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Jose do Espirito Santo

Santo portrait
Jose do Espirito Santo

(1850 - 1905)

2003 Hall of Fame Inductee


Along with Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias and Jose do Espirito Santo were the very first ukulele luthiers. Santo was making instruments in Honolulu by the mid-1880s. He operated out of a variety of downtown locations, and was the first of the three original makers to specifically advertise the sale of "ukuleles" in 1898. Nobody knows definitively who made the first "ukulele" but nearly everybody agrees that Nunes, Santo, and Dias all played a role in the transformation of the Madeiran machete to the Hawaiian ukulele. Although Dias and Santo did not stay in the business as long as Nunes, all three were responsible for providing the instruments that allowed early musicians to establish the popularity of the ukulele in Hawaii in the late 1800s.


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Ukulele pioneer Jose do Espirito Santo was born on Aug. 27, 1850 in Funchal, Madeira, the son of Antonio do Espirito Santo and his wife Josefa Joaquina. Like Augusto Dias and Manuel Nunes, Espirito Santo worked as a marceneiro, or cabinetmaker, in Funchal, before boarding the Ravenscrag with his family to come to Hawaii as a contract worker.

Santo ukulele on display at Bishop Museum 2002
Santo ukulele on display at Bishop Museum 2002

Where Santo spent his first years has not been determined, but by 1884-85 he appears to have returned to Honolulu, where he worked as a cabinetmaker at C.E. Williams' Pioneer Furniture House on Fort Street. By 1886, he had his own downtown guitar maker's shop, one of the first three original ukulele makers. He operated out of a variety of downtown locations, and was the first of the three to specifically advertise the sale of ukuleles (1898).

Santo notice from Honolulu Advertiser June 10, 1905
From Honolulu Advertiser June 10, 1905

Tragically, Santo, a diabetic, died in Honolulu on June 10, 1905 "of blood poisoning that arose from self-treatment of a corn," as the Sunday Advertiser reported. He is buried in the King Street Cemetery in Honolulu.


 Santo notice from Honolulu Advertiser June 11, 1905
From Honolulu Advertiser June 11, 1905


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