You will hear barrel organ music played on original historical instruments (the oldest of which dates back to 1760).
You will experience the fascination of a technique that makes whistles, reeds, strings, drums, bells and cymbals sound with amazing precision.
Guided visit by prior arrangement by telephone.
In the historic rooms of the Wichterheer estate in Oberhofen on Lake Thun, clocks and mechanical musical instruments of all kinds and eras are on display. From the 13th century to 1948, the medieval vineyard was privately owned by large Bernese families. The main house was built in 1518 and has essentially remained the same despite several modifications.
The Museum of Clocks and Mechanical Music is located on the ground floor and in the carefully designed basement rooms. Between thick stone walls you descend into an earlier time. Expert guides will guide you through five centuries of creative craftsmanship and make the instruments sound
Some 2,500 watches, automata, precious objects and portrait miniatures on enamel invite the visitor on a fabulous voyage through five centuries of Genevan, Swiss and European horological art, as well as proposing a panoramic view of Patek Philippe’s production since 1839. The museum also has a library with over 8000 publications on time and time measurement.
Historical pipe organs
Black Forest flute clocks
A sounding museum on three floors
over 130 harmonies, organs, square pianos, organ harmonies, piano harmonies, celesta harmonies, bell harmonies, etc.
Group tours with live harmonium music
Dieter Stalder
Radio Romande Organ, Oberwil, Armagni Organ, Open Organ, Alexander Harmonium (around 1850), Alphonse Mustel harmonium , circa 1923, Emmental organ 17th century Mettenbach (restored in 2010), Italian organ (17th – 19th century, attributed to Giovanni Banci, Tuscany ), Pierre Vialle Bourdon Organ, Organ Regale Regale Benno Fleig, Basel, around 1970, copy of the Basel Museum original by Caspar Humpel 1691
Collector and passionate about musical instruments, let yourself be carried away in the magical universe of Monsieur Jean Furrer. In his cave of Ali Baba, pieces that are more than a hundred years old are restored with a lot of love and patience.
The sound machine museum shows the entire range of mechanical musical instruments. The permanent exhibition illustrates in a cheerful way how these jukeboxes were integrated into the cultural and social life of bygone eras and how they shape and enrich our lives to this day.
Everything from cylinder music boxes, flute cabinets, puppet machines to self-playing pianos, orchestrions and phonographs can be seen. The funfair and concert organs, which can be admired in the large organ hall, are extremely impressive. Based on the corresponding epochs, the rooms are designed in the style of the Gründerzeit, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Enesco music boxes, Hammond Organ Museum, mechanical music and organs, Mighty Wurlitzer cinema organ
Mary Ann Porinchak, Executive Director
Exhibit consists of:
Amy Kapostasy, Director.
Exhibit consists of:
The museum is currently private and can be viewed by appointment. The “Nickel Music Collection” contains about 20 coin pianos, orchestrions, and related items of a few collectors, including Bart Off, Dave Ramey, and Brad McClincy. Contact David Ramey (dcramey@dcramey.com, 708-602-3961) or Brad McClincy (coinpiano@gmail.com) for more information.
This collection features all shapes, sizes and types of mechanical music instruments. Daily tours guided by docents provide an excellent overview of all the types of instruments that fall under the mechanical music umbrella.
MBSI’s Polyphon Style 44D Table Top Disc Musical Box is displayed at the farm. Many other period displays and demonstrations are available on a rotating basis. Check the museum website for details.
No mechanical music. Noted for its balance and depth, Yale’s collection of keyboard instruments is one of the finest in the world. The Collection’s holdings comprise over a hundred examples, including organs, clavichords, harpsichords, spinets, virginals, and pianos from the workshops of the most important makers representing all the major regional schools over a span of three centuries.
