslargead.gif, Advertisement taking about

bass banjo There are multiple instruments referred to as a bass banjo. The first to enter real production was the five-string cello banjo, tuned one octave below a five-string banjo. This was followed by a four-string cello banjo, tuned CGDA in the same ran ...

s File:Stewartbanjos.jpg, S. S. Stewart bass banjo (left) and banjeaurine. Stewart invented the banjeaurine for a higher or lead voice in banjo orchestras File:S. S. Stewart signature.jpg, Signature of Samuel Swaim Stewart

Swain versus Swaim

His full name has been written as: *S. S. Stewart *Samuel Swain Stewart *Samuel Swaim Stewart *Swain Stewart *Swaim Stewart *Swaim S. Stewart *S. Swaim Stewart. Swain appears on his obituary, on 8 April 1898 in the Philadelphia Times and in the 1860 U.S. census. Swaim appears on his tombstone, on city directories from his lifetime (including 1879, 1880, 1889,), 1890, 1891, 1892, 1895), his church admission record in 1868, the 1870 U.S. census and US Patent number US355896A.

References

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External links

Smithsonian Museum, S. S. Stewart banjo
American classic-fingerstyle banjoists Banjo makers Musicians from Philadelphia 1855 births 1898 deaths