Can't Find Information About YOUR Reed Organ?

In most cases finding information about any reed organ can be a real challenge - if not impossible. Most of the 653 reed organ manufactures that were in business in this country closed their doors over a hundred years ago - some longer.

As a consequence finding anything on these companies is not likely. It was very common for reed organ companies to buy each other out. In many cases the new parent company may have kept the old company's name and continued to build their organs, but in most cases they didn't.

It was also not uncommon for a company's factory to be destroyed by fire. Usually, once a factory would catch on fire it would burn to the ground due to the large amount of wood and glue they had on hand for building organs. In addition, fire fighting was not what it is today. Most company records were either misplaced, thrown out, or destroyed by fire.

I have quite a bit of information on most of the 653 reed organ companies - not all, but most of them. You're welcome to email me the name of your organ's manufacturer, along with the organ's serial number, if you can find it -- they're usually (not always) located on the upper left side of the back panel.