Morris Museum hosts ‘Musically, Made in New Jersey’

Explore the role New Jersey manufacturers played in the earliest years of the music industry at The Morris Museum with the exhibit “Musically, Made in New Jersey.”

Featuring more than a dozen mechanical musical instruments and other related objects, “Musically, Made in New Jersey” will be on view through October 18.

By 1885, New Jersey became the musical box manufacturing center for the United States and the western world. There were at least six manufacturing companies located in Rahway, Jersey City, Bradley Beach, and Hoboken, which employed hundreds of workers and produced hundreds of thousands of musical instruments.

“Musically, Made in New Jersey” features instruments selected from the museum’s Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata, one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world. The exhibition also includes objects from the Museum of Music Box Society International, Altenburg Piano House, and other private entities.

“Through this exhibit, the Morris Museum will be the first institution to ever shine a spotlight on the mechanical music industry that made New Jersey its ‘home’ during the very late 1800s and into the early 20th century,” said Jeremie Ryder, conservator of the Guinness Collection at the museum. “Virtually nowhere else in the United States was such a tremendous pool of talented engineers, machinists, musicians and craftsmen who worked together with entrepreneurial spirit to supply the masses with music from around the world.”

In 2003, the Morris Museum was awarded the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of 750 historic mechanical musical instruments and automata (mechanical figures), along with more than 5,000 programmed media, ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders. Highlights of the collection are displayed in a 4,300 square-foot permanent exhibition entitled “Musical Machines and Living Dolls: Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata from the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection.”

The mechanical musical instruments that were manufactured right here in New Jersey played a pivotal role in introducing new audio technology to the masses.

“I love this exhibit because it shows museum visitors a window in time when all of these different manufacturers were working right here in their own backyard to bring music to the masses,” he said. “The museum is always trying to take people out of their comfort zones and provide them with a unique look into another era in our history.” The exhibition includes a 1908 Reginaphone by the Rahway based Regina Music Box Company, a hybrid machine that plays both punched metal discs and 78rpm records.

The exhibition also features a Capital “cuff” Music Box by F. G. Otto and Sons of Jersey City, a unique instrument that includes perforated metal cones on a rotating mandrel. “It’s incredible to see visitors leave with that look of amazement on their faces, and watch how these old music boxes can entertain people the same way they did 100 years ago,” Ryder said.

“Musically Made in New Jersey” also represents musical instruments manufactured by the Aeolian Company of Garwood, the Symphonion Manufacturing Company of Bradley Beach, the American Music Box Company of West New York and Hoboken, and others. “These pieces were kind of like the iPods of their day, and the mechanics behind them represent some pretty amazing technology for that time period—and without electricity,” he said. “Unless you had a family member who played an instrument, it was the only way to bring music into your home…and New Jersey’s contributions to the industry were pretty significant.”

MUSICALLY, MADE

IN NEW JERSEY

WHEN: Through Oct. 18

WHERE: Morris Museum,

6 Normandy Heights Road,

Morristown

INFORMATION: 973-971-3706 or morrismuseum.org