Voco Orthotonic Harmonica: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This harmonica was made by an undetermined maker, undetermined date. It is a Voco Orthotonic model in the key of C, with 24 double holes and 48 reeds. This harmonica has a brown plastic comb with metal cover plates to the top and bottom with screws and nuts. Accessioned with original cardboard box. The harmonica is engraved:

VOCO Super Sensitive Symphonic Reeds PROFFESSOR QUALITY ORTHOTONIC

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: harmonica
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: harmonica: 15/16 in x 6 15/16 in x 1 3/16 in; 2.38125 cm x 17.62125 cm x 3.01625 cm
• Measurements: box: 1 5/16 in x 7 1/4 in x 1 1/2 in; 3.33375 cm x 18.415 cm x 3.81 cm
• Measurements: cleaning cloth: 5 3/8 in x 5 9/16 in; 13.6525 cm x 14.12875 cm
• ID Number: 1988.0783.345
• accession number: 1988.0783
• catalog number: 1988.0783.345
• Credit Line: The Peter Kassan Collection
• 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.