The museum purchased the Howard pick together with the Howard sn 7388 March 2012 from niceguitar.eu. Before that the guitar had been for sale at Southside Guitars, Brooklyn.

Tina of Tina’s Pick Collection wrote us: “Howard Eugene Wurlitzer was born in 1871. He joined his father’s company the ‘Rudolph Wurlitzer Company’ in 1889 and served as president from 1912 until 1927 and as its chairman from 1927 to 1928.

While the company was mainly involved in harps, they later produced a guitar under the brandname ‘Howard’ (1896-1920s) so this pick is dated from that era. The company gave their harps model names such as Style A, Style B etc, so Pick A followed this tradition.

The tiny writing at the bottom reads: THE W & H CO. NEWARK.  N.J.  I am assuming that the R is for Howard’s father Rudolph rather than his brother Rudolf or nephew Rembert. It is suspected to be the first printed guitar pick.”

Recently the museum recieved a mail about another Howard pick: