Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 217
Scan 217
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
15 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 191. See the scan on archive.org.
1D. Band, Orchestral, Fretted and Miscellaneous Instruments
31. STANDING OF MASSACHUSETTS MAKERS
5In the census of 1860 there were 53 establishments listed as making miscellaneous musical instruments with an annual production value of $315,800. Massachusetts had 6 of these establishments making instruments worth about $60,800 a year. In 1927¹ some 99 establishments were listed with a total annual production value of $15,311,100. Of these Massachusetts had 8 establishments with products valued at $788,340. These probably did not include many shops of violin makers as only a few hand made instruments are turned out by them in a year, and repair work takes most of the time of the workers in these establishments.
7Boston has not been noted for quantity manufacture of band and orchestral instruments, but the quality of some of its products in these lines has made a nation wide reputation for them.
9Stringed instruments were made in Greater Boston about the time of the American Revolution or before. With this early start Boston was one of the two first centres of violin and stringed instrument making in the United States. New York was the other. Philadelphia and Chicago became centres later. Even today few cities in the United States have really professional makers,² that is—men who have been apprenticed in this highly skilled hand work.
11There are now three chief centres for making violins of the art type in this country—New York, Chicago, and Boston. Most of the present Boston firms are known internationally, as is shown by their being listed in one or more dictionaries of violin makers published in Europe. Die Geigen und Lautenmacher 1913 edition listed 21 makers in New York, 15 in Chicago, and 14 in Boston. Alberto Bachmann's Encyclopedia of the Violin published in 1925 listed [address hidden] violin makers located in various parts of the United States. Of these New York had 13 establishments, Chicago 10, and Boston 9. If the shops given for Boston are indicative of the
13¹ Latest census in which figures are given separately for Massachusetts.
14² Statement of Erik Gould of John A. Gould & Sons.
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