Babcock Square Piano
date: label: date made
content: 1825-1829
name: label: maker
content: Babcock, Alpheus
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This square piano was made by Alpheus Babcock in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1820s. Babcock’s invention of a one-piece iron frame allowed piano makers to use higher-quality string, ultimately of steel, which provided the basis for greater depth of sonority and more volume, and the metal, being unaffected by changes in humidity, helped greater stability of tuning. This piano bears a plaque that reads “For R. Mackay, Boston.“ The Mackay family bankrolled Babcock, and their names are often found on his pianos. This piano is serial number 278, and has a compass of FF-c4, English double action, leather, basswood core hammers, double-strings throughout, 2 pedals: damper and harmonic swell, and a mahogany veneer over pine case with rosewood cross banding.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
label: Location
content: Currently not on view (screws; wood element)
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Pianos
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of The Julliard School
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0434.01
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0434.01
label: accession number
content: 1982.0434
objectType: label: Object Name
content: piano
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 32 in x 67 in x 26 1/2 in; 81.28 cm x 170.18 cm x 67.31 cm