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 218
Scan 218
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 192. See the scan on archive.org.
1general situation the firms listed were those of makers of the handi-craft art type of instrument, with generally small shops and only a few highly skilled workers.
3Inexpensive stringed instruments for the orchestra can be made in Europe and imported, despite a high duty, for about the cost of the raw materials in the United States. Consequently, Boston violin houses generally do not make instruments retailing for less than $100.3 These statements seem to be borne out by the fact that the census for 1900 reported only 1503 instruments of the violin family manufactured that year and the census for 1935 reported only 3280 such instruments worth $126,402 for the entire country. This latter total doubtless includes the production of the one firm in the whole United States which makes inexpensive violins on a quantity production basis.
5Boston is now the centre of high grade flute making. Dr. Dayton C. Miller wrote that this is due largely to the work of George W. Haynes, who came here from Providence in 1887, and William S. Haynes. "He [the latter] is the most prominent maker in this country at the present time, and I think it is correct to say that he is perhaps the most eminent flute maker in the world. I would make only one possible exception to this statement; that relates to a London maker, but the London makers are apparently losing in standing, while Haynes has been gaining. There are at the present time some other very fine flute makers in Boston also."4
7In the nineteenth century Boston was a prominent center of brass instrument manufacturing and it still has two manufacturers of the highest grade of brass instruments.
9During the Civil War Boston was a centre of drum making for the Union Army Bands. Two present day firms make the finest quality of drums.
11Because of the many fine players and teachers of plectrum instruments, which included such men as George C. Dobson, Wm. A. Cole, A. A. Babb, Albert D. Grover, George S. Lansing, Burt E. Shattuck, and later Gad Robinson and Walter Jacobs, Boston became by about 1885 and remains a leading centre for the manufacture of fretted instruments.
133 Statements of A. J. Oettinger, Musicians' Supply Company and Henry F. Schultz, violin maker.
144 From a letter of Dr. Dayton C. Miller, Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, owner of the D. C. Miller Collection of Flutes, to the writer.
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