Greetings to All,  I wanted to let everyone know that the Morris
Museum, and in particular the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, was
highlighted recently by the New Jersey Arts News organization, drawing
attention to our exhibit, "Musically, Made in New Jersey," that runs
through Oct. 18th, 2015.  See

http://www.njartsnews.org/news-archive/2015/8/18/exhibit-highlights-nj-as-music-box-manufacturing-center 

The embedded TV program is one which they did a little bit ago, but is
timeless in nature.  In it, you'll notice two of our highly valued,
volunteer Guinness Guides, Bill and Carolee Wineburgh, entertaining the
crowds here!  From their homepage ( http://www.njartsnews.org/ )
the brief paragraph below includes a link to last weekends 1/2-page
article in the Daily Record, and in addition a similarly sized article
appeared in the Asbury Park Press (PDF attached), both of which
recognize the MBSI Museum as having participated by loan of a rare
Perfection disc musical box.

Many readers will be interested to learn that there is an exhaustive,
512 page hardcover publication just released: "Figures in the Fourth
Dimension" (see photos and PDF), authored by Ellen Rixford.  This book
is now available in the Morris Museum Shop and will shortly be included
on our Museum Shop webpage (http://www.morrismuseum.org/museum-shop ),
or you can order through the author's website

http://www.figuresinthefourthdimension.com/html/Automata-clockwork.html 

Over the past 3-4 years the Morris Museum participated in the creation
of this book, mainly focusing on the 19th century automata chapter.
Throughout the book, the author explains in extraordinary detail how
the internal mechanisms of mechanical puppets, marionettes and automata
were and are today designed and created.  Every cam, lever and linkage
is revealed in detailed photographs, exploded view illustrations, full
mechanical descriptions, etc.  For any technician, restorer, conservator
or contemporary automata or puppetry artist/builder, this reference
piece will be required reading.


Following recent MMD posts about the future of mechanical music
instruments, I feel it important to relay that our permanent exhibit
of mechanical music instruments and automata (Guinness Collection)
continues to draw a 50% new visitor-ship on a regular basis, and that
is not including school groups, summer camp groups, senior groups,
special needs groups nor requests for special demonstrations by rental
event groups.  The sheer number of new people being exposed to the wide
variety of objects was and is continuing to be quite amazing.

Inside the "book nook" workshop area of the Guinness exhibit, we
provide immediate access to a dozen (many out-of-print) books,
including Bowers' Encyclopedia, Mary Hillier's Automata and Mechanical
Toys and our own exhibit catalog, Musical Machines and Living Dolls.
There are also a stack of "free-to-take" journals and periodicals from
MBSI, AMICA and CAM.  Any interested party is free to take an issue (or
two ) home with them to study, go to websites, join the group,
whatever.

We're happy to let people know that they exist and also provide
membership brochures for the taking, without any credit from whence
they were introduced.  There's just not enough time in the day to
stamp, mark or designate a referral or source on all this literature.
And we all know that there are plenty of older collectors out there
with loads of these old journals with nowhere to put them except
eventually the dumpster.  Might as well put them to potentially good
use.

In addition to the above, the Guinness staff creates and presents a 1-
to 1-1/2-hour bimonthly program on the field highlighting a specific
subject, composer(s) and/or music.  Item's are drawn from those in
Guinness Viewable Storage, not normally accessible or heard.  We have a
steady following for these programs and it continues to grow.  Our next
evening program on Sept. 17th will be part of the Guinness Composer
series entitled "Many Shades of (the) Blues," where several nickelodeons
in the Guinness collection will highlight composers such as W.C. Handy,
Lonnie Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton.  Then just a week later, on Sept.
27th, we will present our first "Guinness Collection Piano Concert:
Playing Their Own," a rare opportunity for the public to experience
personal performances by Rudolf Friml, Fritz Kreisler and Sergei
Rachmaninoff, on the museums own Knabe Ampico in the mansions
historic Dodge Room (see photo).

The museum has also recently committed to be host to the first annual
Automata Conference (AutomataCon), which will take place March 18th and
19th of 2016.  If you are interested in Automata, this will be the
place to be -- exhibits, presentations by contemporary kinetic artists,
panel discussions, interactive displays for young and old alike, plus
rare film showings within our Bickford Theatre.  Stay tuned, because a
website for this event is currently being populated.

Please feel free to share these links and PDF with all your friends and
be sure to visit the Morris Museum when passing through the New York
City environs!

All Best,
Jere Ryder - Conservator of the Guinness Collection
Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey
http://www.morrismuseum.org/ 

 [ "Figures in the Fourth Dimension" Book Review
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/26/150826_212958_Book_Review.docx 

 [ "Figures in the Fourth Dimension" flyer
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/26/150826_212958_FinFD_flyer.pdf 

 [ Asbury Park Press "Musically, Made in New Jersey"
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/26/150826_212958_MMinNJ.pdf 

 [ "Figures in the Fourth Dimension" thumbnail
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/26/150826_212958_Book_a.jpg