Inspired in the 1950s by the collection of nickelodeon pianos at Angelo Valente’s “House of Nickelodeons”, (also known as the “Mil-Arm Inn”, at the intersection of Milwaukee and Armitage in Chicago), the Sanfilippo music machine collection was started in 1978 with a small Nelson-Wiggen coin piano, a Bruder band organ, and a Welte Concert Orchestrion. The Wurlitzer opus #1571, built in 1927 for the Riviera Theatre in Omaha, has been expanded to 80 ranks of pipes. The overall result is the most versatile orchestral theatre pipe organ ever built. The carousel building, completed in 1997, is the home of the most complete example of a European salon carousel in existence – the ‘Eden Palais’ (or Eden Palace), built in 1890. The American Orchestrion Room, featuring a colorful display of some of the most beautiful art glass-front orchestrions ever made, including a Coinola SO, a Peerless Wisteria, a Peerless Arcadian with fancy carvings and hanging lamps, a Peerless Elite with flute pipes. All of the events open to the public are listed and updated regularly on the collection website, and in its E-Newsletter.
MIM’s Mechanical Music Gallery features a selection of musical instruments such as player pianos, mechanical zithers, and cylinder music boxes that, by definition, “play themselves.†The period between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known as the Golden Age of Mechanical Music, saw the creation of a remarkable range of self-playing instruments in Europe and the Americas. MIM’s Mechanical Music Gallery highlights a range of mechanical instrument types and technologies from this era, including artistic examples that feature animated components such as human and animal figures.
Weber pianola, Manchester seraphone, Symphonion disc box, Polyphon disc box, street organ presented as part of an exhibit on British Victorian-era life.
The Royal College of Music Museum maintains and preserves more than 25,000 instruments, portraits, images and engravings. Highlights from the collection include the earliest known guitar in the world, the earliest stringed keyboard instrument and the best known portraits of Joseph Haydn and Farinelli. Mostly small cylinder boxes of unknown origin and a few barrel organs.
No mechanical music available. The Department of Musical Instruments of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, dating from 1996 and inaugurated in 2001, houses the collection of antique instruments from the “Luigi Cherubini Music Conservatory. Approximately fifty instruments, collected between the mid 1600s and the early 1800s, are displayed in three rooms and come from the private collections of the Houses of the Medici and Lorraine, the Tuscan Grand Dukes. Additional information.
Museu de la Musica. The permanent exhibition comprises nearly five hundred instruments from different periods and cultures, selected from among the total of about 2,000 instruments forming the Museum’s collection, which is considered the foremost of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula. Includes gramophones, automatic zithers, phonographs, Orpheus disc box, automaton orchestra with 10 musicians and a director with arms and head movement, mechanical clocks, barrel organs, Ariston disc box
The Paul Dupuy museum’s watch collection is enriched with 37 watch pieces : eight clocks and twenty-nine watches.
Georges PRIN was a manufacturer of Parisian optical instruments that provided observatories in astronomical spectacles and telescopes that were then used for determining the public time. His collection is donated to the museum by his son Bernard. It includes eight clocks and twenty-nine watches, of great rarity.
Claude Thimote Lounge organ with 22 keys, Husson and Buthod Serinette in walnut, beech, fir. 10 keys, a row of 10 pewter pipes. Wooden cylinder. Iron register 8 notches on the right side, for the choice of tunes. Poirot Georges and Minou Emile and Cunin Charles fairground organ 36 keys-metal pins arranged under a jaw to constrain the band of perforated cardboard. Remy and Grobert, Organ with 36 keys
No mechanical music. The department comprises one of the world’s largest collections of historical keyboard instruments, with numerous early fortepianos, predominantly of south-German and Viennese provenance. A further collection focus is formed by wind and string instruments from Nuremberg during the Holy Roman Empire, when it was a Free Imperial City.
No mechanical music. Around 2500 exhibits from all continents: European professional and folk instruments, non-European instruments, and musical documents, from the past and the present, the oldest dating back to the Lusatian and pre-Columbian cultures. The museum has a particularly impressive collection of plucked and bowed string instruments, keyboard instruments, wind instruments, and Polish folk instruments. Additional information
Polish folk instruments, German, Austrian, Czech, Italian, French or Russian instruments. Italian and Portuguese mandolins, pear-shaped lutes, drums with “disnaissance design”, charming Swiss and German music boxes, French trumpets and helicons. All of them arouse admiration and curiosity, but Polish folk instruments are the essence of Szydlowiec collections.
