Austin & Dearborn Reed Organ (Melodeon): Museum Object and Cultural History
Austin & Dearborn Reed Organ (Melodeon): date made: 1848 - 1852. Object Name: organ (melodeon). Physical Description: rosewood (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
This reed organ was made Austin & Dearborn in Concord, New Hampshire, around 1848-1852. It is a piano style melodeon, serial #304, with a rosewood case, single keyboard, with a compass of FF - f3, and two pedals (one missing). The instrument is stenciled:
Charles Austin (1813-1884) and David M. Dearborn (1810-1865) were musical instrument makers in Concord, New Hampshire. David M. Dearborn and his brother Andrew were apprentices for piano and organ maker Abraham Prescott in Concord, New Hampshire, in the early 1830s. Austin and Dearborn formed their musical instrument company in 1848. Dearborn is listed as President of the company. In 1852, Dearborn left the company, and both went on to other musical instrument making enterprises.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1848 - 1852
- Object Name: organ (melodeon)
- Physical Description: rosewood (overall material)
- Physical Description: ivory (overall material)
- Physical Description: metal (overall material)
- place made: United States: New Hampshire, Concord
- ID Number: MI.315723
- catalog number: 315723
- accession number: 58488
- serial number: 304
- Credit Line: Gift of Hugo Worch
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
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