Expert: Kenton Scott - 11/16/2009

Question
I work for a museum that just acquired a Mellophone that I'm trying to identify and research.  It looks like it could be a Pan American.  Horn has no manufacturer information.  The following inscription is located on the bell, "Manufactured Exclusively for Mosaic Templars of America".  My museum preserves the history of this African American fraternal organization, but we didn't know that the organization had/used musical instruments such as this until it came to the museum. Did/could Pan American make custom instruments?  S/N is 79473 and is located on the 2nd valve. Any way to identify custom-made mellophones?

Answer
Pan American would sell its instruments to other entities and allow them to engrave them with their own information.  If that is a Pan Am serial number it would date it to 1931.  

Here is an example of a Pan Am mellophone:  http://www.horn-u-copia.net/instruments/Conn/Pan-American-mello-62E.jpg

They made three models:  58, 62, 96.  The 52 and 62 look much alike.  The 96 was a Cavalier and looked like:  http://www.horn-u-copia.net/instruments/Conn/Cavalier-Elkhart-Indiana-US.jpg