Mugwumps - a chunk of vintage instrument history

[Bob A]

I found a set of Mike Holmes's "Mugwumps" which eventually morphed into "Mugwumps Instrument Herald".

It started out as a sort of informative catalog, with a few items for sale, and developed into a source of information on vintage instruments and music, documenting the folk music scene. Begun in 1972, it ran until 1983 - at least, that's the last one I have.

The first volume of 6 issues is in xerox form, received thus from Mike; volume 1 number 1 is incomplete. The rest are in the original form as distributed, except vol 2 #2, xeroxed.

This would seem to be of interest to someone studying the folk music scene of the period. Chuck full of old and contemporary photos, and articles on instruments like bagpipes, reed organs, ukelins, and the whole range of the obscure and eclectic.

This belongs in some kind of equally obscure archive. Is there an academic site that needs these? Suggestions?

[dhergert]

Is any of what you're looking for found at Michael Holm's "Mugwumps" website?

[Bob A]

Is any of what you're looking for found at Michael Holm's "Mugwumps" website?

I'm not looking for anything; I have the original hard copies of Mugwumps, and I was wondering what I should do with them. I see them as primary source information from the period. It seemed to me that they might be of some little interest?

There seems too be much in the hard copy that is absent from the website.

[rcc56]

It occurs to me that Jim Bollman [one of the authors of "America's Instrument: the Banjo in the Nineteenth Century"] or Bob Smakula www.smakula.com/index.html would be good care-takers.

If you need Jim's contact information, pm me.
Both are historians concerned with the stuff that Mugwumps covered.

[Graham McDonald]

It would seem like a useful project to scan the hardcopies and get them onto a website somewhere as a resource in the way of many niche journals. There will always be someone muttering about copyright, but who in any practical way is going to see such publications as a money making exercise. A take-down policy can always be included.

Writing from the viewpoint of a sometime instrument historian 8-)

Cheers

[MikeEdgerton]

Or you could check with Michael Holmes' family and see if they have a copy. They might enjoy seeing it if they have not. There's an e-mail button on the bottom of the Mugwumps site. Mike Holmes made a contribution to the vintage stringed instrument community that has been invaluable to many of us.

[Timbofood]

I used to LOVE reading that! Talk about a treasure trove of fascinating information!

[Jim Garber]

Or you could check with Michael Holmes' family and see if they have a copy. They might enjoy seeing it if they have not. There's an e-mail button on the bottom of the Mugwumps site. Mike Holmes made a contribution to the vintage stringed instrument community that has been invaluable to many of us.

I agree with Mike. Mugsumps.com is still live thanks to his family, mostly his son. On the home page it says:

We keep this site alive in loving memory of Michael I Holmes, husband, father, grandfather, purveyor and facilitator of all things musical.

I would truly be surprised if Mike didn’t keep every copy of the magazines. I was a subscriber and I have all the issues I received. And I know both Bollman and Smakula and would be surprised that they did not have some or complete sets. Back then I also subscribed to all the mainstream acoustic magazines: Frets, Pickin’, Sing Out!, and the more obscure ones like Mugwumps, Mandocrucian Digest (by our own Niles H), Mandolin World News, Mandolin Magazine and probably a few others I can’t recall. Plus I am a charter subscriber to Fretboard Journal. Plus I am a pack rat.