No automatic music. The ground floor exhibition “From Chopin to avant-garde” includes instruments from the time of Frederic Chopin.
No mechanical music available. The Museum’s collection of folk instruments gathers over 120 objects from the region of Å»ywiec, acquired over the institution’s eighty years of existence. Taking the pride of place are instruments making up a traditional Å»ywiec highlander band, that is violins and bagpipes (dudy), and shepherd instruments such as wooden folk trumpets (trombita), horns, flutes, pipes, whistles and bird call whistles. Additional information
The collection of musical instruments is currently over 3,000 instruments, almost all of which were made in Europe between the 16th and the 20th century. The collection is thus an ideal object of study for musicologists and anyone interested in historical performance practice.
Collection of 600 mechanical music instruments, including cylinder and disc boxes, pianos, organs and a variety of other instruments. Catalog of instruments can be viewed online.
Phonographs, gramophones and other musical devices through the development of the radio and into modern technology.
A collection of rare violins including those of Andrea Amati (1505c.-1577) violin Carlo IX, 1566c., Girolamo Amati (1548c.-1630) viola Stauffer, 1615, Nicolo Amati (1596-1684) violin Hammerle, 1658c., Antonio Stradivari (1644c.-1737) violin Clisbee, 1669, Giuseppe Guarneri fiulius Andreae (1666-1740) violin Quarestani, 1689, Antonio Stradivari (1644c.-1737) cello Stauffer ex Cristiani, 161700, Antonio Stradivari (1644c.-1737) violin Il Cremonese, 1715, Antonio Stradivari (1644c.-1737) violin Vesuvius, 1727, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu (1698-1744) violin Stauffer, 1734. Also violin making is a focus of the venue.
Museum Vleeshuis looks back on six hundred years of music and dance in the city. We immerse you in the stories of former musicians, show you how musical instruments are made, take you to the very first balls and opera performances … and let you especially enjoy many beautiful sounds.
If you want to admire street organs, street- cafe fairground- and dance organs and all kinds of other musical instruments and enjoy the special organ sounds, then you can always contact Luc Peeters who will show you his collection with enthusiasm.Decap organs, Verbeeck organs, Bursens organs, music boxes, Mortier organ, gramophones, accordeons, jukeboxes, miniatures, orchestrions, Heesbeen organs, self made organs, pianos, honky tonky, harmonium etc.The museum also punches new organ books and sells music CDs.
This museum has a vast collection of automated musical instruments and historic vehicles.
Founder: Mr. Severi Franco. The Museum was conceived as a journey in seven rooms that traces mechanical music history. The journey takes you from the invention of mechanical music, through the different stages of its development and into its established place in society, finally showing the decline due to the appearance of the gramophone and other modern means of sound diffusion.
Music boxes, hurdy,gurdies, early record players and an incredible fairground organ, all in working order.There is also a classic car, landau and various historic farm instruments
Open Monday, Wednesday-Sunday (closed Tuesdays) 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The last admission is at 5 p.m. but the museum store stays open till 6 p.m. Hourly tours are available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission Fee: Adults $12 Singaporean Permanent Resident Students (with concession cards) $6 Senior Singaporean Permanent Residents above age 60 (with valid IDs) $6 Children 6 years and under are free.
Collection includes 230 self-playing musical instruments, such as music boxes, street pianos and barrel organs. In addition, the historical objects and textile objects take young and old into the past of this region.
The self-playing musical instruments come in all shapes and sizes; from very small music boxes, automata and musical clocks to huge carillons, orchestrions, dance and street organs. All these instruments can be seen and heard in this world class collection.
The museum has a collection of automatic pianos and related objects. There are over 25.000 music rolls in the museum archive. Nearly all of them can be played on the different instruments in the museum.
Museum features the Gavioli 89-III Lion organ. Also the Kunkels organ that has 112 keys, 14 registers and more than 800 pipes, making it the largest concert organ in Europe. A 70 key Marenghi, serial number 2457. The Black Madonna, an 84-key Mortier Orchestrion. The De Pod, a 90 key Carl FreiThe organs play each Sunday from noon – 5pm. Alternate phone +31 23 5385049
The Museum of Science and Technology – Stefan Procopiu contains a wide range of musical automata (musical boxes and clocks, symphonies and polyphons, mechanical pianos, pantographs and gramophones). The museum houses more than 11,000 objects, particularly important for the history of science and technology, among which are sound recording and reproduction, the history of photographic and cinematographic techniques, the evolution of communications, and the development of computers.
