Chickering & Sons Piano Company Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Chickering, Jonas, 1798-1853
label: Names
content: Chickering & Sons Piano Company
label: Former owner
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Musical History
label: Names
content: Wurlitzer Company
label: Names
content: McKay, John, Captain
label: Names
content: Stewart, James
place: label: Place
content: Boston (Mass.)
topic: label: Topic
content: advertising
label: Topic
content: Keyboard instruments
label: Topic
content: Business -- History
label: Topic
content: Musical instruments -- 1860-1990
label: Topic
content: Musical instrument manufacturing
label: Topic
content: Piano makers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This collection was donated by the Wurlitzer Company, May 17, 1987.
creator: label: Creator
content: Chickering, Jonas, 1798-1853
setName: label: See more items in
content: Chickering & Sons Piano Company Collection
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Chickering & Sons pianos are an old line that came into being in April 1823 in Boston.  Jonas Chickering, the founder, was a youthful cabinet maker.  He learned piano making from John Osborn, a true master of the trade.  The division of labor in Osborn's shop was not very extensive and Chickering was compelled to study every part of the instrument and to make himself acquainted with all the details.  This exposure to the full range of tasks would served him well when he became a master in his own right.  During his four years with Osborn, he became acquainted with Osborn's partner, James Stewart, who was awarded a patent for a "detached" soundingboard that was incorporated in the partners' pianos. 

When Osborn and Stewart severed their business relationship, Stewart and his new partner, Chickering, opened a small shop on Tremont Street near King's Chapel on February 15, 1823.  The partnership lasted three years until Stewart withdrew and left for London.  At the age of 28, Chickering became the sole owner of the small but prosperous manufactory.  The firm's annual output climbed over the next three years and reached 47 instruments in 1829.

In early 1830, Chickering made Captain John McKay, an experienced, aggressive, and successful merchandiser a partner in Chickering & Company.  Captain Mackay made frequent trips to South American ports with ships laden with pianos.  Returning home, the hold was filled with fragrant rosewood and richly grained mahogany.  Chickering's first invention was patented in 1837    the first practical casting of a modern iron frame built to sustain the great tension of the strings of the piano so that it would stay in tune for a considerable period.  In 1845, another important patent was secured, representing the first practical method of overstringing for square pianos, and in 1849 he applied the same principle to uprights.  These contributions and others have become standard with all piano manufacturers.

The Chickering firm made pianos in a new way, employing production strategies that paralleled developments in other trades undergoing industrialization.  "When he first commenced business for himself about 15 instruments a year were turned out while in the later years Mr. Chickering's business finished between fifteen and sixteen hundred instruments a year and at least one grand piano  worth about a thousand dollars  every week."  (Richard G. Parker, A Tribute To The Life and Character of Jonas Chickering "By one who knew him well" (Boston: William P. Tewksbury, 1854.)

He was a long time President of the Handel & Hayden Society of Boston, this Country's oldest oratorio, founded in 1815. 


On December 1, 1853, a fire swept through the Washington Street factory. Rather than rebuild on Washington Street, plans were made to erect a new factory on Tremont Street in the South End of Boston.  Chickering, however, never saw the new plant in operation as he suffered a stroke and died December 8, 1853.  The large Chickering factory built in 1853 was described at that time as the largest building in the United States outside the U.S. Capitol, and as "... the most perfect and extensive pianoforte estblishment in the world."

Chickering's death in 1853 left the business in the hands of his sons.  In 1867, Emperor Napoleon III of France bestowed the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honor on Frank Chickering at the Paris World's Fair that year.

With the passing of C. Frank Chickering in 1891, the company lost headway; and it was purchased by the American Piano Company in 1908 (Chickering Brothers pianos, which were made for several years following 1892 were in no way related to Chickering & Sons, though this family of boys was trained in the Chickering & Sons Boston factory).

From 1905 to 1911, the firm alone among American builders supported the revival of early instruments by hiring the English musician and craftsman Arnold Dolmetsch to build harpsichords, clavichords, and violas.

Chickering & Sons continued manufacturing pianos in Boston until 1927, when the plant and its personnel were relocated to East Rochester, New York. The Chickering was the foremost piano of the time    Longfellow had one and there was one on the stage at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. the night Lincoln was assassinated.  In 1932 the Company became part of the Aeolian American Corporation.

William Knabe of Kreutzburg, Germany, trained as a piano manufacturer, established his business in Baltimore, Maryland in 1837, and controlled the market in the Southern states by 1860.  The Civil War and economic pressures may have contributed to the death of Knabe in 1864.  The Company was eventually purchased by the American Piano Company in 1908, shortly after Chickering became a part of the organization. 

The Wurlitzer Company, a major musical instrument manufacturer, acquired the Chickering firm in 1985 and continued to produce instruments with the Chickering name.  The Wurlitzer Company was later purchased by the Baldwin Piano Company; Baldwin was subsequently purchased by Wurltech, Inc., of Houston, Texas.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 16 Cubic feet (37 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1864 - 1985
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: These records were deposited in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History in 1987, loaned by the Wurlitzer Company in recognition of the Museum's interest in the history of musical instruments in the United States and its outstanding collection of American pianos, including five (5) Chickering instruments.  Under the terms of the loan agreement, the piano registers were to be microfilmed.  Microfilming was completed in 1988 and volumes 1 and 3 were subsequently returned to Wurltech Industries in August 1988.  Volume 2 was never located among the company's records and is therefore missing from both this collection and the microfilm.  In November 1991, Wurltech Industries very graciously agreed to donate these records to the NMAH.

The ten (10) documents related to Chickering Hall were purchased from The Center For Musical Antiquities, New York in June 1989.  They have been inserted into Series 3: Company History and Records in Box 2, Folders 7 and 8.

The 1857 catalog of Chickering and Sons Piano Fortes at the Exhibitions of 1856 was donated to the National Museum of American History in March 1994 by Edwin Good.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0264
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilms
label: Type
content: Trade literature
label: Type
content: Photographic prints
label: Type
content: Papers
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection organized into seven series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1950

Series 2: Publications, 1854-1884

Series 3: Company history and records, 1838-1940

Series 4: Newspapers, 1847-1876

Series 5: Photographs, 1924-1966

Series 6: Management forms and material, 1938-1968

Series 7: Microfilm of ledger books, 1823-1985
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Robert Ageton, volunteer, 1989.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Microfilms
label: Genre/Form
content: Trade literature
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Papers
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection consists of 51 volumes of Chickering & Sons piano registers, documenting piano production (May 1823-September 1985); correspondence related to the hundredth anniversary of Jonas Chickering's presidency of the Handel and Hayden Society; publications on the history of the Company and sales literature (1854-1984); newspapers articles about the company (1847-1876); photographs (1926-1966); advertising and management forms (1938-1968); and a copy of a letter by Jonas Chickering to his father dated January 27, 1838.  There are also ten documents related to the construction, mortgaging and insurance of Chickering Hall in New York City (1876-1886).  Chickering Hall opened with great acclaim in 1875 and was an important musical center in New York City in the last quarter of the 19th Century.  Some grand pianos from turn of the century onward are not listed in the ledgers. It is thought that Chickering may have had a duplicate set of serial numbers for grand pianos but this collection lacks that volume.