Payne's Mandolin and Guitar School, featuring the Harp Guitars of Chris Knutsen

This incredible image is from the August, 1902 issue of The Cadenza magazine. The original image is less than 3" x 5" – but fortunately, we can still make out a lot of details. The first thing I determined when this photo was submitted was that all thirteen harp guitars were Knutsens! More amazing yet was that the left-handed player looked amazingly like Chris Knutsen himself! Once I spotted his wife Anna, wearing the exact same hairdo, pose and expression as in the famous 1900 family photo, I was convinced.

The accompanying portrait shows the members of Payne's Mandolin and Guitar School, who furnished the musical program at the Spokane Theatre, June 17. The reports by the local papers bring out the facts that the entertainment was unique and excellent in character, scoring a decided hit. The Spokesman Review says: "The theatre was crowded to overflowing and the audience was not disappointed. The overture was played by 75 mandolins, guitars and harps, seated in a forest scene on a special staging elevated in the form of a pyramid. Men, women and children, alike, were dressed in pure white and when the curtain arose a dim green light thrown over the scene gave a hallowed effect. The director gave the signal and every instrument was sounded simultaneously in one grand chord at the same instant, like a flash of lightning, all was under the glow of a brilliant white light. And the lights continued to change through all the colors of the rainbow in sympathy with each movement of shading and harmony, thus illustrating the idea of harmonizing color and sound. Another feature which created much enthusiasm was the use of the mandocello as a solo instrument in the serenade "El Caballero," one of C. E. Pomeroy's best compositions. The accompaniment was played by 2nd mandolin and guitar. We believe the performer, Mr. H. Louis Schermerhorn, has the honor of being the first to appear as soloist on this beautiful instrument and the manner in which he handles it is most remarkable and the musical effects are superb.
Mr. Schermerhorn is a pupil of Payne's Mandolin and Guitar School and uses the new upright position of holding the instrument.

Was Knutsen a student or a teacher? Either way, he clearly played a major role in the group – the presence of his 13 Symphony harp guitars attest to that. In fact, "Payne’s Mandolin and Guitar School" may have perhaps been America’s first harp guitar master class! As there are no other brands of harp guitars present, Knutsen seems to have quite a good thing going. Or he could have been simply being altruistic - offering his instruments to the group’s members on loan, perhaps with "option-to-buy" or other payment terms. The unknown story behind this scene is certainly tantalizing! And I wish I knew who the children were! Could any of them be Knutsen’s? … or even Otto Anderson’s? Certainly Knutsen’s mandolin-playing daughter Evalda must be somewhere in this group.

5^throw (l-r): Pretty easy to make out that these are all standard Symphony models.
	On the far right is Anna Knutsen, also with a new guitar not seen in the two family photos. As in her earlier guitars, the bass headstock appears to be bound in ivoroid - but this one is missing the treble strings of the 1900 photo, while neither do the headstocks align the same way they do in the earlier photo.

And this is Louis Schermerhorn, the soloist mentioned in the article. He is holding a rare Waldo mando-cello, a historically important instrument that preceded Gibson's in several ways.