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I remember my piano rebuilder telling me a story about 20 years ago
about a Steinway Duo-Art.  He had rebuilt an exceptional Steinway
Duo-Art grand for a client.  The piano had a very large roll library.
The owner of this piano was extremely proud of it and he decided to
donate it to the University of Minnesota upon his passing.  He was
convinced that the university would use this instrument in the music
program for demos, etc., and that it would remain intact.  Upon his
passing, the piano and the roll library did indeed go to the U of M.
The first thing that they did was to gut the Duo-Art and throw its
parts into the trash, place the piano into a practice room and the roll
library disappeared.  This was _never_ the intention of the former
owner.

Another interesting story among phonograph collectors concerns items
donated by Thomas A. Edison to Greenfield Village museum [adjacent
to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan].  Henry Ford and
Thomas Edison were very close friends.  A lot of Edison material,
masters, experimental machines and literature were donated to
Greenfield Village.  These items included items such as new Class M's
in the crates.

Eventually a curator for Greenfield Village came along who was not into
phonographs and as a result, most of this was in storage, inaccessible
to collectors and in time, machines and other items were sold off.  As
far as I know, they still have all of the Edison Disc masters unless
they have been returned to the Edison Institute, which they have done
with some items.

The Edison Historic Site is now sponsoring a bi-weekly radio/Internet
program where they are playing copies of the 45,000 recordings --
cylinder, disc, and experimental -- that they still possess.  They
occasionally play things such as experimental radio programs, test
pressings, and very late recordings.  These are almost impossible for
the average collector to obtain.  The program is called Thomas Edison's
Attic.  This is a fascinating program for collectors.

It is too bad a safe archival institute for mechanical musical
instruments is not in place to protect valuable collections that are
still in place.  Many of us who are collectors have items of interest
which we would donate at some point if there was a way to insure that
they would be made available and taken care of.  I don't have any
good answers but I really feel that because most automatic musical
instruments require periodic attention and upkeep, museums and or
universities are the wrong places to dispose of collections.  There
are no guarantees in the long run that your wishes will be followed in
terms of their upkeep, care, and availability to the general public.

I guess that is why I am totally in favor of scanning anything paper
-- literature, service manuals, advertising, and of course music rolls --
as the originals are deteriorating from age.  At least digitizing
guarantees that it will survive into the future and that it can be
replicated.  As for Edison wax cylinders, etc., if those are not kept
properly they will _not_ survive and sadly, many rare and historical
things have not because of an owner along the way who did not know what
he had, and/or who was ignorant on what he possessed.

I have been in this business for a very long time and I am convinced
that there are people and institutions who do not deserve to own nice
things.  When it comes time to dispose of our collections, lots of
issues arise as to the best way from a monetary standpoint and from
protection standpoints.  Right now, I probably would put all of it on
the open market.  Maybe it is not the best option but if proper care
is taken most should end up in good homes.  Unfortunately, when this is
left to heirs, lots of parts, literature, manuals, etc., get thrown out
that definitely should have been saved.  There are no easy answers on
this problem.

Randy Hammond
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
rhammond@usfamily.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]