Anyone out there know about the reed organ side of the Mason & Hamlin company? I’m trying to find some info for a friend who has one. I’ll cough up more details if anyone wants 'em.
Did you try a Google search? “mason hamlin reed organ”. What kind of information are you looking for, exactly? History of the company, pictures of old organs, what?
I’ve already done a bit of googling, but mostly what I find are things about someone having a M&H organ, or wanting to find one, or seeing one somewhere…
What I’m trying to find is a means of getting manufacturing data/history for a particular one, and the company in general. Of particularly good use would be a list of models & serial numbers corresponding to manufacturing dates.
There are (or were) people who know this stuff; I knew one (now deceased).
Well, all I can suggest is that you start with the company itself.
Presumably they’d have information on their history, old models, etc.
And since their “Contact Us” page sounds like their e-mail system isn’t really set up for your kind of request, I’d go with snail mail. Write them a real letter, and include a SASE, pointing out its existence in your letter (“For your convenience in replying, I have enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Thank you for any assistance you can give me.”)
If nothing else, this will at least guarantee that somebody somewhere will get back to you. They probably gets lots of requests from people doing research, but I’m betting that only the serious-sounding ones get actual helpful responses, and including a SASE is an excellent way to sound serious to the secretary whose job it is to open the mail every morning.
And the reason you mention the existence of the SASE in the letter is so when the slightly clueless part-time receptionist they’ve got opening the mail bucks your letter upstairs, that Upstairs Person will notice that there’s supposed to be a SASE attached, and will go out to the lobby and roust the receptionist for it, which will do her a world of good.
And if she has already thrown it away, then the Upstairs Person will now feel obligated to respond helpfully to your request, out of corporate guilt.