One of the documents considered in the preceding post is a US trademark for the word Autoharp that Carl F. Zimmermann applied for in December 1892. This was just as he was finalizing the sale of his business with that instrument to Alfred Dolge. I posited that he might have done so as part of their transition agreement, perhaps in last-minute response to an imagined question asked by Dolge: “Are you telling me that you never trademarked the instrument at the heart of the operation I’m about to buy!?”
There was some urgency in wrapping up such details since the World’s Columbian Exposition (aka Chicago World’s Fair) was set to open on 5 May 1893. This was less than four months after Dolge formally incorporated the “C. F. Zimmermann Company of Dolgeville, New York” (28 January 1893). It was also long past the allocation of space to the US musical instrument industry in the exposition’s Liberal Arts Building.
The Official Guide treats the displayed musical instruments in a cursory manner but in-depth coverage is provided by the independently produced Musical Instruments at the World’s Columbian Exposition, edited by Frank D. Abbott and published in 1895. It includes a lengthy narrative about Dolge’s presence there, and the numerous awards that were given both directly to him and to other exhibitors whose products included the piano felt and soundboards for which he was renowned. He operated two booths, with the one emblazoned “Alfred Dolge & Son” befittingly grandiose.
Continue reading “Proximity and circumstance”