Welcome to the 'Ukulele Guild of Hawai'i

The first ‘ukulele was probably made in the 1880s by Portuguese cabinet makers
from the Madeira Islands who emigrated to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1879. Recruited to
work in the Hawaiian sugar cane fields, Madeirans and other natives of the insular
possessions of Portugal and Spain began arriving in large numbers in 1878, and thereafter
for a period of about thirty years. Immigrants from the second boatload of Portuguese made
quite an impression on Honoluluans, according to one local newspaper: two weeks after the
docking of the Ravenscrag in late August, 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that
“Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street
concerts.” The writer also commented on the “very sweet music” played “on strange
instruments which are a kind of cross between a guitar and banjo.” The “strange
instrument” was the little four-string Madeiran guitar, known since the 18th century as the
machete, but destined to become world-famous as the Hawaiian ‘ukulele.

Procession with Machetes (Funchal, Madeira: 1866. Based on Andrew Picken,
1841. Private collection.)

Upon fulfilling their contractual obligations to the sugar industry, many Madeiran
immigrants relocated from the plantations of Kaua‘i, Mäui, and Hawai‘i, to Honolulu,
where they could pursue their former trades in a more cosmopolitan setting. Among these
were the marceneiros and fellow Ravenscrag passengers Jose do Espirito Santo, Manuel
Nunes, and Augusto Dias. Though primarily cabinet makers, Espirito Santo, Nunes, and
Dias followed an ages-old European tradition prevalent in their profession: that of turning
their woodworking skills to the craft of stringed-instrument making, or luthiery. So it is not
unusual to find that Augusto Dias was listed as a “guitar and furniture maker” in the 1884-
85 Honolulu City Directory. In August, 1885, Dias and Nunes took out separate
advertisements in the Portuguese language weekly, O Luso Hawaiiano. Dias advertised
himself as a “Manufactor de violas e machets, e todo o instrumento de corda” (maker of
guitars, machetes, and all stringed instruments) while Nunes advertised his business as a
“marcinaria de instrumentos de corda, violas e machets” (cabinet-maker’s shop of stringed-instruments, guitars, and machetes). The following year, the same paper reported a story
which took place “na loja do [in the shop of] Sr. José do Espirito Santo.” Within seven
years of arriving in Hawai‘i, all three men had apparently resumed their trades as craftsmen,
making furniture and stringed-instruments.

Half-page advertisement of Jose do Espirito Santo (Honolulu City Directory,
1888-89. Hawai‘i State Archives)

By 1886 the machete had taken on another name in Honolulu: taro patch fiddle.
While the name has been applied to several different instruments since then, at that time it
was used to describe any of the small guitars imported or made by the Portuguese. One
local writer clearly held the instrument in contempt, calling it “hideous”; conversely, the
famous author Robert Louis Stevenson looked forward to including the instrument in a
small, musical ensemble made up of family and friends accompanying him on a voyage to
Samoa in 1889. It is Stevenson’s step-daughter, Isobel Strong, who gives us the only
known first-hand account of King playing the ‘ukulele, albeit years after his
death: “He would occasionally pick up a ukulele or a guitar and sing his favorite Hawaiian
song, Sweet Lei-lei-hua.” Much has been made of , the early (and royal)
champion of the ‘ukulele, including anecdotal stories of the instrument being used to
accompany hulas at his Jubilee celebration in 1886, but to date the contemporary record has
yielded scant corroboration.

The Hula (Land of the O-O, 1891. Private collection.)

Take the case of Edward Purvis, who became the king’s assistant chamberlain in
the early 1880s. Purvis, whose nickname was said to be “ukulele” due to his small size and
agility, was reputed to be an accomplished performer on the instrument and subsequently
it’s namesake. Because carefree Hawaiians associated him with the little guitar, it took on
his name. Or so the story goes. But, according to the daily journals of prime
minister, Walter Murray Gibson, Purvis was an intriguer aligned with the king’s political
enemies. In 1886, Gibson suspected Purvis was passing unflattering information about
to the king’s opponents, and that he had been the author of two notorious
pamphlets (distributed anonymously) that portrayed as a drunken, womanizing,
aboriginal dunce, and the son of a Negro menial with no claim to the throne. When the king
was satisfied that his prime minister’s suspicions were true, Purvis was forced to resign.
He ended up in Colorado Springs, and died, presumably of tuberculosis, in 1888.

King Kaläkaua, center, and Edward Purvis, second from left. (Hawai‘i State
Archives)

Another difficulty in taking the Purvis anecdote at face value is that the earliest
known published reference to the little Portuguese guitar as an “ukulele” occurred in 1895,
in the Hawaiian Gazette. The earliest known use of the u-k-e spelling dates to 1891, in a
travel book about Hawai‘i. The author, Helen Mather, observed the “ukelele” being used
with the five-string taro patch fiddle to accompany a hula aboard the Australia en route
from San Francisco to Honolulu. The u-k-e spelling gives some credence to Gurre Ploner
Noble’s assertion that the instrument derived it’s name from the strumming technique of the
player: uke means “to strike” and lele “to jump.” Both spellings show up interchangeably
in the Gazette between 1895-1904, however, the frequency of it’s mention is surprisingly
small: less than half a dozen times over the same ten-year-period.

Helen Mather’s “ukelele” (1891. Private collection.)

Espirito Santo was the first to advertise “ukuleles” in the City Directory, in 1898,
the same year that Dias advertised “instruments made of Hawaiian wood”. Despite
increasing awareness of the little instrument, the two surviving (Santo died in 1905)
Portuguese makers remained without serious competition until the end of the first decade of
the twentieth century, when native Hawaiians Ernest Kaai, Jonah Kumalae, and James
Anahu entered the field. About 1910, Manuel Nunes along with his sons Leonardo and
Julius, started a production company, M. Nunes & Sons. Nunes’ claim to having been the
inventor of the ‘ukulele dates from this period, and while it may have been good marketing,
it was bad history. That Nunes invented the instrument is routinely reported to this day, a
claim for which there is no credible evidence.

Advertisement for M. Nunes & Sons (Honolulu City Directory, 1916. Hawai‘i
State Archives)

While the ‘ukulele gained acceptance and popularity in Hawai‘i, it also began
showing up on the mainland, first documented at the World’s Columbian Exposition in
Chicago in 1893, were it was used by a quartet of Hawaiian singers, along with Spanish
guitars and the five-string taro patch fiddle, to serenade visitors to the Kïlauea Cyclorama
exhibit. Over the following decades, Hawaiians continued to promote their unique hybrid
music, of which the ‘ukulele was an integral part, at world’s fairs in San Francisco, Omaha,
Buffalo, Portland, and Seattle, and through vaudevilles and chautauquas across the country.
By 1910, the instrument was very popular on the West Coast, and being sold by the Ditson
Co. in New York City. When Oliver Morosco opened the play “The Bird of Paradise” in
Los Angeles in 1911, it featured a running accompaniment of Hawaiian music supplied by
a quintet of native musicians on-stage. Though not the first stage play to do so (“The Echo”
had featured steel guitarist Joseph Kekuku the previous year) the non-stop nature of the
music, along with it’s novel character captivated audiences and whetted America’s appetite
for more. And more came in February of 1915, with the opening of the Panama Pacific
International Exposition in San Francisco. Historically credited with popularizing the
‘ukulele and Hawaiian music on the mainland, the PPIE simply confirmed what many in
America already knew: they couldn’t get enough of it.

Anthony Zablan (Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901. Hawai‘i State
Archives)

A featured performer at ‘Ukulele Expo 2001 & 2002, and Uke Fest West, John King began
playing the ‘ukulele while living in Hawai‘i in 1960. He has recorded two CDs for Nalu
Music, Royal Hawaiian Music and J. S. Bach: Partita No. 3, both of which have been
featured on NPR's All Songs Considered. Mr. King is a contributor to the Hawaiian
Journal of History and his book/CD collection of the music of early 20th century ‘ukulele
pioneers was published by Mel Bay in May 2004. Currently, he is completing a project for
Flea Market Music’s Ukulele Masters series, and co-authoring a scholarly history of the
‘ukulele for a major university press.