Frasse opened the museum together with his life partner Marianne in 1981 in the shared home on Peder Morcks vag in Simrishamn. In addition to gramophones and phonographs, many other musical machines were also added, such as music boxes and sonorous positive that Frasse and Marianne occasionally took out and performed in the streets and squares. The museum was open under Frasse and Marianne’s auspices until 2006. Just in time for Easter 2014, Frasses and Marianne’s Music Museum was reopened at Sweden’s car and motor museum Autoseum in Simrishamn .
Musical boxes, mechanical music, automata, music box/clock and watch-making tools and equipment. Music box workshop.
Exhibits include a Black Forest Flute Clock, Leipzig “Polyphone”, which was patented in 1896, a Pianola, two reproducing concert grand pianos with “Welte-Mignon system”, and a Phonoliszt-Violina model C, the only remaining example built by Hupfeld Leipzig worldwide. Also a Weber Maestro, and a DeCap dance organ.
Music boxes, automata, clocks, singing birds, animated pictures and gramophones as well as other accessories, tools and souvenirs of the time period. Larger pieces include a Weber “Maesto”, and a “Phonolistz Violiona”.
25,000 diverse pieces in about thirty collections offer rarities, curiosities and prestigious objects such as the Jaquet-Droz Automata, the Ruckers Harpsichord and the Strubin Collection.
The collection of mechanical musical instruments includes around one hundred objects from three centuries, from early barrel organs and music boxes to the automatic piano.
The Seewen Museum of Music Automatons houses one of the world’s largest and best-known collections of Swiss cylinder and disc music boxes, clocks and jewelery containing musical mechanisms and other mechanical music automatons from the past two centuries. Highlights include a Phonoliszt-Violina made in Leipzig by the Hupfeld Company, a Weber Unika from Waldkirch, near Freiburg im Breisgau, and a Decap dance organ from Antwerp with a wealth of light-hearted dance music.
Offers a 45 minute guided visit to the workshop, a chance to see behind the scenes, witness the many of the skills needed to repair automata and enjoy demonstrations of some rare pieces in action. We receive many requests for visits to the workshop, its a unique and unforgettable experience, we will share our passion for automata whatever your level of interest. Email to arrange your visit. Availability limited. Michael & Maria Start
Fairground organs & Dutch street organs. A unique working steam museum.
The Musical Museum is home to a wonderful collection of self-playing musical instruments. From tiny music boxes to the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ in our concert hall, you can learn about the history of music reproduction, and hear an impressive array of self-playing pianos, orchestrions, pipe organs and violin players. Established by Frank Holland.
Learn of the variety, quality and ingenuity associated with the ancient craft of cuckoo clock making. We also have 5 fairground organs, 3 church organs and musical clocks.
A permanent playing collection of rare mechanical musical instruments, dance organs, player pianos and theatre pipe organs. Live performances are given, together with a commentary. The Organ Theatre contains a unique collection of mechanical (self-playing) musical instruments that the museum founder, Mr Charles Hart, began collecting nearly half a century ago. That magical musical atmosphere that has been lost and forgotten in today’s digital age.
Come and see the world’s largest collection of steam engines and organs, hear Robert Wolfe one of the world’s leading theatre organists play the mighty Wurlitzer at 12.30pm and 2pm daily, ride on fairground carousels and the gondola, enjoy “Back Stage Tours and watch silent movies.
87-key Gavioli. History of Trams and life in England
Amusement park with mechanical music boxes as part of historical displays. Unknown what styles and quantity of mechanical music is available to view. Call ahead.
Collection of the late Charles Brown III, including Seeburg R pipe organ orchestra, double Mills Violano, Regina changer, Hexaphone, Multiphone and many more music boxes and pneumatic instruments. Tony Marsico, curator.
