Contributed by Stanley Museum
Description
A violin made by Freelan Oscar Stanley (1849-1940) in Kingfield, Maine, in 1878. This is believed to be one of the first violins he made to order. He made several instruments as a hobby between 1865 and 1878.
In 1878 F.O. Stanley was teaching school in Columbia, Pennsylvania, where he started a small school orchestra in which he played a violin of his own make.
In a later interview (when he was 81) Stanley stated that a fellow teacher asked how much it would cost for Stanley to make another violin, to which he replied, Yankee fashion, "What are you willing to pay?" The music teacher offered Stanley $100 for a similar violin and ordered two. Stanley returned to his home in Kingfield during his summer break and made two violins. Upon delivery, he received another order for two more - earning him $400, or half his annual teacher's salary.
This instrument, signed "Stanley 1878," was presented to one of Stanley's students, Carrie Hoffer of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and was passed down through three generations of her family. The violin has some unusual varnish which may have been spray-applied. F.O. Stanley's twin brother, Francis Edgar Stanley (1849-1918), received a U.S. Patent on the first airbrush two years earlier in 1876, and there are family stories that the twin brothers may have experimented with applying varnishes to their violins with an airbrush.
About This Item
- Title: Freelan Oscar Stanley Violin, 1878
- Creator: Freelan Oscar Stanley
- Creation Date: 1878
- Subject Date: 1878
- Location: Kingfield, Franklin County, ME
- Media: Spruce and maple
- Dimensions: 60 cm x 21 cm x 8 cm
- Object Type: Physical Object
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Violins--Maine--Kingfield
- Stringed instrument makers--Maine--Kingfield
- Bowed string instruments--Maine--Kingfield
- Violin makers--Maine--Kingfield
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For more information about this item, contact:
Stanley Museumstreet: 40 School Street, mailing: PO BOX 77, Kingfield, ME 04947
(207) 265-2729
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