In remembrance · The ʻUkulele Archive
Manuel Nunes
Manuel Nunes was one of the Madeiran cabinetmakers who arrived in 1879 and opened a Honolulu workshop as the ʻukulele emerged from a meeting of Portuguese instruments and Hawaiian musical life.
What endures
His was the most sustained business of the three foundational workshops. The Nunes name continued through M. Nunes & Sons and through instruments made later by his son Leonardo.
Claims that any one maker “invented” the ʻukulele exceed the surviving evidence. This page honors Nunes as part of a network of makers and musicians rather than collapsing the origin story around one person.
Chronology
A life in the record
1879
Arrived in Hawaiʻi from Madeira aboard the Ravenscrag.
1885
A Honolulu cabinetmaking and stringed-instrument workshop appears in the record.
1909
M. Nunes & Sons formalized the family workshop identity.
Circa 1918
The Honolulu company disappears from the city directory record.
1922
Nunes died; his grave is at King Street Catholic Cemetery in Honolulu.
Evidence, not decoration
Follow the record.
Every source is shown so family knowledge, instrument evidence, and later research can strengthen—or correct—this page.
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