From wikipedia: Professors of music – music teachers
Somewhat confusingly, instructors at many music conservatoires in the UK are known as professors; for example ‘professor of violin’. This designation is quite different from the standard British use of the term and has more in common with the American usage, where the term is applied to any instructor at a college or university. Related to this usage, small-town music teachers, even if they held no degrees, were sometimes called “professors” in years past in the United States.
In many countries, a teacher is addressed to as “professor”, nowadays probably less than in former times.
However, I’m a bit puzzled by the name being written “J. P. Tuohey” instead of “P. J Touhey” - although I know that misprints happen all the time, I wonder might there have been another piper Touhey?
The Irish Village was a feature at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, October 1893, at which Patsy played, along with Turlough McSweeny. I remember reading about Touhey’s pipes being swiped before; I think the consensus was that the journalist was confused about the piping Touhey in question. There was an article about Jimmy Touhey in one of the Ceol na Eireann books.
The WCE was quite a big deal:
Notable firsts at the fair
Cracker Jack
Congress of Mathematicians, precursor to International Congress of Mathematicians
Elongated coins
Frederick Jackson Turner lectured on his Frontier thesis.
Ferris wheel
John T. Shayne & Company, the local Chicago furrier helped America gain respect on the world stage of manufacturing
Juicy Fruit gum
Quaker Oats
Cream of Wheat
Shredded Wheat
Aunt Jemima pancake mix
The hamburger was introduced to the United States
Touhey and Tom Ennis both played at the Worlds Fair here in St Louis in 1904.
The Missouri Historical Society have movie footage from that event and from what I’ve seen there’s no sign of Touhey or Ennis.
But not all the movie footage has been restored…
Wishful thinking but the 2 photos of Touhey and Ennis that were taken here were outside and movie cameras in those days didn’t work inside so there might be a chance of a video of Patsy with his $300 Taylor set.
Slightly back on topic track, my Johnny Bourke/Dan Dowd practice set was 150 pounds in 1983.
“Hmmm. My John Keenan practice set (Matt Kiernan D chanter) was £17 in 1971. Should have invested in uilleann pipe futures”. Roger O’Keefe.
“Slightly back on topic track, my Johnny Bourke/Dan Dowd practice set was 150 pounds in 1983.” tompipes
My Dave Williams half set with tenor regulator cost 480 pounds in 1980. In 1998 I added a baritone regulator and I think it cost 300 pounds, have to check up on that. Off topic: In 1966 the owner of the local music shop offered me an old sunburst Stratocaster for 50 quid as he thought they were rubbish. I didn’t have the money so I said no, and continued to rock on with my Hofner V2.
The stupidity of youth. That 1950’s Strat would be worth thousands today.
The American dish chili was also “invented” there. The West Virginian Old Time fiddling giant Edden Hammons also won a big prize there.
If you’re really into the Columbian Exposition note that the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov wrote a book called To Chicago and Back (Do Chikago i nazad) that records his journey from Bulgarian to the WCE as it happened. It’s a fascinating (and very funny…, and very politically incorrect) record of what America and the fair was like at the end of the 19th century. It’s one of those travel books that’s more like an ethnography than anything else. Unfortunately Touhey is not mentioned in the book and I have asked a professor friend at the University of Sofia if there was any record of him in Konstantinov’s travel notes but she was unable to find anything (it would have been a good subject for an article in the NPU journal or Piper’s Review).
Thanks for that info, Ceann. Edden’s home recordings don’t sound half bad for 1947, that had given me the impression he was younger than his actual birth year of 1875. I was thinking he was too young to play in Chicago but indeed you’re right. Irish connection - his tune Queen of the Earth and Child of the Skies is a version of Spailpín a Rún. Musicians in Pennsylvania used to play settings of that and the Blackbird.
Indeed you were a fool, Steampacket. I bought a 1962 Fender Jaguar for $200 in 1989, back when they were nothing more than historical curiosities, two years before Nirvana made Jags/Jazzmasters de riguer for “grunge” rock. Oldies like mine sell for ca. $4k now. Pity the paint was stripped off before I bought it…
Having taken up the pipes in 1995 I still expect a full set to cost $3.5k, unless it’s a Williams ordered through Lark in the Morning…
The American dish chili was also “invented” there.
1893? Even in quotations, there is no way that is correct. Canary Islanders (settlers) supposedly brought the dish to San Antonio (Tejas) by the mid 1700’s and they supposedly picked it up from North Africa/Morocco generations earlier. It was supposedly sold in 19th c. “food carts” on the streets and plazas of San Antonio … supposedly … still is.
The accounts I’ve read (and heard) probably mean that it was introduced to the public at large there. That’s why I put it in quotes. There are stories that range from some guy who made it as an effort to mask the smell/taste of beef going bad to this:
I agree…hence my use of “even in quotations” and frequent use of the word “supposedly”.
There is an excellent cookbook, full of historical accounts, by Robb Walsh called “The Tex-Mex Cookbook” that explains the origins of the dish…Berbers to the Canary Island settlers in the Americas, vaqueros to cowboys, and the Chili Queens of San Antonio to the wider “Anglo” world.