Arthur Loesser summed up their success in his book, Men,Women and Pianos, A Social History: “Mason & Hamlin…soon became and remained the foremost in the field.”įrom the organ harmonium, the company graduated to the American Cabinet Organ, a product that would earn Mason & Hamlin 1st prize at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Fortunately, the combination of limited production and great attention to detail paid off, and the company and its products were instantly successful and in great demand. Hamlin developed his discovery to perfection, and in 1854, he and Henry Mason formed their company for the purpose of manufacturing a new musical instrument that they called the “organ harmonium.”Īlthough the company was started with very little capital, the two owners were determined to make only the very best instruments, even if there were very few produced. Price and Company of Buffalo, Hamlin invented a way to voice organ reeds, so that they could imitate the sound of a clarinet, violin or other musical instruments. While working at the melodeon factory of George A. He was also known throughout the world as a composer and publisher of hymns, and is often called the “father of American church music.” Henry Mason shared his father’s lifelong dedication to music.Įmmons Hamlin was not a musician, but instead a brilliant mechanic and inventor.
Their father was the famous composer and educator Lowell Mason, a visionary who was the first to bring music into the public schools of America. Henry Mason was a pianist and his brother, William, was one of America’s foremost classical pianists and composers. The Masons were renowned for their involvement in the arts.
Henry Mason was a member of one of America’s oldest families-they were actually descendents of pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower. Although their backgrounds and interests were very different, the two men shared a common goal: to make the world’s finest musical instruments. In 1854, two brilliant idealists, Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin, founded the Mason & Hamlin Company in Boston, Massachusetts, the birthplace of American piano design and manufacturing.
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