World-class collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata

opens November 6

(Morristown, NJ)--A clown that loses its head—and gets it back. A ten-foot high mechanical one-man band. A fairground organ that booms out ragtime tunes. A box that teaches birds to sing. All these amazing, 19th century mechanical marvels—and more—will be on view, many for the first time ever, at the Morris Museum when it opens the exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls on Tuesday, November 6, 2007.

The exhibition features over 150 pieces from its world-renowned Murtogh D. Guinness collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata. Largely dating to the 19th century, these ingenious objects once brought animated, musical entertainment to private settings and public places. Now, through video and audio technology, hands-on activities and live demonstrations of select instruments, visitors can see and hear these beautiful and intriguing historic objects and experience for themselves a largely lost chapter in entertainment history.

“Before there were CDs, iPods, records or DVDs, and well before film, radio and television, there was an amazing age of mechanical invention that brought entertainment to people around the world,” noted Steven H. Miller, Morris Museum executive director. “The Morris Museum is proud to present the story of this extraordinary epoch.”

The breathtaking exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls, designed by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership of New York, New York, is the centerpiece of a new wing and renovation project designed by RMJM Hillier of Princeton, New Jersey.

Exhibition overview

Stroll a 19th century Parisian street, walk the cobblestone pathways of an international exposition or open Charles Dickens’ window to hear a street organ playing outside. Musical Machines & Living Dolls vividly explains the start of our modern age of public entertainment, while bringing visitors on a journey through the history of on-demand, repeatable, replayable entertainment.

In the Orientation Theater, visitors will be introduced to Murtogh D. Guinness, an heir to the Irish brewing family who assembled the collection and learn how the stories of these amazing objects will unfold in the exhibition. Upon exiting the theater, they can choose to discover more in four areas of the gallery.

“Music Revolution” explores the advent of mechanical music in the late 1700s—and how it changed how, when and where people could listen to music. Initially, mechanical musical instruments were luxury items—such as the rare organ-playing clock made in 1780 by Swiss virtuoso craftsman Pierre Jaquet-Droz. By the late 1800s they could be heard in parlors and pool halls from Brooklyn to Berlin, playing everything from opera to the blues. Visitors will view early cylinder musical boxes, hand-cranked organettes and massive public instruments like the “Violano-Virtuoso,” with its self-playing violin.

“Mechanical Universe” highlights the science and technology behind the objects. Visitors can explore how 19th century craftspeople and factory workers mechanized music and motion to create ingenious machines, ranging from a cacophonous English street piano to the “Reginaphone,” a New Jersey-made response to the threat of the phonograph (the hybrid is both musical box and record player).  They can try out a “spring motor,” play a sound matching game to test their mechanical music listening skills, make a caterpillar move with cams—and more.

Visitors enter the ancient, narrow streets of Paris’ Marais District in “Animated Worlds.” There, in the 19th century, artisans created moving, musical figures and scenes for sale. Here, automata peek out from store windows: dancing clowns, high-wire acrobats, ballerinas, and a full menagerie of animals. Visitors can watch them perform on video, and make their own automata in a fun flipbook.

In “The Workshop,” visitors can try out—hands-on—what they have learned in the exhibition by “programming” a cylinder to play a song, sit in a musical chair to play a tune, pull out an activity box (with puzzles, gears and more) or explore efforts to make tunes longer-lasting, better-sounding  and portable. For those with dancing feet, a “Mechanical Music Jukebox” allows them to polka, clog—or boogie to “Hilarity Rag!”

“This is a one-of-a-kind exhibition,” said Guinness Curator Ellen Snyder-Grenier. “With creative design by Lee H. Skolnick Architecutre+Design Partnership and media by RBH Multimedia, we are excited to be able to offer an engaging, fun experience perfect for families, adults and school children that we hope will inspire them to appreciate these extraordinary objects and to want to learn more.”

Exhibition Design

Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership (LHSA+DP) of New York, New York, a museum services, interpretive exhibit design and architecture firm, designed Musical Machines & Living Dolls.

“It’s been an exciting experience to learn so much about these fascinating objects. Their combination of ingenuity, technology, entertainment and art is astounding,” said Lee H. Skolnick, FAIA. “Our real creative challenge was in finding ways to bring these wonderful musical instruments and automata to life for the thousands of visitors who will enjoy, and be enlightened by them.”

The Gift of the Guinness Collection

The Morris Museum acquired the Guinness Collection in 2003 from The Lutece Foundation, established by Murtogh D. Guinness to assure its preservation. Comprised of more than 700 mechanical musical instruments and automata and over 5,000 programmed media (ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders), the collection is one of the most important of its kind in the world.

“Rarely is a museum given a collection of the size and stature of the one so carefully assembled by the late Mr. Guinness. We are delighted to have such extraordinary instruments and magical figures, which dramatically embody the museum’s interdisciplinary celebration of art, science, theatre and history,” said Miller. “We know the public will thoroughly enjoy the results of the collector’s original connoisseurship and love of the beautiful, entertaining and historically significant.”

Morris Museum Expansion Project

Upon acquisition of the Guinness collection, the Morris Museum teamed up with international architecture firm RMJM Hillier of Princeton, New Jersey for construction of a new wing to house the Guinness collection. Built atop what had been a terrace at the center of the building, the new wing includes the 4,300-square-foot exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls, opening November 6; as well as viewable storage and a resource center, opening in 2008.

The project also includes the addition of 5,700 square feet of adjacent public and gallery space, a two-story Grand Entrance Pavilion with new Museum Shop and the restoration of the museum’s core structure, a historic 1913 mansion designed by the famed American firm McKim, Mead & White.

"In addition to creating a new home to showcase the extraordinary collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata, our primary goal was to enhance the overall visitor experience at the Morris Museum," said Roger Smith, a RMJM Hillier associate and senior designer for the project . "Now, the new Grand Entrance Pavilion welcomes the visitor to the museum. Once inside, the visitor is drawn to the new two-story sun-lit atrium space at the heart of the museum, which features theentrance to Musical Machines & Living Dolls and the newly revealed and restored facade of the historic mansion."

Community Grand Opening: Tuesday, November 6

The Morris Museum will welcome all visitors with free admission from

10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2007.  In celebration of this extraordinary occasion, they will be treated to live demonstrations of select pieces, including the magnificent “Rex” orchestrion. Standing almost 10’ tall, the “Rex,” made in Leipzig, Germany in about 1915, was the type of mechanical musical instrument that once entertained patrons in hotel lobbies and dance halls with its piano, organ pipes, xylophone, bells, drums, cymbal and triangle. Today, it is one of only a handful of surviving examples of the model in the world. Demonstrations will take place at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served in the museum’s Grand Entrance Pavilion.

Educational Programming

Building on the foundation of art, science, theatre and history, the Morris Museum has developed several educational programs in conjunction with the exhibition Musical Machines and Living Dolls, including daily live demonstrations of select pieces Tuesdays through Sundays at 2:00 p.m. (beginning November 7, 2007).

About the Morris Museum

Founded in 1913, the Morris Museum explores and celebrates the arts, sciences and humanities through exhibitions, educational programs, performing arts and special events. The museum serves over 200,000 adults and children each year.

The Morris Museum, located at 6 Normandy Heights Road (at the corner of Columbia Turnpike) in Morristown, NJ, is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission to the museum is $8 for adults and $6 for children, students and senior citizens. Admission is always free for museum members and is free to the public every Thursday between 5 and 8 p.m. For more information, call 973-971-3700, or visit www.morrismuseum.org.

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Photos available upon request.