Archive of 20 original photographs taken at the Dean Guitar Factory, circa 1978

Chicago: N.p., Circa 1978. Archive of 20 vintage borderless vernacular photographs taken at the original Dean Guitar Factory, circa 1978. Photographs housed in a small spiral bound album, with three additional borderless color photographs taken in the mid-1980s laid in.

The album documents a then-nascent Dean Guitars, with many shots of founder Dean Zelinsky, likely taken in the original factory at 2125 Dewey Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. The images show a young Zelinsky at work in the factory and behind a desk, working on both incomplete and finished examples of the early line of Dean guitars, including the Z, ML, and V. The three color photographs, evidently taken several years later, show Zelinsky with his brother Roger, and one photograph bears an inscription in holograph ink from Roger to his grandmother on the verso.

Dean Guitars was founded by a then-teenage Zelinsky in 1976, quickly growing in size and success, attributed to the company's strategy of copying and improving upon established guitar designs from more famous makers (such as Gibson and Ibanez). The company was later sold, but continues to operate independent of Zelinsky, and is now one of the most popular and recognizable guitar names in modern rock music.

An uncommon and charming glimpse into the early years of a quintessential American rock guitar company.

Photographs and album 5.5 x 3.5 inches. Photographs Good only, with moderate discoloration and fading throughout. Album Very Good.

[Book #155212]