American Piano Brands: From Hundreds of Factories to a Handful of Names

The American piano industry at a glance

Three points help you place a brand roughly, before you even get to the sources:

• The boom around the turn of the century: Around 1909, roughly 300 piano makers were active in the US, together building about 374,000 instruments a year, a reflection of the growing urban middle class and the popularity of player pianos. In New York alone, the trade magazine Music Trade Review listed dozens of makers in 1901, most of them forgotten today.
• Consolidation through the 20th century: Starting in the 1900s, numerous makers merged into larger groups. The American Piano Company brought together Chickering and Wm. Knabe & Co. among others, and in 1932 combined with the Aeolian Piano Company and the Weber Piano Company to form the Aeolian-American Corporation. The Great Depression, starting in 1929, wiped out most of the remaining small makers within a few years.
• Few independent survivors: Of the major historical names, only Steinway & Sons (founded 1853) and Mason & Hamlin (founded 1854, owned by the Burgett brothers since 1996) still build independently in the US today. Almost every other historical brand name was sold off and, where it still appears at all, now shows up on instruments from other factories, often in Asia.

What became of well-known US brands

The table shows seven examples of how differently a brand's path can run, from acquisition to corporate merger to production today under an entirely different owner. A hyphen in the second column means the brand has been in continuous, independent production ever since.

Why discontinued US brands are especially tricky

Researching active makers like Steinway & Sons or Mason & Hamlin is straightforward. For the rest of the historical brands, three problems tend to compound:

• Brand names were sold, factories weren't: A name like Knabe or Sohmer now legally belongs to a Korean conglomerate that uses it on instruments from its own production. The modern instrument has nothing to do with the historical factory in Baltimore or New York anymore. The name alone tells you nothing about the actual origin.
• Stencil pianos were widespread in the US: Department stores and large piano houses had instruments built under their own name in someone else's factory, much like the German trade brands described in our general piano brands guide. An unfamiliar name doesn't necessarily mean its own factory.
• The Great Depression wiped out records too: A large share of smaller makers closed between 1929 and the early 1930s, within just a few years. Company records from that period are often scattered or lost, and what survives is frequently just what contemporary trade magazines like the Music Trade Review documented.

Recommended sources for researching American piano brands

• Sweeney Piano: the manufacturer index: Sweeney Piano's American Piano Manufacturers Index lists numerous US makers with factory location, production period, brand names used, and, where known, acquisitions and mergers. For researching one specific brand, it's often the richest free source available.
• Blue Book of Pianos: directory and chronicle: The Turn of the Century directory from Blue Book of Pianos describes, alphabetically, makers whose pianos were built between 1889 and 1929. A companion, multi-part chronicle of American piano history documents foundings, mergers, and production figures for the whole industry.
• Music Trade Review: the industry in original sources: The Music Trade Review was the leading trade magazine of the US piano industry. Digitized, the eLibrary archive of the International Arcade Museum holds over 2,000 issues from 1880 to 1954. To research a specific brand, it's worth searching for the company name in issues from its likely founding period.
• Smithsonian Institution: company archives for individual makers: For a few particularly important makers, the Smithsonian Institution holds dedicated company archives. Its Chickering & Sons collection, for instance, includes production registers from 1823 to 1985, plus correspondence, advertising material, and photographs. It's not a general brand database, but for in-depth research on one major maker, it's an excellent primary source.
• Pierce Piano Atlas: the international reference: The Pierce Piano Atlas is the most comprehensive printed reference in the industry, covering over 12,000 piano names and more than 750 makers, with serial numbers and production periods, explicitly including US makers. It's worth the look for deeper research, and older editions can sometimes be borrowed through the Internet Archive.

Frequently asked questions

You'll find Steinway & Sons, Mason & Hamlin, and Baldwin pianos directly among our current listings.

Back to our general piano brands guide. Or take a look at what pianos and grand pianos are currently listed on PianoHub.