Sousa
 

A little better photo of Sousa`s Ithaca in the ATA HOF at Sparta...

Sousa Hobby
 

Sousa`s Hobby... Trapshooting

One former Marine Band member whose name we may recognize is Gabriel Gitman. He plays or played the French horn.

Sousa with the SBT, cover of Sporting Life...

Randy, is this gun a Daly or an Ithaca? I can't tell from the picture.

Bill, It`s the Ithaca...

Sousa and his guns
 

A very rich and entertaining thread.

It's awesome to know that someone so accomplished in "the arts" was also a shooter; seems those disciplines are too often juxtaposed. Working on my MFA in the late 60's-early70's it wasn't exactly "cool" to be a western-Kansas pheasant hunting boy (Garry will probably know what I mean). If I'm totally honest, I succumbed to the stigma for a time. But cooler heads prevailed, and I came to my senses, even if it took my wife's family to get me there :rolleyes:.

Can anyone recommend a good biography of John Philip Sousa?

There have been a lot more than is commonly known. The man that relatively early on built a Sporting course in our area was an artist and loved shooting. He had a rather prominent wildlife artist who was a friend of his from Lexington shot there regularly. He later moved to Missouri to be the commercial artist for Sam Walton.

Don't forget the beginnings of Double Gun Journal.