Jul	AUG	Sep
	03
2003	2004	2005

HISTORY	Dis~n~Dat \| History of the 'Ukulele \| Links \| Annual Exhibition
	PROLEGOMENA TO A HISTORY OF THE ‘UKULELE by John King The first ‘ukulele was probably made in the 1880s by Portuguese cabinet makers from the Madeira Islands who emigrated to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1879. Recruited to work in the Hawaiian sugar cane fields, Madeirans and other natives of the insular possessions of Portugal and Spain began arriving in large numbers in 1878, and thereafter for a period of about thirty years. Immigrants from the second boatload of Portuguese made quite an impression on Honoluluans, according to one local newspaper: two weeks after the docking of the Ravenscrag in late August, 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that “Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts.” The writer also commented on the “very sweet music” played “on strange instruments which are a kind of cross between a guitar and banjo.” The “strange instrument” was the little four-string Madeiran guitar, known since the 18th century as the machete, but destined to become world-famous as the Hawaiian ‘ukulele. Procession with Machetes (Funchal, Madeira: 1866. Based on Andrew Picken, 1841. Private collection.) Upon fulfilling their contractual obligations to the sugar industry, many Madeiran immigrants relocated from the plantations of Kaua‘i, Mäui, and Hawai‘i, to Honolulu, where they could pursue their former trades in a more cosmopolitan setting. Among these were the marceneiros and fellow Ravenscrag passengers Jose do Espirito Santo, Manuel Nunes, and Augusto Dias. Though primarily cabinet makers, Espirito Santo, Nunes, and Dias followed an ages-old European tradition prevalent in their profession: that of turning their woodworking skills to the craft of stringed-instrument making, or luthiery. So it is not unusual to find that Augusto Dias was listed as a “guitar and furniture maker” in the 1884- 85 Honolulu City Directory. In August, 1885, Dias and Nunes took out separate advertisements in the Portuguese language weekly, O Luso Hawaiiano. Dias advertised himself as a “Manufactor de violas e machets, e todo o instrumento de corda” (maker of guitars, machetes, and all stringed instruments) while Nunes advertised his business as a “marcinaria de instrumentos de corda, violas e machets” (cabinet-maker’s shop of stringed-instruments, guitars, and machetes). The following year, the same paper reported a story which took place “na loja do [in the shop of] Sr. José do Espirito Santo.” Within seven years of arriving in Hawai‘i, all three men had apparently resumed their trades as craftsmen, making furniture and stringed-instruments. Half-page advertisement of Jose do Espirito Santo (Honolulu City Directory, 1888-89. Hawai‘i State Archives) By 1886 the machete had taken on another name in Honolulu: taro patch fiddle. While the name has been applied to several different instruments since then, at that time it was used to describe any of the small guitars imported or made by the Portuguese. One local writer clearly held the instrument in contempt, calling it “hideous”; conversely, the famous author Robert Louis Stevenson looked forward to including the instrument in a small, musical ensemble made up of family and friends accompanying him on a voyage to Samoa in 1889. It is Stevenson’s step-daughter, Isobel Strong, who gives us the only known first-hand account of King playing the ‘ukulele, albeit years after his death: “He would occasionally pick up a ukulele or a guitar and sing his favorite Hawaiian song, Sweet Lei-lei-hua.” Much has been made of , the early (and royal) champion of the ‘ukulele, including anecdotal stories of the instrument being used to accompany hulas at his Jubilee celebration in 1886, but to date the contemporary record has yielded scant corroboration. The Hula (Land of the O-O, 1891. Private collection.) Take the case of Edward Purvis, who became the king’s assistant chamberlain in the early 1880s. Purvis, whose nickname was said to be “ukulele” due to his small size and agility, was reputed to be an accomplished performer on the instrument and subsequently it’s namesake. Because carefree Hawaiians associated him with the little guitar, it took on his name. Or so the story goes. But, according to the daily journals of prime minister, Walter Murray Gibson, Purvis was an intriguer aligned with the king’s political enemies. In 1886, Gibson suspected Purvis was passing unflattering information about to the