The origins of the guitar are lost. No one can say exactly when or how the first guitar came into being. There is even quite a lot of argument about who created the first electric guitar. What can be said is that the electric guitar did not come into being in a single event, but as a series of attempts to meet the need for an instrument that could play loud enough to be heard over the other instruments in bands that were getting louder and louder in order to entertain ever larger audiences. To learn more about the evolution of the electric guitar, check out
" Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History" by George Gruhn and Walter Carter

This is the companion volume to Gruhn and Carter's " Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments: A Photographic History", and takes up the story in the 1920s, when the first efforts were made to create an electrified guitar. This book documents the efforts and successes of companies like Rickenbacker, Gibson, Fender and quite a few others that may be less familiar.