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Independent Order of Odd Fellows Home Band
1930-1940
Newlon Studio
USA: West Virginia, Spencer
Photograph on paper
overall: 8"h x 10"w
Museum Purchase through the Generosity of the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
2010.017

Sepia-tone photograph. Background shows several trees with a building at center (mostly hidden by a tree). Several people stand in the background in groups of two or three. The foreground shows a bus. Three young men in uniforms are seated on top of the bus. The one on the left leans on a bass drum. The drum has a three-link chain at top center and reads, "I.O.O.F. / Home Band / Elkins, W.VA." Standing in the street lined up in front of the bus are nineteen people (men, women and children/teens). The children wear dark uniforms and hold their instruments (trumpets, saxophones, trombones, etc.). Three additional band members lean out of windows in the bus. At lower right, the photographer's studio is indicated with a stamp, "Newlon Studio / Spencer, W.VA."


In 1910 the Odd Fellows of West Virginia dedicated an Odd Fellows Home in Elkins. Some children at the home, like the ones pictured here, played in a band associated with the home. One newspaper, describing a 1930 festival held in Elkins, noted that the band “added to the color of the occasion,” and that “the home boys and girls always present a pleasing appearance.” For further information, see blog post, April 18, 2017, http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2017/04/marching-with-the-odd-fellows.html