1900 A small collection of advertising material for the Zimmerman Autoharp Company Charles F. Zimmermann (sometimes Zimmerman) Advertising,Music,Musical Instruments

This collection of material consists of one illustrated Zimmermann autoharp catalog, one used Zimmerman advertising cover, one unused generic advertising cover for Dolgeville, New York, businesses, and a one letter and reply, both in German that was enclosed in the used advertising cover. All in nice shape. The autoharp is a string instrument in the zither family that features a set of bars with separate damping pads that mute strings not belonging to a specified chord. A chord is played by pressing the corresponding bar against the strings with one hand while strumming the strings with the other. The die-cut illustrated catalog was produced during Theodore H. Roth's tenure of company ownership. It contains nine pages of highlighted models that are introduced by a storyline of a musician purchasing autoharps of varying sophistication for different members of his family. The Smithsonian Magazine featured this catalog as a classic bit of American advertising in an article by Alexia McClain, "A Uniquely Shaped Trade Catalog with a Story," in its November 2019 which is available online. The unused Dolgeville advertising cover features a map of the region with a blank space in the upper left corner, where business could insert their addresses and other information. The used Dolgeville advertising cover features the map along with a corner card advertising the Zimmermann Autoharp Company. The used Dolgeville-Zimmerman cover contains the final item in this group, a letter and reply written in what to me is an undecipherable cursive German script. . The concept for the instrument originated in Germany, and most give credit for its invention to German immigrant Charles F. Zimmermann (sometimes Zimmerman), who applied for a U. S. patent in December of 1881. More recently, a case has suggested that Zimmermann may have simply improved on a design created earlier by Karl August Gütter who did not file German patent until 1884. Regardless, Zimmermann coined the term autoharp and was the first to manufacture and sell them to the public from Philadelphia, beginning in 1885. The instruments filled a previously empty niche by providing a rather simple instrument to learn to play and accompany home singing. It also found favor in several regional music including folk, country, bluegrass, and Celtic. In 1893, Zimmermann sold his patent and company to Alfred Dolge, who established a factory in Dolgeville, New York, and built over one-half million autoharps to meet the instrument s growing demand. After overextending himself, Dolge was forced into bankruptcy in 1898, and the company was sold at auction. Dolge s former assistant, Theodore H. Roth, purchased the firm, which he named The Zimmermann Autoharp Company. Roth continued to manufacture autoharps until around 1910, when he sold the business to the Phonoharp Company of Boston, which later merged with Oscar Schmidt. The Oscar Schmidt Company, despite changes in ownership, continues to produce autoharps today. (For more information, see the Smithsonian Magazine article referenced above, "History of the Autoharp" at the AutoharpStore website, and "autoharp" at the Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection website.) A very scarce grouping. At the time of listing, no similar items are for sale in the trade, and the Rare Book Hub shows none as having come up for auction. OCLC identifies no institutional holdings of these items.