Doll Upright Piano: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This upright piano was made by Jacob Doll in New York, New York around 1898-1901. Jacob Doll came to New York from his native Germany at the age of fourteen and found work in a wood-working company. In 1885 he established a piano making factory in New York. This piano has a compass of AAA-c5, standard upright action, felt hammers, single, double, and triple-strings, 3 pedals, one-piece cast-iron frame, cross-strung, and an ebonized case highly decorated with eagles at the top corners.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1898 - 1902
• maker: Doll, Jacob
• Object Name: piano
• Physical Description: ebonized (case: material)
• Physical Description: cast-iron (frame: material)
• Physical Description: felt (hammers: material)
• Measurements: overall: 68 in x 65 1/2 in x 28 1/2 in; 172.72 cm x 166.37 cm x 72.39 cm
• Place Made: United States: New York, New York City
• ID Number: MI.299853
• accession number: 61285
• catalog number: 299853
• 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.