"Autophone" Organette
Medium
Wood, metal, various
Dimensions
H.: 26 cm (10-1/4 in.); W. of base: 25 cm (9-7/8 in.)
Classification
Aerophone-Free Reed
Culture
American
Department
Musical Instruments
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
Accession Number
07.195a, b
Art Historical Context
Created in 1878 by American inventor Henry Bishop Horton, the “Autophone” Organette represents an ingenious chapter in the history of domestic music-making. This compact free-reed aerophone, standing just ten inches tall, was designed to bring melody into ordinary households without requiring formal musical training. Crafted from wood and metal, its simple-driven mechanism allowed users to play popular tunes through perforated paper rolls, foreshadowing the player-piano technology that would flourish decades later. As a product of late-nineteenth-century American ingenuity, the organette refl...
About the Artist
Autophone|Henry Bishop Horton ( |American) · |1819 – |1885
|American, Winchester, Connecticut 1819–1885