king’s opponents, and that he had been the author of two notorious pamphlets (distributed anonymously) that portrayed as a drunken, womanizing, aboriginal dunce, and the son of a Negro menial with no claim to the throne. When the king was satisfied that his prime minister’s suspicions were true, Purvis was forced to resign. He ended up in Colorado Springs, and died, presumably of tuberculosis, in 1888. King Kaläkaua, center, and Edward Purvis, second from left. (Hawai‘i State Archives) Another difficulty in taking the Purvis anecdote at face value is that the earliest known published reference to the little Portuguese guitar as an “ukulele” occurred in 1895, in the Hawaiian Gazette. The earliest known use of the u-k-e spelling dates to 1891, in a travel book about Hawai‘i. The author, Helen Mather, observed the “ukelele” being used with the five-string taro patch fiddle to accompany a hula aboard the Australia en route from San Francisco to Honolulu. The u-k-e spelling gives some credence to Gurre Ploner Noble’s assertion that the instrument derived it’s name from the strumming technique of the player: uke means “to strike” and lele “to jump.” Both spellings show up interchangeably in the Gazette between 1895-1904, however, the frequency of it’s mention is surprisingly small: less than half a dozen times over the same ten-year-period. Helen Mather’s “ukelele” (1891. Private collection.) Espirito Santo was the first to advertise “ukuleles” in the City Directory, in 1898, the same year that Dias advertised “instruments made of Hawaiian wood”. Despite increasing awareness of the little instrument, the two surviving (Santo died in 1905) Portuguese makers remained without serious competition until the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, when native Hawaiians Ernest Kaai, Jonah Kumalae, and James Anahu entered the field. About 1910, Manuel Nunes along with his sons Leonardo and Julius, started a production company, M. Nunes & Sons. Nunes’ claim to having been the inventor of the ‘ukulele dates from this period, and while it may have been good marketing, it was bad history. That Nunes invented the instrument is routinely reported to this day, a claim for which there is no credible evidence. Advertisement for M. Nunes & Sons (Honolulu City Directory, 1916. Hawai‘i State Archives) While the ‘ukulele gained acceptance and popularity in Hawai‘i, it also began showing up on the mainland, first documented at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, were it was used by a quartet of Hawaiian singers, along with Spanish guitars and the five-string taro patch fiddle, to serenade visitors to the Kïlauea Cyclorama exhibit. Over the following decades, Hawaiians continued to promote their unique hybrid music, of which the ‘ukulele was an integral part, at world’s fairs in San Francisco, Omaha, Buffalo, Portland, and Seattle, and through vaudevilles and chautauquas across the country. By 1910, the instrument was very popular on the West Coast, and being sold by the Ditson Co. in New York City. When Oliver Morosco opened the play “The Bird of Paradise” in Los Angeles in 1911, it featured a running accompaniment of Hawaiian music supplied by a quintet of native musicians on-stage. Though not the first stage play to do so (“The Echo” had featured steel guitarist Joseph Kekuku the previous year) the non-stop nature of the music, along with it’s novel character captivated audiences and whetted America’s appetite for more. And more came in February of 1915, with the opening of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Historically credited with popularizing the ‘ukulele and Hawaiian music on the mainland, the PPIE simply confirmed what many in America already knew: they couldn’t get enough of it. Anthony Zablan (Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901. Hawai‘i State Archives) Text and images © John King 2004 A featured performer at ‘Ukulele Expo 2001 & 2002, and Uke Fest West, John King began playing the ‘ukulele while living in Hawai‘i in 1960. He has recorded two CDs for Nalu Music, Royal Hawaiian Music and J. S. Bach: Partita No. 3, both of which have been featured on NPR's All Songs Considered. Mr. King is a contributor to the Hawaiian Journal of History and his book/CD collection of the music of early 20th century ‘ukulele pioneers was published by Mel Bay in May 2004. Currently, he is completing a project for Flea Market Music’s Ukulele Masters series, and co-authoring a scholarly history of the ‘ukulele for a major university press.