Hilbus Pipe Organ: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This pipe organ was made by Jacob Hilbus in Washington, District of Columbia, around 1811-1813. It has a single keyboard, with a compass of FF – f3. The organ’s disposition is as follows:

Single keyboard, FF - f3 8' Open Diapason 8' Dulciana (c1 – f3) 8' Stopped Diapason (Treble and Bass) 4” Flute 4' Principal (Treble and Bass) 2 2/3' Twelfth 2' Fifteenth 8' Open Diapason (in guillotine Swell, c1 – f3) 4' Principal (in guillotine Swell, c1 – f3) Machine stop

Jacob Hilbus was a musical jack-of-all-trades, a Washingtonian who built several organs. This instrument came to the museum in 1907 as a gift from the Vestry of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Hancock, Maryland.

Much misinformation exists about the organ, notably that it was an English early eighteenth-century instrument originally in St. Peter’s Church, Port Royal, Virginia. There is no evidence for this. It is almost certain (but not easily documented) that it was made for Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia. At least, there is an entry in the Vestry minutes for January 15, 1815, noting that Hilbus needed more money from the church. The instrument bears many hallmarks of somewhat primitive early nineteenth-century American work. Its wooden parts, for instance, are made of American poplar and eastern pine.

It is probable that the organ was also in St. Johmn’s Church, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, before going to St. Thomas’ in Hancock. Reasons for attributing the organ to Hilbus include similarities to a Hilbus instrument in St. John’s Church, Broad Creek, Maryland, and the existence of a bill from Hilbus for tuning “a piano forty” that was used to glue up a joint within the organ.

The Fisk restoration report of 1967 states, “Recent research by various people at C. B. Fisk, Inc., and elsewhere, has proved beyond question that the organ belonging to the Smithsonian and long thought to have been an early 18th-century English organ which had once belonged to a church in Port Royal, was in fact built entirely new by Jacob Hilbus and Henry Howison of Washington, D.C. for Christ Church in Alexandria.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1811 - 1813
• user: Vestry of St. Thomas Church
• Object Name: organ
• Physical Description: wood, walnut (casework material)
• Physical Description: gilded (pipes material)
• Physical Description: plaster, gilded (garlands material)
• Physical Description: ivory (keys material)
• Physical Description: ebony (keys material)
• Physical Description: iron (pedals material)
• Physical Description: silver (plates on knobs material)
• Measurements: overall: 147 in x 90 in x 46 in; 373.38 cm x 228.6 cm x 116.84 cm
• place made: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
• ID Number: MI.244851
• accession number: 46831
• catalog number: 244851
• Credit Line: Gift of The Vestry of St. Thomas Church
• 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.