American Flute Guild is extremely grateful to Lars Kirmser of the Journal of Musical Instrument Technology for permission to reprint and publish this article from The Woodwind Quarterly. We also wish to thank Susan Berdahl for providing the photographs from the Dayton C. Miller collection.

HAYNES, HAYNES, and More HAYNES
by Susan Berdahl

The history of the establishment of the William S. Haynes Co. can not be discussed without telling the story of three people having the identical surname of Haynes: William Haynes, his brother George Haynes, and John C. Haynes (no relation to the brothers).

William S. Haynes

The single efforts and various interactions of these three Haynes men led to the foundation of the Boehm flute making company that very early on influenced others. Already, by the 1920s, William S. Haynes Co. of Boston was considered to be the principal flute maker in the United States. He was in a class by himself and his instruments were of fine quality and were being sent to all parts of the world. (1) America’s leading flute expert and collector, Dayton Miller, aptly described Haynes’ rising stature:

It was Mr. William Haynes who made the flutes for the John C. Haynes Company for the short time that they were in this particular line of work. I think it was largely on account of Mr. Haynes’ influence that flute making has developed so largely. It is quite certain that he is the most prominent maker in this country at the present time and I think it is correct to say that perhaps he is the most eminent flute maker in the world. I would make only one possible exception to the statement that relates to a London maker, but the London makers are apparently losing in standing while Haynes has been gaining. (2)

More than thirty years before, the two Haynes brothers, as a team, innocently ventured into flute making as a passionate pastime, developing skills and knowledge gradually as they went along. Though they both became excellent craftsmen, by nature, they were complimentary counterparts – George was the musician and creative genius, and William, on the other hand, had a head for business. Even though John C. Haynes never made a flute, he had a great deal to do with Boehm flute making in the United States. He was largely responsible for establishing William S. Haynes as a flute maker. Besides adding a dimension of destiny, the coincidence of identical surname has no doubt served to reinforce indelibly the name Haynes in the flute world.

EARLY HAYNES BROTHERS
Experiments in Providence 1883-1886
The Haynes brothers were born just two years apart (William was born in 1864 and George in 1866) to a Virginia school teacher and a New England sea captain.(3) They grew up together in East Providence, Rhode Island. Younger brother George was the only flute player of the family. He had lessons on the old system flute with R. H. Fairman(4) and was accomplished enough to play in theatres and with the Reeves American Band as a boy(5). Once when ushering at concerts for spending money, George Haynes met with the flute section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was extremely fascinated with their modern Boehm system instruments.

Early factory days at Haynes

The Boston flute players, impressed with George’s keen interest, loaned the Haynes brothers a wood Boehm flute to copy. They worked together on this first rough copy, completing it after one year’s work. The finished instrument was beautifully made with pewter keys, but it played poorly and out of tune. By the time the Haynes brothers started this first important project, both had already acquired some skills essential for flute making. At the age of sixteen (1882), William had apprenticed at the famed Gorham Silver Manufacturing Co., as a silversmith. George followed him there, where he learned to be a jeweler and toolmaker. The next time the Boston players visited Providence, they brought a fine piece of grenadilla wood and a copy of Boehm’s Schema. The brothers, George and William, made this piece of wood into their second flute. This one played so well that George himself played it for many years professionally. He and William may have made several other flutes in East Providence, before being persuaded by Edward Heindl, principal flutist of the Boston Symphony, to move to Boston in 1886. (6)

II. The George W. Haynes Co.,
Established , 1886

George Haynes began in Boston with a repair and flute making shop at 147 Tremont. Here, he alone produced the “first Boehm flute made in Boston.”

