Many towns and small cities today have a historical society that operates
a small museum, often in a large old house.

Have you considered loaning your mechanical instruments for display in
such a museum?  I did so last year, and if more of us did this the "next
generation" would be better educated about our machines and how much fun
they can be.

Last year our Wheaton, Illinois, History Center mounted an exhibit on
"Past Pastimes" featuring music, games, and other diversions from 1900
up into the 1960s.  I contributed a Reginaphone, an Edison Diamond Disk
Phonograph, and a Sears Silvertone wire recorder with integral radio-
phono.  I also told them what to say on the placards they placed on each
instrument, and I trained the staff hands-on on how to operate and
demonstrate the machines.

The museum staff were intrigued by the "transition period" represented by
the Reginaphone, with its foot in both camps (they tongue-in-cheekily
labeled one of the 15.5" disks as "Digital Music Disk"), and visitors were
captivated by the sounds of that Regina (and repulsed by the scratchy
1917 phonograph sound!  ^-).  Most had never known that disk music boxes
existed, let alone sounded so beautiful.

So, what can *you* do for your community museum?  Note that my museum's
theme did not cover mechanical music or even music per se, but they were
glad to include a piece of it in the "Pastimes" theme.  Let's get our
machines out into public view!

Please think of how any of your machines might fit into a local museum
display.  There aren't enough mechanical music museums to be close to
everyone, and too many instruments are hidden away in private collections
and shown only to other collectors (known as "preaching to the choir").
[And we MBSI members have just learned that watch collectors won't be
seeing our goods in their museum.]

Of course the museum signed a contract with me covering the exact period
of loan, acceptance of responsibility for my items' safety, and insurance
coverage.  And my name and address were not listed on the placards for
the benefit of burglars.

You can do something for your community and our hobby.

Mike Knudsen

PS: I haven't gotten an MMD mailing for the last two days.

 [ Yep!  See the "Previous Digest" date-line following the Contents;
 [ Jody and I were both out-of-town.  :-)    -- Robbie