Serial number

[Jennifer Buck]

Does anyone know if there is a way to trace the serial number of my Wurlitzer-Starke harp? I am trying to find out more of the history of it. It is a Wurlitzer-Starke Concert Grande No. 747, serial number 744. It has 47 strings and a straight soundboard.

Thanks!

[sherry-lenox]

Hi Jennifer- I am the happy owner of #696, which is a Model C with a straight soundboard. Google Wurlitzer pedal harp and you’ll find most of what there is available so far.

The Dutch site that you will find has some great pictures of Wurlitzers, and also a chronological listing of a lot of them. Mine isn’t there yet but I hope to have it there pretty soon.

You will find some things about the North Tonawanda Wurlitzer Museum and also a fantastic book about harps, I think “Harps and Harpists”, that has a great article about them too.

For various reasons, there is not as good a historical record about them as there is about Lyon and Healys, but what there is you will find fascinating, especially since you have one yourself.

Mine has been beautifully restored by Howard Bryan, and you will also want to read what he says about stringing. My harp is totally original including neck and soundboard. It came from Howard’s workshop and when he told me it was in sustainable shape I decided to give it a try for a while. I might well be able to get more sound out of it if I’d gone with a new soundboard, but I wanted to find out what it had sounded like when it was played for the first time.

It’s a subject I love to learn about, so feel free to contact me offline if you come up with a source I don’t have.

I’d love to know what you’ve done with your harp so far in terms of restoration or refurbishing.

Cheers and good luck with it!

[rod-wagoner]

Hi Jennifer,

The best sources would be Howard Bryan, Carl Swanson, Northern Illinois University, Lyon and Healy, International Harp Museum (where I bought mine) and Dr. Roslyn Rensch.

[Jennifer Buck]

Thanks for the info, Rod.
I purchased my harp about 25 years ago from my harp teacher who got it on a trip out east. Not sure of any other details.

Thanks,
Jen

[wendyharpwendy]

Hi fellow Wurlitzer harpists!
I just returned from a visit to the wurlitzer company archives at the Smithsonian. No serial numbers found, and the link to the dutch site appears to be broken. I do have pictures of the catalog if you are interested.

[carl-swanson]

It’s a real tragedy that the Wurlitzer serial numbers have been lost. Many years ago I spoke to a woman who was the last secretary to the President of the North Tonawanda New York Wurlitzer factory, which is where the harps were made. She told me that when the factory was ordered to close down in the late 1930’s, the President of the company ordered several workers to go up to the 5th floor records room and take everything to the dump! She told me that she knew for a fact that some of those workers took some of those records home with them. But she didn’t know exactly what they had taken. Maybe a hunt of Facebook or some other site, looking for descendants of anyone who worked at that factory would turn up something. There is a North Tonawanda Historical Society that I contacted many years ago. But at that time they didn’t have anything. Maybe they do now.

[balfour-knight]

Carl, let’s hope that these serial numbers turn up like those wonderful Tournier pieces did!

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