Lincoln in PA

[bdornfeld]

The Pierce Piano Atlas has been an important reference book for piano people for decades. The main part of it lists brands of pianos (over 12,000) and for many of them it lists the first serial number used for each year. For Chickering around this time it lists serial numbers for every five years and shows that in 1850 the first was 10,000; for 1855 the first was 15,400; for 1860 the first was 22,000; for 1865 the first was 27,000. That means they were building about 1,000 per year between 1860 and 1865. The numbers listed are rounded up or down for most makers. The Chickering #26,281 would have been built about 1864. Ours has the number 20,730 and was built about 1858. I have never seen anything about when Laura Keene bought her piano. The Chickering factory log books are in the Smithsonian. They are available for research on microfiche, but there are no plans to digitize them that I am aware of. This was proposed as a project for our foundation a few years ago, but we did not pursue it. Factory log books would show us how many of this size and style Chickering were built. They also often show who a piano was sold to, but usually this is to a piano store. Laura Keene was a big enough name at the time, that they may have written her name in the log book if there was a place for such notes. My colleague Bill Shull has seen these logs and may be able to tell me more about that likelihood.

The photo of Bob Pierce with the Chickering caught my eye also. The current edition of the Atlas is the 12th and the photo is on page 426. I emailed the family about the photo recently and got this reply from Larry Ashley, " I'm sorry, I do not have any current information on the Lincoln piano. My son still has the Theodore Roosevelt Chickering (pg. 424)" It is possible that this was taken in the Aeolian factory. I want to send a copy of it to Paul Monachino to see what he says. I spoke with him this week and he says that the piano was on display in the part of the complex they called "the shop". Also on display next to it was an small square piano hand built by Jonas Chickering and his old workbench. Paul also confirmed that the piano was there for many, many years. He did help get it moved to the East Rochester City Hall, at 120 West Commercial St, and later to the Piano Technicians Guild Foundation. Tony Argento was the city clerk whose name is on our paperwork for the donation.

I asked Paul about Elmer Brooks and the statement about not knowing if it was really Laura Keene's piano. He said a few things. Elmer would not lie about it; he was a very honest man. "We can't ask him now, he's dead." He was an extremely busy man at the time. In the early 1970s, Japanese pianos were becoming real competition for them. There were also problems with higher wages and safety laws increasing costs. Within ten years, they would close the factory. I asked him about Gerald Hutchinson. Paul does not know his name; he never worked for them in East Rochester. His grandson's message says he worked in New York City. Aeolian likely had storage facilities and certainly had dealerships in the city, so Gerald probably worked for them there. I never noticed such a repair on our Chickering, but I have not seen it since reading this claim. The only documentation that left the Aeolian factory with the piano is the display sing that is now in our museum next to it. I do not have a copy of that text, but will get it at some point. I want to add that each time this piano changed hands, it was donated. It seems unlikely that anyone would lie about this piano for any financial reasons.

The Lincoln's White House Chickering is another story. It is a grand piano and currently resides in the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society.)