Family Photos: Anna’s organ

One of the best things about blogging is the opportunity it offers to learn so many things I would never have otherwise known. Tonight’s post is a perfect example. Earlier this week Kristi Buller (see also here) forwarded a photograph of an antique organ currently owned by Karen Buller Dick.

The organ was owned, I am told, by Anna Poetker Buller, the wife of Abraham P Buller, who was the ninth child of Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller; in other words, Abraham was Peter P’s younger brother. When and how Anna acquired this organ I do not know. All I can say with certainty is that Don Buller, her grandson, purchased it at her auction (when she was still alive? after she passed away in 1972?), who then passed it on to his daughter Karen Buller Dick.

We can learn a little more about the organ by examining the photo closely and conducting some online research. The first thing to note is the manufacturer name written above the keyboard: this is a Burdett Organ. According to the Reed Organ Society (here), the Burdett Organ Company was established in 1867 in Chicago. Four years later,

the Chicago factory burned in the Chicago fire.… [The business was] started again at 12th and Walnut Streets in Erie, PA in partnership with C.C. Converse 1872–1888; then moved to Freeport, IL in 1894. [In] 1898 … the factory was moved to the Johnson Wheel Co. building in the Northwest part of Freeport, where it had a capacity of 400 organs per month. In 1901 the property and name were acquired by the Hobart M. Cable Co., and the piano scales were acquired by the Edna Organ Co. In 1907 Cable sold the Burdett Organ Co. to S. N. Swan & Sons.

From this brief account we learn that the organ pictured above was probably built between 1867 and the early 1900s, when the Burdett brand seems to have been absorbed into S. N. Swan & Sons. If the organ in question has a serial number or place of manufacture, we might be able to narrow the date range further. (The Reed Organ Society lists the following serial numbers; 1871: 17331; 1877: 32267; 1898: 58021; 1903: 74297; 1904: 84806.)

A closer look at the area behind the stool reveals two pedals, which indicate that this is a pump organ, also known as a reed organ. The organ player pumps the pedals to force wind over a bank of vibrating metal reeds, thus producing sound. Pump Organ Restorations (here) identifies thirteen different types of pump organs. The Burdett organ pictured above is a parlor organ, which is the most common type of reed organ. Parlor organs are easily identifiable by their ornate designs. The Antique Piano Shop writes that the organs build in the last twenty-five years of the nineteen century “were some of the most elaborate and lavish instruments money could buy. [They] often had very high backs with carved panels, shelves, mirrors, etc. They were truly a hallmark in Victorian design” (here).

The ornate hutch (upper portion) with mirror on Anna’s organ organ helps us to identify this as a parlor organ, which indicates that it was manufactured for home use; pump organs intended for church use generally did not have a hutch at all. We also see that the organ has fifteen stops (the white knobs above the keyboard), which enabled the organ to make different musical sounds. Pump Organ Restorations explains that organs with more than eleven stops are typically higher quality than organs with fewer stops (here). One final observation: this organ has sixty-one white and black keys on the keyboard; from this we can deduce that there are around 122 reeds within the interior of the organ. If you crave still more arcane information about parlor organs, see the informative questions-and-answers section at Pump Organ Restorations (here).

How might this general information inform our understanding of the history of the organ in question? This organ was of higher-than-average quality, as evidenced by the number of stops it has and the ornate cabinetry of the hutch. Whether Anna acquired it new or used is open to question. Anna and Abraham were married in 1905, so it is possible that she received it as a wedding gift; of course, that is nothing more than a guess, and she could have acquired it long before or much later than her wedding day. Without knowing the date (or place) of manufacture, there is little that we can know with confidence. Perhaps it is enough to know that Anna seems to have been an accomplished organist, to have owned an instrument this fine. 

If anyone has additional information about this organ, please contact me, and I will update this post. In addition, I understand that the organ is for sale, if any member of the family or any other reader would like to add this beautiful piece of Buller history to his or her home.