PHOTOS OF SOME OF OUR COLLECTION
"Special Exhibits at the Fiske Museum"
THE FISKE MUSEUM at The Claremont
Colleges houses one of the most diverse collections of musical instruments in the United
States, containing over 1,400 American, European and ethnic instruments dating from the
seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.
THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTIONS feature instruments of all types from a
wide variety of locations and periods.
The Museum has American and European brass instruments; a select group of pianos, reed
organs, and woodwind instruments; unusual and rare examples from the violin and viol
families; instruments from the Orient and Tibet; and percussion, automatic and electronic
musical instruments.
BRASS INSTRUMENTS are the most comprehensive part of the collection. Many
rare and unusual examples of cornets, trumpets, tenor horns, baritones, and tubas are
represented. These include instruments by Courtois and Guichard of Paris; Distin & Co.
of London; E.G. Wright, Hall & Quinby, Gilmore & Co., and the Boston Musical
Instrument Manufactory all of Boston; Graves & Co. of Winchester, New Hampshire; and
Conn & Dupont and the Conn Co. of Elkhart, Indiana. The jewel of this part of the
collection is the only known complete set (1872) of seven over-the-shoulder saxhorns
designed by the outstanding Boston brass makers David C. Hall and Benjamin F. Quinby.
WOODWIND INSTRUMENTS include several important eighteenth and nineteenth
century examples: a fine one-key flute by Friedrich Gabriel August Kirst of Potsdam (c.
1790), flute maker to Frederick the Great of Prussia; and the earliest dated American
metal Boehm-system flute by Alfred Badger of New York (1866), on loan from the Hancock
Museum of the University of Southern California. Others include a beautifully constructed
oboe by Rudolf Gehrs of Berlin (c. 1850); a 6-key bassoon of the Jeantet school, Lyon (c.
1825); a unique proto-type saxello by the H.N. White Co., Cincinnati (c. 1925); and a fine
Conn-O-Sax by the Conn Co., Elkhart (1929).
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS include an important square piano by John Sellers,
probably made in Philadelphia (1780-85). It is one of the earliest documented pianos to
have been present in the United States during the eighteenth century. A fine square piano
by Erard Frères, Paris (1799) complements an outstanding grand piano by the Pape firm in
Paris (c. 1835). Other notable instruments include one of the earliest American-made grand
pianos in a public collection, a 6’6” “semi-grand” by the Chickering
Co., Boston (1850); one of the earliest pianos to come to California, a square by
Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig (c. 1840) on loan from the California Historical
Society; a reed organ with a third pedal operating a clock-work tremolo by the Estey Co.,
Brattleboro, Vermont (1866); and a massive three-manual reed organ by Mason & Hamlin,
Boston (c. 1889), the only example in an American public museum.
STRINGED INSTRUMENTS include an important violin by Andrea Guarneri,
Cremona (1672); five eighteenth-century violas d’amores, including a notable
instrument by Johann Andreas Doerffel of Klingenthal (c. 1750). A fine treble viol by the
noted maker Leandro Bisiach, Milan (c. 1895) is one of two examples by Bisiach of a
sixteenth-century viol. Other notable string instruments include a rare mandolin by
Joannies Vinnacia of Naples (1763) and a late eighteenth-century mandora or lute of the
Presbler School in Milan.
The ETHNIC COLLECTION contains a large group of beautifully made and
handsomely decorated Tibetan temple trumpets. Also represented are many traditional wind,
strings and percussion instruments from China, Japan, Africa, Indonesia and South America.
THE MISSION of the Fiske Museum is to provide a balanced program to collect, catalog and preserve musical instruments; teach about instruments and their evolution; and provide direct access to visitors, students, teachers and scholars through Museum programs, concerts and activities. The Fiske Museum's responsibility is to serve as one of the great storehouses of musical instruments in this country -- as a place for education and enjoyment.
Kenneth G. Fiske Museum of Musical Instruments at The
Claremont Colleges. 450 North College Way; Claremont, CA 91711-4491. Admission to the
Museum is free. Tours must be made by appointment. Call (909) 621-8307 or contact the
curator Albert R. Rice at 
arrice@rocketmail.com .
PHOTOS OF SOME OF OUR COLLECTION
Square Piano by Astor & Co., London, ca. 1805.
Cornet by Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory dated 1871.
Grand Piano by Jean Henri Pape, Paris, ca. 1835.
Circular Cornet with Allen valves by David Hall, Boston, 1862-66 with a signed mouthpiece
Triple-manual Reed Organ by Mason & Hamlin, Boston, ca. 1889. Played for many years in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Bedford, Massachussetts. One of five examples known by the Mason & Hamlin firm it is also the only triple-manual reed organ in a public museum in the United States.
Melodeon by J. Estey & Co., Brattleboro, Vermont, 1866. Known as a "Cottage Organ," style 31, this very rare example includes a third pedal which operates a clockwork tremolo mechanism. Gift of Helen Gipson, Claremont, 1997.
2-key English Horn, August Grenser, Dresden, ca. 1760
7-key English Horn, Jean Baptiste Tabard, Lyon, ca. 1830
2-key Oboe, Gottfried August Lehnhold, Leipzig, ca. 1800
5-key C Clarinet, Naust, Paris, ca. 1790
4-key F Flute, Friedrich Boie, Göttingen, ca. 1820
13-key C Clarinet, Jean Jacques Baumann, Paris, ca. 1825
International Commission on Museums (ICOM) Musical Instrument Committee
The Galpin Society for the study of musical instruments
American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS)
