Colorado's band history music to our ears

 Folk and traditional music has been a Colorado mainstay since the early days of statehood, and has taken on many forms. Following are just a few examples in historic photos.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Thing of the past ...
 

Indian Band, Ft. Lewis School
Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)
Date: [1892-1910]
The Fort Lewis School Indian Band poses outdoors with their instruments near Fort Lewis, La Plata County, Colorado. One boy holds a drum major's baton. The Native American (tribe unknown) boys wear uniforms with hats. Pins on their hats read: "TIB". Members of a fraternal order stand on a float behind the band. They wear robes, sashes, and conical hats.
Formerly F-26700; Photographer's stamp on back of cabinet card: "Finishing for Amateurs. 713 N. Tejon Street, Colorado Springs, Colo."; Title written on back of cabinet card. Vintage photographic print.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Thing of the past ...

United Rico Cornet Band
Date: [1900-1920]
Men from the United Rico Cornet Band pose with their instruments near commercial buildings and an aerial mine tramway in Rico, Dolores County, Colorado. The cable ore car has number "18" on it. The men hold cornets, trombones, drums, tubas (or euphoniums), clarinets and French horns. They wear suits, ties, hats; some wear knickers and caps. Women and men stand in the background. Signs read: "Laundry" and "Restaurant." Shows a brick building with a tower and dormers, houses and utility poles.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 Thing of the past ...

Colo. State Indust. School, battalion
Creator: Rocky Mountain Photo Company
Date: [1928]
Boys and young men of the battalion band pose on steps of the Administration Building, State Industrial School (name change in 1961 to Lookout Mountain School for Boys) Golden, Jefferson County, Colorado. A Black man with baton and a bass drummer with drumstick flank the group. Musical instruments include a snare drum, clarionets, tubas, french horns, saxophones, trumpets and cornets.
Denver Public Library Special Collections

Thing of the past ...

Circus
Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)
Date: 1898
Members of a brass band pose with their instruments near a circus tent, Sunflower (Flower) Carnival, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. Instruments include drums, a trombone, cymbals and a trumpet, The men stand near a tall-sided horse drawn wagon. The men wear long coats and some wear hats.
Original Material Found in H. S. Poley collection.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Thing of the past ...

Band
Date:[1910-1917?]
A band leader and members of a brass band practice in an open field. The band is made up of young men and boys probably from the Sells Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Charles Orville Walters is second from the left. Denver Public Library Special Collections.  

Thing of the past ... 

 

Rural folk band 

Latinos/Hispanics in Colorado Collection; image no. VL1.
Contributor: Lopez, Viola R.
Date: [between 1915 and 1920?]
Brothers José Filiberto Martinez, far left with violin and Gaspar Martinez, 2nd left with guitar, play with a rural folk band in San Luis Valley, Colorado. Other musicians include a second man with a violin, a man with a washtub, and two men with mandolins. A man in a light colored derby, and with a cigar in his mouth holds drumsticks and a drum. Three of the men wear straw hats with silk bands, one man wears a cap.
Original Material Found in Collection Latinos/Hispanics in Colorado Collection
Digital Version Created From loan; Viola R. Lopez; 2010.
Item Owned By: Auraria Library
Content derived from inventory prepared by Dana EchoHawk.; From inventory: "In the early 1900's, Filiberto also played with the Bethman's Buccaneer's who occasionally performed live on KGIW Radio station, Alamosa, Colorado."; Modern copy print.; Penciled on verso of photographic print: "José Filiberto Martinez, far left with violin. Born April 11, 1879, Costilla. New Mexico. Died: Nov. 13, 1968, Denver, Colo." and "Gaspar Martinez, 2nd left with guitar. Born: Nov. 15, 1883, San Luis, Colo. Died: Sept. 13, 1968, Denver, Colo. Brother of Filiberto Martinez."

Thing of the past ...

Telluride (Colo.) band in Bridal Veil Park
Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912
Date:1886 Sept
Donor: T.J. McKee
Men wear suits and hats and hold musical instruments including tubas, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and a bass drum in a meadow below the San Juan Mountains near Telluride (San Miguel County), Colorado. Ingram Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Ingram Peak are in the distance.
Denver Public Library Special Collections

 Thing of the past ...

 

The old court house

Denver Public Library Special Collections

Date: circa 1882

Donor: Chamber of Commerce

Men line up for a Memorial Day Parade on 2nd (Second) Street in Canon City (Fremont County), Colorado. Shows a drum corps, a man with an American flag, a brass band and men in uniform. Men, women and children watch the parade on foot and in carriages. Houses and the Fremont County Courthouse are in the distance. The courthouse is a three story Victorian brick and stone building with a mansard metal roofs, a clock tower, a widows' walk, coursing and chimneys.

Thing of the past...

Railroad Shop Band

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Shop Band pose with a locomotive in Monument, in the 1920s. 

Lucretia Vaile Museum, Palmer Lake Historical Society

Thing of the past ...

Loveland Cornet band at Hanging Rock

Creator: Buckwalter, Harry H.

The Loveland Cornet Band poses for a group photo at Hanging Rock, probably Clear Creek Canyon, Jefferson County, Colorado. Some band members stand on the railroad tracks in front of the rear railroad, car no. 823, of the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf railroad train.

Date: [between 1890 and 1900]

History Colorado, Buckwalter Collection, Book II, no. 1