Peter Wellburn writes, "Does anyone know what happened to Harvey Roehl's
collection of musical instruments?"
Dear Peter and others on the MMD, I am surprised to hear that there
are still some folks who are not aware of the disposition of the Harvey
and Marion Roehl collection.
Before Harvey passed away over two years ago, he and Marion made
arrangements to sell all of the large instruments in their collection.
Harvey was able to see many of the instruments leave their house and
to know the new owners, many of whom were old friends. One large Link
orchestrion was donated to the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, NY, but
the rest were all sold.
Marion has kept some of the smaller items like disk and cylinder music
boxes. She has kept the two "monkey" organs and is frequently seen at
the various organ rallies with one or the other of them.
Regarding visits, Marion is a very gracious hostess but I strongly
suggest making prior arrangements. She is a wealth of knowledge on
the subject of automatic musical instruments but be advised that all
the large instruments are gone. The book business was sold quite a few
years ago and nothing remains of it in Vestal, NY.
I hope this clarifies things for those who were wondering.
Cheers,
Bob Conant
Endicott, NY
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