Hugo Worch Piano Photos
name: label: Creator
content: Worch, Hugo, 1855-
topic: label: Topic
content: Keyboard instruments
label: Topic
content: pianos
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Immediate source of acquistion unknown.
creator: label: Creator
content: Worch, Hugo, 1855-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Hugo Worch Piano Photos
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Hugo Worch was born in Potsdam, Germany, November 15, 1855 and died in  Washington, DC, November 14, 1938). Worch was an American collector of and dealer in keyboard instruments. His father, Christian, had a music business in Trenton, New Jersey, from c1858 to 1861, and in Washington from 1863 to 1868 and again in 1883; Worch and his brother Emil took this over in 1883, and after Emil's death his widow and Hugo continued the business as Hugo Worch & Co. from 1884 until 1895. After 1895 the firm of Hugo Worch sold instruments (including pianos sold under the Worch name but manufactured elsewhere), sheet music, and, as tastes changed, phonographs, recordings, and radios. The firm went out of business in 1960 on the retirement of Hans Hugo Worch, who had bought it from his brother Carl and sister Paulina in 1954.

In the 1880s Worch began collecting keyboard instruments that showed the development of the American piano industry from the 1790s to 1850. Later he added to his collection examples of clavichords, harpsichords, and pianos by such European makers as Shudi, Ruckers, Stein, and Broadwood. From 1921 to 1938 he held the title of honorary custodian of musical instruments at the Smithsonian Institution. Absorbed with the history of the piano, he acquired a collection of nearly 200 instruments and over 2000 photographs showing details of keyboard construction. From 1914 his collection of keyboard instruments formed the nucleus of the keyboard collections at the Smithsonian. His library of over 3000 books relating to keyboard construction and 500 bound volumes of American sheet music was dispersed after World War II.

Source

Worch, Hugo. Oxford Music Online, Grove Music Online.  http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002219658 (accessed October 18, 2018)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 40 Cubic feet (81 boxes )
unitdate: label: Date
content: undated
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Collection transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life), 2017.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1452
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection is partially processed.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints
scopecontent: label: Content Description
content: The collection includes photographs of pianos and other keyboard instruments.