Goodrich Pipe Organ: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This pipe organ was made by Eben Goodrich, in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1813-1817. It is a chamber organ with a single keyboard, compass of C - f3. The organ’s disposition is as follows:

8' Stopped Diapason Treble (c1 – f3) 8' Open Diapason (treble only, c1 – f3) 8’ Diapason Bass (C – b) 4' Principal (C – B, stopped wood; rest metal) 2' Fifteenth 2 2/3' Twelfth (c – f3)

Winthrop Haynes of Boxford, Massachusetts, a great-grandson of the original owner of this organ, Robert Rogerson, gave the organ to the donor in 1963. According to Haynes, Eben Goodrich made the organ for a house in Somerset Place, Boston, that Rogerson acquired in 1817. It is housed in an elegant Empire-style veneered cabinet with brass hardware. Red damask screens the upper front; the lower front consists of a removable panel. The back of the case is open, as it apparently was originally. After being moved to the houses of several relatives, the instrument was last in the Haynes house in Boxford. After its restoration in the shop of C. B. Fisk, the donor gave the instrument to the Smithsonian in 1976.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1813-1817
• maker: Goodrich, Ebenezer
• Object Name: organ
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 61 1/2 in x 48 3/4 in x 27 in; 156.21 cm x 123.825 cm x 68.58 cm
• place made: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
• ID Number: MI.76.35
• accession number: 1977.0187
• catalog number: 76.35
• Credit Line: Gift of John T. Fesperman
• 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.