Historic Hood River
Spin the Harmonica
Notes
Grace has selected this harmonica turntable from our collection for today’s artifact:
This object is a rotating storefront harmonica display made by Hohner Harmonicas that dates to the late 1890s. Although it is not visible in the image, the side of the display has a space where a hand crank once existed in order to rotate the top metal portion of the display.
Hohner Harmonicas began in 1857 in Germany, started by clockmaker Matthias Hohner. In 1896, Hohner’s son applied for a U.S. patent, which was granted in 1897, meaning that the display likely dates to 1896 and was used in the following years.
Several 1897 issues of the Hood River Glacier state that H.A. York received a line of harmonicas and other musical instruments that were available at his drugstore with prices ranging from 10 cents to 50 cents, which is worth between $4 and $20 today. Possibly this display once spun around in his storefront, showcasing the latest harmonicas available for purchase in the early days of Hood River.
Do any of you remember seeing rotating slices of pies at diners? People swear they increase the sales of pie (at least the people who sell the turntables say so).
Roger Sheldrake
I have a “Rolmonica” . A hand cranked harmonica with small paper music rolls like a player piano. A much later patent date though, 1925
Box says anyone can play it; me not so much!
Arlen
Nice to have it in your collection brother. Didn’t Della Latham Sheribon (our grandmother) have a player piano?
Grace
I just noticed that the turntable is visible in this image of the first museum! It might be interesting to highlight other objects that were on display at the time if I can find them.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/first-hood-river-county-museum/
Arthur Babitz
It’s always fun to find glimpses of objects or photographs we have in our collection. The flip side is when you see an something we no longer have. I often wonder how much was lost before we put systems in place to avoid the casual loans which allowed many objects or images to walk out the door. I’ll add the loss isn’t always permanent– we’ve had people generously donate collections from family members which include images with the museum’s stamp on them. Always happy to see images find their way back home!