Apostolic Clock, Organettes, music boxes, street organs.
Wurlitzer LX orchestrion and 150 band organ, Double Violano, Coinola Midget, Link, Seeburg G, Seeburg KT, Artizan organ, Tangley Calliope, and others. Open summers.
See and hear over 100 old-time automatic musical instruments. Band organs, music boxes, nickelodeons and player pianos. April 1-October 31, Tuesday-Saturday 11 am-4 pm. & Sunday 12:30-4 pm. CLOSED MONDAY. Adults $8, Seniors (60+) $7, High School/College Students $5, Children $3.00, Children under 3 FREE.
The home and laboratory where Thomas Edison lived and worked from 1887 to 1931.
Instruments on display: Symphonion 3-disc Eroica musical clock, 15 1/2″ Polyphon, Mermod cylinder box, Edison disc phono, Clariona, Polyphon upright, Seeburg 1910.
The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, operated by the Carousel Society of the Niagara Frontier, is a premier national historic site and community resource for family recreation and learning that fosters an appreciation for the unique heritage of the carousel and related industries in the Niagara Region.
Disc and cylinder boxes, Gem roller organ, Celestina organette, Horton Autophone, three early Edison phonos. Tours by reservation. Open weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Society office open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Johnson Victrola Museum is a tribute to Delaware’s native son, Eldridge Reeves Johnson, who founded the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. Exhibits include phonographs, recordings, memorabilia, trademarks, objects, and paintings that highlight Mr. Johnson’s successful business enterprises and chronicle the development of the sound-recording industry. Edison phonograph, two gramophones, 43 Victors and Victrolas, 15,000 Victor records.
Frati organ, Berni playing books, Wurlitzer 165 (De Kleist), 146B (Bruder), Wurlitzer Caliola, Tangley Calliaphone, coin piano. Open daily 11am – 10pm, Memorial Day – Labor Day.
Silver and gold steamboat automaton, 10-tune cylinder box, 24-whistle calliope from showboat.
Cylinder and disc boxes, automata, and pneumatic instruments can be seen in the new exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls, featuring more than 150 pieces from the world-renowned Murtogh Guinness collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata. Live demos at 2 p.m. Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays: 1-5 p.m. Mondays: Closed. Admission: $10 Adults; $7 Children and Seniors; Children under 3 years of age are free.
Musical boxes occasionally on display; piano, grand harmonicon and musical instruments. Call in advance.
Several instruments demonstrated. Welte orchestrion, Regina changer, reproducing pianos. Herschell carousel (circa 1940) in front of the old Arts and Industries Castle.
This museum is currently closed. Previously this museum offered a thirty minute tour to take you back in time to the heyday of the music box. Several exquisite boxes, acquired from famous collections, are played during the tour, as well as some of the unique Porter boxes manufactured on the premises. Many musical automata are on display. There is also an extraordinary 1926 Steinway Duo-Art Aeolian reproducing piano.
Cylinder and disc music boxes, phonographs, miniatures, automaton, small organ. Several pieces by Gustave Vichy of Paris include a drunken chef, a magician, and a clown walking on his hands.
A working collection of 100 year old mechanical organs, including an air calliope, the Una-Fon. The Royal American Show’s Gavioli band organ, and a Wurlitzer 165 band organ also available.
25 instruments plus a replica of Edison’s laboratory. An in-depth demonstration of the invention that made Thomas Edison famous…the phonograph is available.
A renowned attraction of authentic and fantasy mechanical music. On your self-guided tour, you will explore the world’s largest carousel, a 200-foot sea creature, automated music machines and much more. Phonoliszt-Violina, Double Violano, calliope, automatic orchestras, automata, etc.
Criterion and Regina music boxes, phonographs, player piano. Instruments demonstrated.
Nickelodeons, music boxes, phonos, arcade machines.
Eight miles north of Traverse City. Music boxes, barrel organ, player and reproducing pianos, orchestrions, phonographs, Violano, jukeboxes, organs of all types including a Mortier 97 key, and a Wurlitzer theatre organ.
Colorful, hand-carved wooden horses, once at Euclid Beach Park on Cleveland’s lakefront, now welcome riders once again in the Carousel Pavilion at the Western Reserve Historical Society.
