Kevin McElhone of the U.K. (writing in 051021 MMDigest) clearly is
"on top of" a major collection which _is_ available to those who are
interested, and presumably can be accessed, perhaps by scanner if not
permitted to be borrowed.

However, in our gracious land(!) the situation is quite different, from
my limited experience.  I refer to two instances in which the piano
rolls offered (and in fact, in one case the printed material, as well)
were simply sequestered and remain unavailable in all respects to
interested collectors and/or researchers.

(1) The rolls donated by the late Richard Simonton, although to be
fair, John Ahouse, the curator, did permit Wayne Stahnke to scan rolls
of his choice.  (He chose, perhaps among others, the 17 of the 18 rolls
by the Spanish pianist, Frank Marshall.)  However, as far as I know
this valuable collection of Welte-Mignon T-100 rolls remains simply
stored at the Berkeley location of the University of California.

(2) Much more heart-breaking is my own experience.  When in 1977 Gregor
Benko, President of the recently founded IPL (International Piano
Library) donated the collection to the University of Maryland, my
personal collection of 1,000 Duo-Art and 500 of the "masters" purchased
from the late W. Creary Woods went with the rest.  Because of my neglect,
my attempts to recover them in 1997 failed completely.  "Laches" is the
legal term, indicating that one had only 10 years to lodge a complaint
against possession by another of one's goods.  As I left New York in
1968, you can readily see that I had no recourse, and all my efforts to
regain them failed.  Meanwhile they are rotting away on the shelves of
the now-IPAM (International Piano Archive at Maryland) and cannot be
borrowed, nor have attempts to scan them succeeded.  Incidentally, the
complete collection of Richard Howe of printed material was sitting on
the floor at the IPAM when I visited in 1997, and although I believe
the current curator, Don Manildi, has done some investigating of the
contents, I doubt if it has been properly and completely examined.

In short, let me state that the experience related above indicates the
"views" of the authority at a given location, to whit that once given
to the organization, they will be maintained (shabbily on old metal
shelving) but not played or permitted to be borrowed.  The facility has
never had a functioning Duo-Art, and my attempts to interest them in
purchasing a Vorsetzer (with a proffered $2,000 from my organization of
the $10,000 sought by the widow of the last owner of the Tushinsky
combo), which might then be "pushed up" to IPAM's Bösendorfer, capable
of playing Duo-Art, Ampico and Welte went for naught.  They "declined"
to consider it.

The lesson to be learned?  Investigate thoroughly before making a move,
if you care about your stash.  Actually, as has been suggested before,
sale or gift to a collector of one's acquaintance insures perpetuation
and perhaps availability, as opposed to the "dog in the manger" attitude
of, as outlined, IPAM.  At the very least, the rolls will be played,
one presumes, and nowadays, scanning and even reproducing (as outlined
by among others Julian Dyer, editor of the Player Piano Group journal
in the U.K.) is ever more common.

Albert M. Petrak, Founder
The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation

 [ MMD articles about IPAM (International Piano Archive at Maryland)
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