Double-action pedal harp
Maker
Lyon & Healy
Date1900 ca.
Place MadeChicago, Illinois, United States, North America
ModelStyle 20
Serial No.887
SignedEngraved on brass head plates, player’s left: LYON & HEALY (script) / CHICAGO Makers U.S.A. / No. 887 / Manufactured under five Patents (script)MarkingsStamped on support piece, underside of pedal box: 887
DescriptionModel No. 20 (as shown in catalogs from both 1897 and 1899); double action, straight soundboard. Wooden pillar, soundboard, body and neck; neck, as well as the neck/soundboard joint, is reinforced with metal. Brass head plates and tuning pins. 45 strings, 7 pedals. Fluted column, some ornamentation on capital and base; gold-colored metal leaf.
DimensionsHeight at column: 70 in (178 cm)
Width: 34 in (86 cm)
Length of longest string: 60 in (150 cm)
ProvenanceThe harp's original owner was Willard G. Selleck (9/16/1880-4/19/1959), grandfather of the donor. Written by John W. Selleck, the donor on September 9, 2003:
Willard Gilbert Selleck was born in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. He worked as a bricklayer and mason. He also worked with his uncles, who owned a home renovation, painting, and plastering business located in Oakmont and did work all over that area of the Pittsburgh region. He lived at 737 3rd Street in Oakmont, a find old house that was torn down in the 1970s to make way for the local high school.
He began to take an interest in music at an early age, beginning with a harmonica. He later also learned to play guitar and built a device that allowed him to play the mouth organ and kept his hands free to play the guitar, much like, I suppose, the ones used years later by Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan.
At about the age of 18 he began to learn to play the harp, and eventually saved enough money to purchase a new unit from the Lyon & Healy Company of Chicago. I do not know where he learned to play.
Unfortunately I do not have a photo of him playing the harp. There is one black and white photo of him, dressed in a suit, playing the guitar with two other musicians. I do not know where he learned to play.
He played popular music and early folk music. He played both as a solo performer and with various musical groups. He played in clubs and in churches, at socials and private parties. He constructed a case from wood to fit the harp and attached a long strap in order to carry the harp to his gigs. My father used to recall how heavy the case and harp was and marvel at how his father would shoulder this case and carry on the streetcars to go downtown to play.
He was married in the early part of the first decade of the new century, but his wife died shortly after giving birth to my father. He never remarried and his sister, who was unmarried, moved in to help with the baby, and stayed. After Willard's death she came to Illinois, where my father had relocated with his family and brought the harp with his possessions. It was a conversation piece in our living room from 1963 until my father's passing at which time my mother sold her home and moved back to the Pittsburgh area. The harp has been in my home in Galena, Illinois since 1996.
Credit LineGift of John W. Selleck, 2003
Object number10471
On View
Not on view
1850-1890 ca.