Recently, I traveled to Washington, DC.  While there, I took the
opportunity to visit the Piano 300 Exhibit at the Smithsonian
Ripley Center (see MMD 2000.03.14 and 2000.03.15).  This exhibit
celebrates three centuries of pianos and piano people.

Finding it was a bit of a challenge.  The Smithsonian is not a single
museum but rather a number of museums.  The Piano 300 exhibit is
located in the S. Dillon Ripley Center next to the red Smithsonian
"castle" building.  The entrance to the Ripley Center is deceiving.
It is small building with an unusual roof resembling a cloche-style
hat with a ruffled brim.  Due to its small size, visitors may easily
mistake the Ripley Center for a ticket booth or souvenir stand.

Upon entering the building, you may ask yourself, "Where are the
pianos?"  The answer is downstairs; the Ripley Center is underground.
Visitors may either take the elevator or walk the circular marble
staircase to the exhibit two floors below.  Upon arriving at the
exhibit level, one is greeted by a grand two-story corridor with marble
columns.  It would have been spectacular to see all the pianos in this
setting.  However, the exhibit is in a smaller room adjacent to the
grand hall.

There is a hallway leading to the piano room and along those walls are
three-dimensional displays courtesy of Steinway describing the various
parts of a piano.  The last display is a gigantic model of a piano key
assembly encased in Plexiglas.  Press the magic button and the piano
key action will play for you.  But instead of a musical note, you'll
hear a "bonk."

Upon entering the piano room, I was surprised to learn that the exhibit
was much smaller than I had anticipated with only about two dozen
pianos.  There were indeed some very early pianos, but most were from
the last 100-150 years including several from the twentieth century.

There were some stylistic pianos such as the Art-Deco Steinway
displayed at the 1939 World's Fair and Liberace's rhinestone-studded
Baldwin.  There was only one player piano, a Gabler upright and a few
rolls.  No photographs of the pianos were allowed and under the
watchful eye of the security guard, it would be difficult to sneak a
photo unless your name is Bond, James Bond.  There are however
(official) photos of some of the exhibit's pianos in the latest AMICA
bulletin.

I would have liked to have actually heard some of the pianos, but alas,
these instruments are for looking at, not listening to.  Periodic piano
concerts are given at the Center but they are not always scheduled at
times convenient for visitors such as myself who only have one or two
free days to spend in the city.  It would also have been nice to see
some of the older or more unusual pianos opened up so that one could
view the inside and note developments in piano evolution.  Despite
these drawbacks, the exhibit was worth seeing.

Besides the Piano 300 exhibit, I also visited other sites nearby.
One was the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where a
Jacquard loom is on display.  The correlation between the punched card
patterns for the loom and piano rolls has been noted on many occasions.

Another attraction was the 1940s Herschell carousel on the Mall.  The
carousel is a short distance from the Capitol building.  (Jack Anderson
writes a column called, "Washington Merry-Go-Round."  Is this the
merry-go-round to which he refers?)  The carousel is missing its
Wurlitzer band organ which according to the notice is "under
restoration."  Here's the question of the day for MMD'ers:  Where is
the band organ and who is restoring it?

I have posted photographs of some of the items which I have described.
They may be seen at:

        http://mmd.foxtail.com/Exchange/washdc.htm

Joyce Brite
Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Exchange/