A museum of the 20th Century. Among the exhibits is a music room with a “magic” player piano, Edison phonograph,a barrel piano and other items of interest. Open May/Oct, Wed/Sun from noon until 5pm. Groups of 20 or more by appointment. Bobbie Rice.
Several music boxes, Reginaphone. Open Mon – Sat 9am – 4pm November – April. Call first.
Free exhibit of antique pianos and various automatic musical instruments. Mon – Fri 11am – 3 pm, Sunday 1pm – 5pm, or by appointment.
200 mostly Edison phonographs.
Cylinder box, Stella grand, Regina changer, street piano, organette, nickelodeon, Gem roller organ, orchestrion, Violano, automaton, phonographs and more.
Regina disc music box #57923 shipped from the factory on Oct. 29, 1901.
Music boxes, phonographs, Hurdy-Gurdys, organs, organettes, automata, radios/tvs. Appointment only.
History of music in Virginia plus pianos, music boxes, nickelodeons, organs, and phonographs.
Welcome to the Musee Mecanique, one of the world’s largest (over 200) privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition. (You can play them!) The historic Cliff House, Zelinsky collection.
Seeburg L, Empress A-roll piano, Wurlitzer CX, Seeburg F with Aeolian push-up piano player.
Huge collection: Welte, Violano, Banjo, Theater organ, reproducing pianos, cylinder/disc boxes, “Emperor Piano.” No children under 10 years old on the guided tours.
Death Valley National Park. Welte 3 manual 15 rank pipe organ with Welte piano and Welte or Wurlitzer roll-player, Welte Mignon reproducing piano, Deagan tower chimes with automatic mechanism and roll-player.
Jaquet-Droz clocks, one includes a set of flutes and musical couple who begin to play on the hour or on demand. The second clock with serinette and bird originally had a Louis XV or Louis XVI cabinet. Edouard-Constant Sandoz collection of watches and automatons.
A walk through the museum shows about 250 years of mechanical musical instruments. The smallest of the museum’s objects is a music box: it measures just 1.5 cm × 1.5 cm – which is a difference to the carousel organ measuring 3.00 m × 4.00 m. Almost all instruments are ready to play, and guided tours of the museum give the visitors many different sound experiences. Britta Edelmann, MA – museum director.
Collection ranges from flute clocks to orchestrions. Link to Black Forest Museum
About 350 self-playing musical instruments from three centuries including a Hupfeld-Violina-Phonoliszt, Weber Maesto, Welte cinema organ, Model 104 Gebr. Bruder Symphony Orchestra Organ, and Poppers Violinovo. A 45-minute tour with music. Guided tours in nine languages. Director: Siegfried Wendel.
The presentation “Our musical instruments – soundscapes with a migration background” on the second floor spans a chronological arc from Renaissance instruments to mechanical music production and reproduction in the 19th and 20th centuries. The concert hall on the ground floor welcomes visitors with a selection of particularly valuable keyboard instruments from the 17th to early 20th centuries, which are regularly played at concerts: two fortepianos, a tangential grand piano, a double grand piano by Pleyel and an original French harpsichord from the time of Louis XIV.
This is mostly a museum of instruments, but it does have a small mechanical music display.
Music boxes for sale and twice-per-day concerts presented.
Even in an era when there was no television or radio, music was a part of life. Musicians performed in opera houses, concert halls, restaurants and bars, and on street corners. In Europe and the United States, music boxes and self-playing musical instruments were produced based on various ideas and entertained people’s ears. The main hall where you can experience the sounds of the good old days. Enjoy a concert with delicate music boxes and overwhelmingly powerful self-playing instruments while thinking about the wonderful ideas and techniques left behind by our predecessors for music. A special concert guided by musicians active in the world while exploring this era. Through top-notch performances and friendly narration, we convey the joy and depth of music. Listening to a live performance right in front of you gives you a sense of realism that is different from that of a theater. Also a communication talk with customers. Please enjoy the moment when you can feel art close to you. (It will be held for a limited time. Please refer to the calendar for the detailed schedule.)