About one year later, in 1888, his brotherWilliam joined him in this business. Therefore, the year 1888 officially marks the beginning of the professional flute making of William S. Haynes and as such it has been cited in William S. Haynes Co. advertising over the years. This can be a somewhat confusing claim, since the flute making business itself was actually named “George S. Haynes.”For about one year(1889) the brothers were joined by a third party, Eustache Strasser, well-known flute professor at the New England Conservatory. That year the firm was known as “Strasser & Haynes, Musical Instruments,” and it was still located at the Tremont address. It is not known precisely what the business relationship of these three men was, but it is known that Strasser purchased some of the first flutes George and William Haynes made, as did Boston symphony players Edward M. Heindl and Charles Mole. (7) The next year the business name reverted to “George W. Haynes, Musical Instruments” and the shop moved to 22 Chapman.

The two brothers worked together for about six years from 1888 to at least 1894. The only information on flutes made during this partnership is found on a metal shipping plate dated 1890. The plate, now the property of the William S. Haynes Co., is stamped with prices of instruments, showing that flutes and piccolos were made in both wood and silver, the wood flute sold for $130.00, the silver for $165, the wood piccolo for $55.00 and the silver piccolo for $65.00.

III. Flute-making at John C. Haynes and Company, 1894-1900

John C. Haynes was born in Brighton, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, in 1830. After attending the public schools of Boston, he began his life-long association with Oliver Ditson as a fifteen-year old office boy earning $1.50 per week. In 1852, he received an interest in the business and in 1857 became a co-partner. In 1861, Oliver Ditson and Company established its branch for instrument manufacturing and repair under the name of John C. Haynes & Co., with John Haynes as manager. After Oliver Ditson died on 21 December 1888, the parent firm dissolved, whereupon a corporation called the “Oliver Ditson Company” was formed with John C. Haynes as president and general manager. (8) The adjunct division bearing his own name then received a new manager, Charles Williams, and continued in existence until approximately 1904, when it was absorbed back under the Ditson name. By this time the instrumental division was no longer involved in manufacturing , but was primarily a retail store for the sale of pianos and orchestral instruments. After John C. Haynes’ death on 3 May 1907, Charles Healy Ditson, Oliver Ditson’s eldest son, assumed the presidency of the company. Charles Ditson died in 1929, and the Oliver Ditson Company was purchased by Theodore Presser of Philadelphia in 1931. (9)

As a publisher, John C. Haynes was known for his progressive spirit, and he helped to institute the financially magnanimous policies for which Ditson became known. For example, Haynes influenced Ditson to issue the first American editions of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words and the Beethoven Piano Sonatas. He also enjoyed helping young struggling composers. (10) He was responsible for publishing Richardson’s New Method for the Piano. Richardson was poor, young, and unknown at the time and died soon after the publication of his book, but it netted his widow over $100,000 in royalties. (11) When he became president of the firm, John C. Haynes raised the level of and improved the quality of the Ditson publications, at the same time eliminating titles which were inferior. He saw to it that standard works were edited by authorities and re-engraved. Two notable series were also begun: the Music Student’s Library (1891) of more than forty textbooks, and the Musician’s Library (1903), which grew to more than one hundred volumes of song and piano masterpieces. (12) It was with this same zeal and vision that he led the instrument manufacturing division. In 1894 he established the Boehm flute factory of John C. Haynes & Co. – an operation which, however short-lived, had a very considerable impact on that industry in the United States.

In June 1894, William Haynes left his brother’s business to become superintendent of the new Boehm flute manufacturing branch at John C. Haynes and Co. Not long after this, John C. Haynes and Co. announced publicly that they had bought out George W. Haynes:

We beg to announce that we have purchased the stock, fixtures, tools and good will of George W. Haynes, of 40 Sudbury St., Boston, manufacturer of the celebrated Haynes Boehm System Flutes and Piccolos.

Our “Bay State” Flute department remains in charge of Mr. William S. Haynes, but arrangements have been made with his brother, George W. Haynes. By which we secure the combined experience and skill of these two excellent flute makers. (13)

It is not entirely clear whether or not George Haynes actually worked for John C. Haynes, or whether he merely sold his equipment to the company. Apparently, George Haynes continued his own business at 40 Sudbury for one or two years after his brother left, but also had some connection to J.C. Haynes & Co. (at 42 Stanhope) with his brother William, for about one year. At J.C. Haynes & Co., the Haynes brothers made flutes not using their own names, but under the “Bay State” label with the name and/or trademark “J.C. Haynes.”

