Lyon & Healy 1898 catalog listed 28 different styles of 'Washburn' guitars, ranging from $15 to $145. Under the George Washburn brand, which was Lyon's first and middle name. The company achieved independence by 1880, and around 1888 the company launched fully into fretted and plucked instruments ( guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles and zithers) By 1865, Lyon & Healy had expanded into reed organs and some small instruments. Healy, acting as the Chicago outlet for Boston sheet music publisher Oliver Ditson and Company. Lyon & Healy began in 1864 as a partnership of businessmen George W.
Right: archtop guitar model 5250 (1928), Museum of Making Music.
