Does Ukulele History Need to Be Rewritten?

This article argues that the early history of the ukulele must be understood more strongly than has often been the case through its pedagogical and publishing infrastructure. At the center of the argument is N. B. Bailey’s A Practical Method for Self Instruction on the Ukulele and Banjo Ukulele, first published in 1914 by Sherman, Clay & Co. in San Francisco. An advertisement in the Music Trade Review of June 13, 1925 promoted the Bailey Ukulele Method as a well-known method and linked it to the claim that nearly two million copies had been sold.1 The finding does not establish a verified accounting record of sales. It does, however, document a contemporary, trade-oriented, publicly verifiable market claim of exceptional magnitude. The Bailey method thereby becomes a key piece of evidence for the question of how the ukulele became a mass-learnable everyday instrument on the American mainland. The article therefore does not propose a wholesale replacement of existing ukulele history, but rather a substantial enlargement of its perspective: alongside Hawaiian musicians, instrument makers, stage performers, and world’s-fair events, the roles of instructional literature, the music trade, publishing networks, and self-instruction pedagogy must be considered systematically