For six years (1894-1900) William Haynes was superintendent of flute making at John C. Haynes and Company. It should be noted that not all flutes emanating from J.C. Haynes & Co. were handmade in Boston by a man named Haynes. A great number were imports. The company imported all grades of flutes from boxwood simple system instruments to handmade Boehm flutes. Some were stamped with the J.C. Haynes name, but quality instruments were generally not so stenciled. William Haynes concentrated solely on the manufacture of the Boehm system instrument. He worked in German silver, which did not satisfy him since he later declared a preference for Sterling silver. During this period, he was responsible for the first 18-karat gold flute made in America. Through the processes involved in the making of this historic work of art, Haynes inadvertently discovered how to produce the seamless tube. In addition, Haynes gained experience in making all styles and sizes of Boehm flutes and piccolos in use in America at that time. His instruments, sold under the Bay State label, were in demand and praised by the leading professionals in the country, thereby initiating the leadership of this American industry over its foreign competitors.

Two William Haynes instruments made during this six-year period are part of the world renowned Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, housed at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. A cylinder bore blackwood piccolo extending to low C, marked “Bay State/J.C. Haynes & Co./ Boston, Mass./ U.S.A./77” was made in 1897. Miller noted that it was made for Frank Wadsworth, piccolo soloist in Sousa’s band. Sousa’s piccolo parts sometimes called for low C. The piccolo to low C was well known and was not William Haynes’ invention. This piccolo was atypical of his work, as his later piccolos extended only to the traditional low D. The second early Haynes instrument in the Miller Collection was made in 1896 and is a silver plated E-flat flute pitched a minor third above the concert flute. It is engraved without the Bay State mark on the barrel: “THE LITTLE HAYNES TERZ FLUTE/W.S.HAYNES/BOSTON.” Another interesting example surviving from this period is a J.C. Haynes piccolo in D-flat which also has the cylindrical bore. It is marked “Bay State/J.C.HAYNES & CO.BOSTON, MASS./2**8 (number unclear)/L.P.” This piccolo descends to the traditional low D and is owned privately.

Early factory 1916

Knowledge of other flutes made by William Haynes while he was employed by Ditson’s “J.C.Hayness & Co.” is found in company advertisements and brochures. In 1896, the Bay State Factory, as it was known, reported the famous 18-karat gold flute. In addition to this historically significant flute, there were at least ten others referred to in the brochure which had been made in the year 1896 under the supervision of William S. Haynes. (14) This is corroborated by a later account of production of the first three years after 1894:

Two new wooden flutes and sterling silver keys and trimmings were made during the first year, one which was sold to Mr. Paul Fox, then a flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The other became the property of Wm. R. Gibbs, sole agent for the Rudall Carte flutes of London. The second, ten flutes made their appearance and twenty-five the year following. (15)

As mentioned, the E-flat flute made in 1896 was a silver-plated instrument. Haynes later claimed that he never used silver-plate for flutes after he started business under his own name, preferring the more expensive sterling. The existence of the E-flat flute, the evidence of the gold flute, and the metal shipping plate of 1890 with its prices for metal flutes and piccolos substantiate the fact that William S. Haynes was an experienced manufacturer of metal instruments prior to the time when he established his own company.

The Haynes brothers, William and George, had terminated their business relationship before 1897, ostensibly so that George, who had invented a motor-boat engine, could pursue its manufacture. (16) He may have worked on the boat engine in the East, but by 1898 he was living in Los Angeles where he stayed for about nine years, where he, not surprisingly, ended up making both wood and silver flutes under his own name and repairing instruments. The California climate was considered beneficial to his health, which had been poor during the 1890s.

