My Trip to the Organ Historical Society Archive
This fall, I was able to make my first trip to the Organ Historical Society Archives in Princeton, NJ. I have been in the process of writing a book about the instrument at Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church for several years. A majority of the technical portions were written as an independent study in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Now it is time to tie together the historical details surrounding the organ. Since the contract was signed with Mrs. Horace Dodge, it is not in the possesion of the church. This trip, however, I was more interested in finding any shop materials related to the instrument as well as visiting the mother of all Skinners at Woolsey Hall.
While on the highway East, I approached Ernest M. Skinner's birthplace, Clarion, Pennsylvania. I recalled that Ken Holden had told me a story about how when he and Dorothy were traveling to do research for her book, they came across the road sign, Clarion 32! (Inside joke for organists. Clarion is an organ stop usually found at 4' pitch.) So I came across the same road sign and took some time to enter Clarion and see the town.
After a night in New York City with a dear old friend, I headed down to the archive. The first day I just spent looking at catalogued materials like shop brochures and a degree document for a Doctoral Student from Indiana University from 1962 that was not terribly favorable to Skinner's ideas. That afternoon I took a sojourn to Philadelphia to listen to the Grand Court Organ at Wanamaker's, now Macy's.
The next day I was able to view some of the more rare materials, like the Skinner Reed Voicing Room Log. In it were all the reed room entries essentially until G. Donald Harrison joined the shop. I could have just as easily been reading the dead sea scrolls!
Here is an entry for a now changed Skinner Organ in Detroit. It is Opus 233, installed at Central Methodist Church. The whole church had to be shifted back by two of its bays when they widened Woodward Avenue. The organ had to be shifted to either side of the chancel. Here is the reed entry and the a picture of the original facade from a Skinner Company brochure. (Images Courtesy of The American Organ Archive of the Organ Historical Society. Stephen Pinel, Archivist)
The next day I visited an old friend at Yale. He was kind enough to take me to see Woolsey Hall....Mecca.
Finally, I travelled back through upstate New York. I visited dear friends in Albany, saw the New York State Museum, with its Hershell and Spillman Carosel and WurliTzer band organ. And then saw the WurliTzer factory on the way home.
All in all, it was a very successful start and and an inspiring journey. I was, like in my previous travels to Europe, amazed with kindness and good fortune throughout the journey! (Saving the quantity of toll boths in New York!) There is still much work to be done, but the book project is at least moving forward! If you are yet to see the instrument, here are some of the images that will likely appear in the book.