(b Philadelphia, 8 Jan 1855; d Philadelphia, 6 April 1898). American maker of banjos and music publisher. After instruction on the violin and other instruments he studied the banjo with George C. Dobson; in 1878 he opened a banjo school and shortly thereafter began to make banjos. By 1880 he was in business at 221–3 Church Street, Philadelphia, and on 18 January 1882 began the publication of Stewart’s Banjo and Guitar Journal from the same address. This journal (published under various titles until April 1901) contained news and photographs of banjoists and banjo clubs, fulminations against competing manufacturers, testimonials from satisfied customers and music arranged for the banjo. Through this and over 15 other publications, Stewart was highly influential in promoting the popular enthusiasm for fretted instrument clubs and orchestras which lasted into the 1930s. His campaign to ‘elevate’ the image of the banjo by denying its African American origins is documented by Linn.
His banjos, lighter than the ‘Electric’ model of his competitor, A.C. Fairbanks, were very well made in a wide variety of styles, from the cheap ‘Student’ and ‘Amateur’ models to the highly decorated ‘Thoroughbred’ and ‘Presentation’ models. Stewart’s only important patent (no.355,896) was taken out in 1887 on an improved neck brace for his own invention, the banjeaurine, a small banjo pitched a 4th above the standard banjo and used as a lead instrument in banjo ensembles. On 1 January 1898 Stewart merged his business with George Bauer, maker and importer of mandolins and guitars. The factory and sales rooms were moved to 1410–12 North 6th Street and the publishing business moved to 1016 Chestnut Street, both branches doing business as Stewart & Bauer. After Stewart’s death his interest in the business was continued by his sons, Fred and Lemuel, who ended the partnership with Bauer in 1901 and moved to New York. Banjos bearing Stewart’s name were sold by them until about 1904, by Bauer until about 1910, and were made by the Vega Co., Boston, between 1903 and 1914. The Stewart trade name was subsequently applied to a line of fretted instruments sold by the New York firm of Buegeleisen & Jacobson. Stewart banjos are in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the Vleeshuis Museum, Antwerp.
Sketches of Noted Banjo Players (Philadelphia, 1881)
Complete American Banjo School (Philadelphia, 1883)
The Banjo Philosophically (Philadelphia, 1886); repr. in Mugwumps Instrument Herald, iii/4 (1974), 11–22
S.S. Stewart: The Banjo: a Dissertation (Philadelphia, 1888)
E. Kaufman: ‘S.S. Stewart Banjos’, Mugwumps Instrument Herald, ii (1973), no.3, pp.3–4; no.4, pp.15–16; no.5, pp.3–5; no.6, pp.3–6
R.L. Webb: Ring the Banjar! (Cambridge, MA, 1984)
K. Linn: That Half-Barbaric Twang (Urbana, IL, 1991)
JAY SCOTT ODELL