In 1900, William Haynes left J. C. Haynes and Company and began manufacturing independently under his own name, thereby establishing the present William S. Haynes Company.

IV. THE WILLIAM S. HAYNES COMPANY, FOUNDED 1900
The first shop was located at 180-186 Washington Street, Boston. Production figures on Haynes flutes are confusing since it is not known for sure if William Haynes used his own name on any of the flutes he made during the two early business associations he had prior to establishing his own enterprise. It is not known how the flutes were marked which were made while William S. Haynes was in business with his brother George from 1888-1894, or if flutes were marked consistently with the same labeling system. They may have used the marking “THE HAYNES FLUTE” since an instrument with that marking survives with the serial number 245. Though most J.C. Haynes and Co. instruments had the Bay State trademark, William S. Haynes may have used his own name occasionally on special flutes made from 1894 to 1900; the E-flat flute of 1896, for example was marked “THE LITTLE HAYNES TERZ FLUTE” and had no Bay State mark. Once Haynes began his own company in 1900 the flutes were consistently marked “Wm S. Haynes.” (16)

Early factory 1922

The William S. Haynes Company currently reports that at the outset of the company in 1900, serial numbers on flutes and piccolos began at number 507. It is assumed that William S. Haynes had made 506 instruments by 1900, but as already discussed, it is not known when the numbering actually began since surviving John C. Haynes & Company instruments tend not to have serial numbers.

While Carl Wehner, first flutist with the Metropolitan Opera Company Orchestra, was touring in Boston he had occasion to use one of William Haynes’ early flutes made while he was still with J.C. Haynes and Co. in 1898. Wehner liked the flute so much that he purchased it for one hundred dollars and subsequently was responsible for the sale of six more Haynes flutes to his friends and colleagues. Because Wehner was considered the greatest flutist in the country at the time, his recommendation of the Haynes instruments established Haynes’s reputation as a fine maker. (17) Leading professionals subsequently “followed suit” and purchased William Haynes flutes during the Company’s early years. The Haynes Co. publication, A Word to Music Lovers (1902) cites eleven noteworthy flutists as having purchased instruments in 1901 or 1902:

Andre Maquarre, first flutist, Boston Symphony
Otto Stoekert, first flutist, Metropolitan Opera, and former first flutist with Anton Seidl
T. Milton Dillaway, solo flutist, John Lund’s Concert Orchestra in Buffalo, New York
Paul Fox, Boston Symphony
Edwin Timmons, first flutist, Cincinnati Symphony
Alice E. Ball, first flutist, Fadette Orchestra
Edwin Franklin, first flutist, Boston Festival Orchestra and Boston Municipal Band
Charles North, former first flutist with Emil Mollenhaur
and former member Boston Symphony, and tour soloist with Melba
Eugene C. Rose, first flutist and former piccoloist with Damrosch, and flutist for Sousa
Caroline Kimberly, Auburndale, Massachusetts
Robert E. Seel, first flutist U.S. Marine Band, Washington

The most significant single development in American flute history during the early decades of the William S. Haynes Company is the increasing rise in popularity of the silver flute. Haynes was able and willing to capitalize on this change and this fact alone, practically guaranteed his success. In 1913 Haynes began production of a new model of silver flute. In connection with this, he obtained patents in several parts of the world for a method of drawing the tone holes flanges from the substance of the tube itself. Prior to the invention of the drawn tone hole, these tone hole flanges where made from separate material and a complicated procedure was required to form and secure the flanges of the tube. (18) The basic idea used when drawing the tone hole originated with the art of drawing metals on cooking utensils. Drawing the tone holes was quicker and less costly, thereby increasing production and lowering the cost of the instrument at the same time. Since the tone hole was not soldered, it could not leak or work loose due to the disintegration of the naturally soft solder which was sometimes eaten away by acids in the player’s saliva or hands. Haynes wrote that there was an additional advantage in tone quality:

