Lincoln and Music

[Eva Elisabeth]

Yes, I did. The "culprit" of the brass band quote is obviously Carl Sandburg's "Prairie Years" (see attached ad) - maybe Rob know where Sandburg got it from.

The reply (plus attachment) I kindly and immediately received from the director of the Hohner Museum translates about as follows:

"The letter is 'post-factual' [= based on lies]. For years I have been receiving similar requests, I'd like to learn myself who invented the story.

Abraham Lincoln possibly played harmonica*, which led the Hohner company to make use of for an ad in the 1920s (see attachment), but it's most unlikely he played an instrument made by the Hohner company. Although founded in 1857, it was still a very small workshop in the 1860s. I can definitely deny that the US President had any contact of any kind with Mathias Hohner, who in those days was a completely unknown person."
   
[*I personally think he mainly assumes due to the Sandburg reference in the ad, not due to further contemporary sources.]