Chickering Piano, 1864

Chickering Piano, 1864

In September of 1864, Kalamazoo had a Sanitary Fair as part of an effort to raise money to support Union Army soldiers during the Civil War. This piano is one of a few that were at the fair and were sold or raffled off. There is a bit of a mystery of who took this piano home after the fair. Memoirs and newspaper reports are conflicting. It either belonged to Allen Potter (who would later become the first mayor of Kalamazoo, when it became a city), Mr. A.C. Whortley (a local jeweler), or it is possible that it was won by the daughter of an express wagon driver. An inscription on the underside of this piano proves that it was shipped to Kalamazoo for display at the Michigan State Agricultural Fair: “State Fair Michigan September 20 1864,” and on the fallboard, it reads, “Reeds Temple of Music Chicago.”

It may be the same piano that the Chicago Tribune described as a “superb Chickering Grand [that] drew the gold medal, and was subsequently sold to Allen Potter, Esq., of Kalamazoo, for $1,500.” But a twist arises because Martha Munsell Granger recalled in her memoirs that “at the Fair, my sister sold chances on a piano at five dollars a chance, the piano being donated by the Chickering agent at Chicago…it brought five hundred dollars…and the daughter of the express-wagon driver won it.”

Object #2015.13.1

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