Reed Organ Advertising in the 19th Century

 The explosion in large scale manufacturing in the nineteenth century transformed American society into a consumer culture. In such an environment competition for the patronage of willing consumers dominated the media of the time. I would argue that that hasn’t changed at all in today’s world, in which every square inch and every nanosecond of our consciousness is bombarded by advertising. If anything, it has only gotten worse.

In the later nineteenth century, as earlier in the century, advertisers realized that image was everything, and they produced images that stimulated desires and feelings of fulfillment. Such was the world of the reed organ. The golden age of the reed organ was roughly the 1860’s to the 1890’s. Although instruments were certainly made before and after that time, the economic boom of the Gilded Age, so aptly named by Mark Twain, brought about significant prosperity from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to the disastrous Panic of 1893. The boom that followed the Civil War created the market for many consumer goods, and the Panic of 1893 doomed many reed organ manufacturers who were already struggling to compete with the rise of the piano as an affordable consumer good.

I’d like to examine in detail eight trading cards from one organ manufacturer, the Estey Organ Company. The company claimed to have started in 1846 although in reality there was a string of short-lived melodeon makers who preceded Jacob Estey’s entrance into the manufacture of reed organs in the 1850’s. Estey became the largest builder of reed organs, later diversifying into pianos and pipe organs to broaden the base as the twentieth century dawned.


The first trade card is also the earliest in my collection, dating from the early to mid 1870’s. It depicts the factory complex of the company. Jacob Estey made the decision to house each department in a separate building after two fires and one flood that destroyed previous buildings. The buildings were sided with slate shingles, which survive to this day.
A very common trope in advertising after the Civil War was the smokestack. Today the image of a smokestack belching black smoke is a negative one, not a positive one. The viewer immediately thinks of depletion of the ozone layer and climate change. But at that time the smokestack was an image of industry. It meant that the company was productive and busy. Manufacturers of a wide range of goods proudly displayed images of their factories to show that they were modern and efficient, able to turn out products efficiently. In front of the row of factory buildings a broad, flat avenue full of happy consumers gives a feeling of expansiveness and comfortable prosperity. It isn’t reality though. I’ve been to the factory complex and I can testify that the road is only a fraction of the width depicted!

The second card is from the mid-1880’s and is the classic Estey trade card. Dennis Waring unpacks this card in his book Manufacturing the Muse: Estey Organs and Consumer Culture in Victorian America (2002), soon to be republished by the Estey Organ Museum in advance of the Estey Fest in September. This image is full of rich imagery. First, look at the setting. A group of well dressed, prosperous people sit in a large Victorian parlor complete with a painting of St. Cecilia, a portrait of Jacob Estey over the organ, flowers, fancy wallpaper and carpet, and drapery. A woman fans herself as she listens to the intimate concert. A boy and girl stand at the unrealistically large window and gaze fondly at the Estey Organ Works (a view which is impossible in reality) as if the boy is saying to the girl, “when I grow up all this will be mine.”  A gentleman stands behind a woman seated in a plush armchair as a woman, possibly singing, displays her voluptuous figure while listening to the woman playing at the Grand Salon Organ, Estey’s flagship instrument in the late 1870’s to mid 1880’s. One other gentleman stands off to the side as he holds what appears to be a shawl, perhaps belonging to the organist.

The reinforcing of gender roles is transparent. Men stand behind the women as if to guide and protect them. The women in the image exude the Victorian ideal of femininity. The whole scene makes a statement about prosperity. “Would you like to live in such a setting?” the image seems to ask. The Estey Organ Company will help take you there.

The next card is from around the same time as the previous one. In this image two women embrace in loving friendship as if transported in rapture while listening to their friend play another Grand Salon organ. The conservatory to the left contains the requisite tropical plants and on the wall is a large framed view of the Estey factory complex, with bas reliefs presumably of members of the Estey family. As with the previous image this card promises that an Estey organ will bring delight to anyone who hears it being played, and in this case it will enhance friendship among women.


Women figure prominently in advertising in general. With the societal expectation that women maintained the home for the comfort of her children and husband, they had a significant role to play in what added to the ambience of their home and advertising clearly targets them while at the same time reinforcing the stereotype of how women should fulfill that role.


The next card (left) could possibly appeal either to men, with its innocent young woman playing the harp to evoke the feelings one has when listening to good music. It could appear to women as well, possibly, with the childlike innocence of the subject.


The next card may seem a bit bizarre to our eyes but it seems to evoke a feeling of fun and energy. Dating from the 1890’s it depicts a parade of munchkins marching in a band while waving banners that spell out

“Estey.” In the background more imps climb over an Estey piano and organ. Fun perhaps? Hard to say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The next card dates from 1897 and shows a group of children playing instruments as the "Estey Orchestral Club." Children were often used in advertising media to give an air of purity and innocence. Of course, these children are all white, as is everyone in these cards. African Americans, in other images, were depicted either as minstrels or dancers. I am not aware that Estey used racist imagery such as this in their advertising. The children are playing various instruments. Curiously, the little girl at the Estey organ can't reach the pedals. Well, she's having fun so that's ok.

Advertising cards for many products often did not depict the product being advertised, as with this 1890's Estey trade card showing a young man courting a beautiful young woman in a window. The man is
playing a make believe banjo, using a tennis racket without any strings. Such imagery was meant to convey an atmosphere of wholesome fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last card is from the 1890’s and suggests an air of exoticism. A trend in art and literature called “Orientalism” by the author Edouard Said conjure up exotic images of people in the Middle East wearing traditional clothing and doing things such as smoking hashish or playing chess. Said suggested that such imagery intended to keep people in the Muslim world in their place while their culture was appropriated by western artists and consumers. Here, as in many works from the time, the woman (St. Cecelia?) is

dressed in what may be Moroccan dress holding a traditional lyre. She has replaced the previous plump white girl with the harp. The image is beautiful but dated in a way that appropriates imagery from another culture for purposes of marketing.

These cards are not unique in their imagery and the mood that they intended to evoke. They had one purpose and one purpose only, to sell reed organs, doing so by tapping into imagery that reinforced gender roles and promised prosperity and happiness in the home.