Chickering & Sons was an American

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ran ...

located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1823 by

Jonas Chickering Jonas Chickering (April 5, 1798 – December 8, 1853) was a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts. Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, and raised in nearby New Ipswich, New Hampshire where his father Abner Chickering kept a farm a ...

and James Stewart, but the partnership dissolved four years later. By 1830 Jonas Chickering became partners with John Mackay, manufacturing pianos as "Chickering & Company", and later "Chickering & Mackays" until the senior Mackay's death in 1841, and reorganized as "Chickering & Sons" in 1853. Chickering pianos continued to be made until 1983.

History

It was

P.T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

who persuaded

Jenny Lind Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 18202 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and a ...

- the Swedish Nightingale - to make a concert tour of the United States. After her agreement, Barnum commissioned the Chickering company to manufacture a custom grand piano for her nationwide tour, ultimately involving 93 performances. The piano was completed by August 1850; Lind arrived in September and the concert series began in Boston. Her pianist was

Otto Goldschmidt Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt (21 August 1829 – 24 February 1907) was a German composer, conductor and pianist, known for his piano concertos and other piano pieces. He married the "Swedish Nightingale", soprano Jenny Lind. Life Goldschmidt w ...

, whom she married at the end of her tour. Coincidentally, as the tour began,

Henry E. Steinway Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, anglicized name Henry Engelhard Steinway, (February 22, 1797 – February 7, 1871)B ...

(Steinweg) and his large family arrived in New York as immigrants from Germany. Henry attended the opening night of the NYC concert series but showed little interest in the diva. His profound interest was in the Chickering piano, to which he dashed for such careful examination that he nearly had to be hauled away so the concert could begin. On December 1, 1852, a fire destroyed Chickering's piano factory located at 336 Washington Street in Boston. One policeman was killed. The walls of the building collapsed, and set adjoining structures on fire. A new factory was built in 1853-54 at 791 Tremont Street in Boston. From 1860-1868 space in the building was the location of the

Spencer Repeating Rifle The Spencer repeating rifles and carbines were 19th-century American lever-action firearms invented by Christopher Spencer. The Spencer was the world's first military metallic-cartridge repeating rifle, and over 200,000 examples were manufacture ...

Company, who made over 100,000 rifles and carbines for the U.S. Army and sportsmen from 1862-1868. This structure still stands today. It was renovated into artist studios in 1972.Chickering Piano Works Fire
at CelebrateBoston.com Jonas Chickering made several major contributions to the development of piano technology, most notably by introducing a one-piece,

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

plate to support the greater string tension of larger grand pianos. He also invented a new deflection of the strings, and in 1845 the first convenient method for over stringing in square pianos. Instead of setting the strings side by side, the company introduced substituting an arrangement of the string in two banks, one over the other. This not only saved space but brought the powerful bass strings directly over the most resonant part of the sound-board, a principle used to this day in the construction of all pianos, both grands and uprights. Chickering was the largest piano manufacturer in the United States in the middle of the 19th century, but was surpassed in the 1860s by

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

. In 1867, Jonas's son Frank Chickering had the Imperial Cross of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

, then one of the world's most prestigious non-military awards, bestowed upon him by

Emperor Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

for services to the art of music, one of more than 200 awards the piano manufacturer garnered over the years. The company became in 1908 part of the American Piano Company (Ampico), and continued after the merger in 1932 of American with the

Aeolian Company The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs, pianos, sheet music, records and phonographs. Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpas ...

, to form Aeolian-American. That company went out of business in 1985, and the Chickering name continued to be applied to new pianos produced by

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

and then the

Baldwin Piano Company The Baldwin Piano Company is an American piano brand. It was once the largest US-based manufacturer of keyboard instruments and known by the slogan, "America's Favorite Piano". Since 2001, it has been a subsidiary of Gibson Brands, Inc. It ceased ...

Chickering Halls

The firm commissioned and operated several concert halls in Boston and New York: * Chickering's building, Boston (c. 1850s), no.334 Washington St.The commemoration of the founding of the house of Chickering & Sons
upon the eightieth anniversary of the event, 1823-1903. Boston: Chickering & Sons, 1904 * Chickering's Hall, Boston (1860-1870), no.246 Washington St. * Chickering Hall concert auditorium, 130 5th Avenue, New York City (1877), designed by George B. Post, and the venue for Oscar Wilde's first lecture in America in 1882 (razed) * Chickering Hall, Boston (1883-c. 1894), no.152 Tremont St., near West St. * Chickering Hall, Boston (1901-c. 1912), Huntington Ave., corner of Massachusetts Ave. * Chickering Hall, 27 West 57th Street, NYC (1923), designed by

Cross & Cross Cross & Cross (1907–1942) was a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross. History Cross & Cross was known as Old New York City Society's architectural firm of choice. John Cross (1878–1951) ...

(1924)

Images

File:1895 Chickering factory TremontSt Boston.png, The Chickering factory in 1895. File:George Harvey Chickering d1899 USA.png, Portrait of George H. Chickering (d.1899)George H. Chickering Dead; Last Male Survivor of the Well-Known Family of Piano-forte Makers Passes Away in Boston." New York Times, November 18, 1899 File:Antique Chickering Piano, Stanley Hotel.jpg, Antique piano at Stanley Hotel (note the "C...e...g" in "Chickering" aligns with the CEG chord on the piano) File:ChickeringHall 130 5thAve NYC.png, Chickering Hall, New York, no.130 5th Av. File:ChickeringHall ca1900s Boston MA postcard.png, Chickering Hall, Boston, Huntington Ave., c. 1900s File:Chickering Monument.JPG, Chickering Monument by Thomas Ball (1872).

References

External links

Chickering in the grand piano-Photoarchive
* Boston Public Library
Chickering Piano Factory building. Boston, South End
Photo by J.J. Hawes, 19th century * Flickr. *
Photo of Piano Factory
Tremont St., South End, Boston, 2011 *
Photo of Piano Factory
Tremont St., South End, Boston, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chickering and Sons 19th century in Boston Manufacturing companies established in 1823 American companies established in 1823 Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Boston Piano manufacturing companies of the United States Economic history of Boston

History

Chickering Halls

Images

References

Further reading

External links