Karen Lyn may have some info in "That Half Barbaric Twang". A must read for banjo lovers.

I would think that the resonator appeared when the tenor banjo became popular so that it would sonically compete with horns in the jazz bands. My view is that the banjo cut through the early recordings and when recording became sophisticated, the guitar took over. Eddy Lang probably was responsible for doing in the tenor banjo.

I would think around 1914 or so. Because the tenor banjo (according to Karen Lyn) was called the Tango banjo originally since there was a tango craze in the US at that time. It was later called the tenor banjo.

Frank