…there is a decided improvement in the tones which are produced on the finished instrument and in the case of blowing as compared with the metal or wooden instruments which have been made up to the present time in which the flanges re-soldered on to the tube and have to be necessarily, in order to make a practical piece of work, of greater thickness than the body portion of the tube. For instance, the flanges in practice, which are soldered to the tube are made of metal five times as thick as the metal forming the body portion of the tube. (19)

Haynes failed to mention that in order to draw tone holes at all, one must use a considerably thicker tube than is required for the soldered application of the flanges. He used 0.018 inch tubing for drawn holes, and 0.013 inch for the soldered, unless otherwise ordered. In fact, Haynes discovered his method for drawing tone holes when trying to find a solder to put tone holes on aluminum tubes. Failing to find a solder, he figured out a way to extrude the tone holes from the tube itself, making special tools for this process.

Though the drawn tone hole was a definite advantage to the manufacturer, some players believed that there were several minor disadvantages. The thicker tubing necessary for the drawn tone hole was thought to be less responsive. It was also said that the stress put on the tube from stretching the metal and the thinning out of the tube toward the tone hole edges caused the tube to vibrate less freely.

Haynes obtained the British patent No. 24.483 (23 October 1913) and the German patent No. 279,921 (1 November 1913). On 12 September 1913 he applied for the United States patent and it was finally granted as No. 1,119,954 on 8 December 1914 (appendix A). This patent also includes protection for the aluminum tube for musical instruments.

Despite the zeal with which William Haynes approached the manufacture of silver flutes, it turned out that the patents were proved to be worthless. William Haynes’s own brother George had made several flutes with drawn tone holes while working in California in the 1890’s! The existence of these flutes nullified the patents. Information on George’s work was never properly relayed to William Haynes who proceeded independently to perfect and patent the process! Once again the Haynes brothers were linked in flute making history. This time, the entire instrument making industry was affected. As William Haynes later remarked, it probably was for the best the procedure was not restricted by patents since it proved to be such a valuable thing on all instruments. Of course, it is now in general use everywhere on all kinds of metal woodwinds. (20) One can only wonder if the Haynes brothers would have contributed so much had they continued their partnership!

