by The Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey was founded as a children’s museum in 1913. Over the decades it grew its children’s collection and expanded into other areas, such as art and natural sciences.
But we did not visit for any of that (though we took a quick spin through). We came to see the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, which features 150 pieces (of 750 in the collection) of mechanical musical instruments and automata (figures that “come to life” through mechanized movement).
Murtogh D. Guinness (1913-2002) was a member of the Guinness brewing family. At a young age he developed an interest in mechanical musical instruments and automata, and spent most of his adult life amassing his collection.
The instruments in the collection can be considered some of the earliest forms of “music on demand,” and show remarkable ingenuity, creativity, and craftsmanship. Musical machines from the late 16th to the early 20th centuries are represented, as well as a wide variety of musical genres (classical, opera, folk, polka, and more). It’s one of the largest collections of its kind in the world.
The Morris Museum won the collection by promising to build a dedicated 4,300-square-foot-wing for it. They are not allowed to alter the collection, so any companion pieces they have acquired independently must be showcased separately from Murtogh’s collection.
We arrived just in time for the daily demonstration, though our over-enthusiastic docent dragged it on and on and on. He kept saying “I need to do less talking and more showing,” and then he would start talking again. However, it was nice to hear some of the pieces function and get a better understanding of what all the fuss was about.
The cover photo is a box with singing birds and cylinder musical box mechanism, circa 1850.