NOTES
(DCM is used in the following citations as the abbreviation for the Dayton C. Miller Collection housed at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.)
1. Dayton C. Miller, Letter to Macaulay Fitzgibbon, 22 March 1928, DCM.
2. Dayton Miller, Letter to Christine Merrick Ayars, 23 February 1932, DCM.
3. William Sherman Haynes was born in East Providence, Rhode Island, on Juky 27, 1864 and died in Winter Park, Florida January 28, 1939. George Winfield Haynes was born in East Providence, Rhode Island in 1866 and died in Los Angeles, on July 10, 1947.
4. H. & A. Selmer, Inc., The Dream that Came True, George Haynes Forty Years Ago and Now: The Master Flute (New York, 1921)
5. William S. Haynes Company, The Flute: Boehm Flutes and Piccolos of Modern Construction (Boston, 1923) p.1
6. William S. Haynes Company, Improved Boehm System Flutes and Piccolos (Boston, 1945) p.5
7. William S. Haynes Company, The Flute: Boehm Flutes and Piccolos of Modern Construction (Boston, 1923), pp. 1-2
8. “J. C. Haynes,” A Hundred Years of Music in America, ed. W.S.B. Matthews (Chicago: G.L. Howe, 1889), pp.356-57.
9. William Arms Fischer, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933 (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1933), p.86.
10. “J. C. Haynes,” A Hundred Years of Music in America, ed. W.S. B. Matthews (Chicago: G.L. Howe, 1889), p. 357
11. “J. C. Haynes,” A Hundred Years of Music in America, ed. W.S. B. Matthews (Chicago: G.L. Howe, 1889), p. 357
12. William Arms Fischer, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933 (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1933), p.80.
13. J.C. Haynes and Company, “Of Interest to Flute Players,” advertising flyer (Boston post 1894)), DCM
14. John C. Haynes and Co., Another American Industry Surpasses Foreign Competition: A Notable Achievement in Flute-Making at the ‘Bay State’ Factory As Told in the Musical Record (Boston, (1897)).
15. William S. Haynes Company, Improved Boehm System Flutes and Piccolos (Boston, 1945) p.6
16. William S. Haynes Company, Improved Boehm System Flutes and Piccolos (Boston, 1945) p.6
17. Christine Merrick Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries in Boston, 1640 to 1936 (New York: H.W. Wilson Co., (1937), p.215
18. Each soldered tone hole is formed individually, one at a time. The workman positions and wires the first flange against the tube and then solders it in place. A hole is then cut through the tube of the instrument inside the flange, and its edges are carefully rounded, maintaining a uniform curve. The flange for the next tone hole is then cut and positioned by measuring it in relation to the first, and so on, each tone hole is formed in the same manner.
19. United States Patent No. 1,119,154 (8 December 1914)
20. William S. Haynes, Letter to Dayton Miller, 21 October 1926, DCM
HAYNES Bibliography
Ayars, Christine Merrick. Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries in Boston, 1640 to 1936 (New York: H.W. Wilson Co., (1937), p.215 – 218, 266, 301.
Baasch, Robert J. “Modern Flutes and Their Predecessors.” Ed. D. diss., Columbia Teacher’s College, 1952, pp. 114-36, 141, 153-154, 179
______. “The Flute: Yesterday and Today.” Woodwind Magazine, No 1 (1954), 7; No.2 (1954), 4-5; No.3 (1954), 6-7; No.4 (19154), 6,9,10; No.5 (1955), 6-7; No. 6 (1955), 6-7, 9-10
“Barrere Gives Recital.” New York Times, 21 November 1935.
Bate, Philip. The Flute. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1969, p.210
Berdahl, Susan. “The First Hundred Years of the Boehm Flute in the United States, 1845-1945” Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesotaa, 1986.
Berdahl, Susan. “ A Little-known Episode of Flute Making at the Oliver Ditson Company’s Bay State Factory.” Sacra/Profana. Ed. By Audrey and Clifford Davidson. Minnesota Monograph in Music, No.1. Minneapolis: Friends of Minnesota Music, 1985, pp. 119-137
“Clarinets and Flutes in Silver Warmed by Thermos Bottle Plan.” Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 18, No. 129 (Wednesday, 28 April 1926), 1
Cook, Scott Douglas. “Part of What a Judgement Is.” Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982.
_______. “A Report on the William S. Haynes Company.” Ms., 1978
Durgin, Cyrus. “Ring of Flutemakers Talk About Art and Craft.” Boston Sunday Globe, 22 May 1960, p. 68
Falkenburg, Barth J. “Finely Crafted Flutes – Worth a Four-Year Wait.” Christina Science Monitor, Tuesday, 11 February 1975, p.5A.
Gallese, Liz Roman. “Serious Flute Players Insist Two Companies Are Most Noteworthy.”Wall Street Journal, 1 February 1977, Vol. 57, No. 78, pp1,12
Goodman, Marsha. Haynes and Powell: The Facts and Figures. Santa Monica, CA.
Cal: Rosewood Press, 1984.Rpt. of “The Economics of Flute Production: an In-depth Survey of the William S. Haynes and Verne Q. Powell Flute Companies.” M.A. thesis, University of Southern California, 1983.
Katz, Tonnie. Boston: Flute Making Capital of the World.” Boston Evening Globe, 16 July 1976, p30.
Krivin, Martin. “A Century of Wind Instrumetn Manufacturing in the United States: 1860-1960.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Iowa, 1961, pp. 104-09.
Medicus, Emil. “The Flutist: the Aluminum Flute.” Jacobs’ Orchestra Monthly, 5, No.1 (January 1914), 68-69.

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