Slideshow pho­tos are a few of the pipe organs fea­tured at the OHS 2025 Mil­wau­kee Convention.

Barbara Owen | 1933-2024

Barbara Owen

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Bar­bara J. Owen passed away peace­ful­ly a few min­utes past 8PM on Octo­ber 14, 2024 at Mas­conomet Health­care in Tops­field after a short peri­od of declin­ing health. She was 91.
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​The Barbara Owen Fund for Education

Sponsored by the Organ Historical Society

Funds from this account will be used to pro­vide free mem­ber­ship for any­one in high school or in a bachelor’s or master’s pro­gram study­ing the pipe organ. Doc­tor­al stu­dents are not eli­gi­ble. Dig­i­tal mem­ber­ships will be free for the dura­tion of their stud­ies with prop­er ver­i­fi­ca­tion. Con­tri­bu­tions to this fund help ensure a healthy, grow­ing mem­ber­ship in the OHS.

Apply Now or Donate

2025 Pipe Organ Calendar

OHS 2025 — Milwaukee

Fea­tur­ing nev­er-before-pub­lished con­ven­tion instru­ment pho­tos from Mil­wau­kee and the sur­round­ing region.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by Len Levasseur

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Instruments

  • A.B. Fel­ge­mak­er Co. (1902)
  • Carl Bar­ck­hoff (1890)
  • Der­rick & Fel­ge­mak­er (1872)
  • Hann-Wan­gerin (1902)
  • Hann-Wan­gerin-Weick­hardt Co. (1904)
  • Hen­ry Pilcher’s Sons (1930)
  • Hook & Hast­ings (1881)
  • J.W. Steere & Sons (1893)
  • Robert Noehren (1966)
  • Schlick­er Organ Com­pa­ny (1988)
  • Stein­er-Reck Organ Co. (1989)
  • W.W. Kim­ball Co. (1903)
  • Wadsworth & Bro. (1863 & 1893)
  • Wm. Schuelke Organ Co. (1879)
  • Wm. Schuelke Organ Co. (1885)
  • Wm. Schuelke Organ Co. (1892)
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OHS 2025 - Milwaukee

OHS 2025

Mil­wau­kee
 

Seat­ed on the beau­ti­ful shore of Lake Michi­gan, Mil­wau­kee is the largest met­ro­pol­i­tan area in Wis­con­sin and the 30th largest city in the Unit­ed States.

Equal­ly as diverse and even more intrigu­ing is the land­scape of won­der­ful instru­ments that we plan to show­case dur­ing the convention.

Vis­it OHS 2025 Milwaukee

Dr. Rollin Smith Research Grant

​Dr. Rollin Smith Research Grant

Sponsored by the Organ Historical Society

In sup­port of its mis­sion to enrich pub­lic knowl­edge, under­stand­ing, and appre­ci­a­tion of the pipe organ, the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety invites appli­ca­tions for its 2024 OHS Research Grant. An annu­al Grant of up to $2,000 sup­ports research projects relat­ed to the pipe organ — its builders, con­struc­tion, his­to­ry, styles, recep­tion, com­posers, reper­to­ries, organ­ists, per­for­mance prac­tice, and more. The Grant may be used to cov­er trav­el, hous­ing, and oth­er research-relat­ed expens­es. The Soci­ety encour­ages all inter­est­ed per­sons to apply.

Apply Now

The James M. Weaver Prize

Exciting News about the James M. Weaver Prize in Organ Scholarship 

A prize to celebrate and foster the scholarly research of pipe organs. 

View pho­tos and bios of the Final­ists and Judges.
Final­ists and Judges

The Three Finalists

Ele­na Bac­quiera, Andrew John­son, Owen Sammons

A Breath of Fresh Air

Imag­ine watch­ing a 200-year old organ, bro­ken, tat­tered, and for­got­ten com­ing to life again. Imag­ine see­ing crafts­men and his­to­ri­ans work­ing togeth­er on a neglect­ed instru­ment, restor­ing it to glo­ry piece by piece. Imag­ine gaz­ing at its trans­for­ma­tion into an his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate ser­vice­able organ. Now, imag­ine hear­ing that instru­ment played for the first time in generations!

You can make these imag­i­na­tions come true. Join us as we attempt to cre­ate A Breath of Fresh Air for the 1817 Hilbus Cab­i­net Organ.

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Sup­port our won­der­ful programs.

 

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Help sup­port oper­at­ing expens­es of OHS pro­grams and services.

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Sustaining Membership

Sustaining Membership

Join Today!

The OHS is pleased to offer a Sus­tain­ing Mem­ber cat­e­go­ry.  For as lit­tle as $10 per month, you can sup­port the OHS grow stronger and more respon­sive to the pipe organ com­mu­ni­ty.  OHS and you – sus­tain­ing a life­time of history.

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OHS Milwaukee 2025

OHS 2025 Convention Site

Mil­wau­kee is the place to be in August of 2025. The vari­ety of his­toric instru­ments is astound­ing cre­at­ing a sound palette sure to please even the most dis­cern­ing appetite. And the food — well, you just have to be here to expe­ri­ence it for yourself.

Find out more

Pipe Organ Database Gets New Look

After months of work and devel­op­ment, the new inter­face for the OHS Pipe Organ Data­base launch­es Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 26, 2024. The entire struc­ture and tech­nol­o­gy as well as true rela­tion­al data­base pro­to­cols make it supreme­ly faster than the cur­rent inter­face. We have tried to make it user friend­ly and intu­itive. We invite your review and com­ments. ALL com­ments and updates are sent to the edit­ing team through a con­tact form and will be han­dled. Note that the search and fil­ter func­tions are exact­ly that– results are fil­tered live as you type in para­me­ters. Loca­tion name, city etc nar­row the list of results live as you type. We look for­ward to this new era of the OHS Database.

https://​pipeor​gan​data​base​.org/

 

The Barbara Owen Fund

The Barbara Owen Fund for Education

Sponsored by the Organ Historical Society

Funds from this account will be used to pro­vide free mem­ber­ship for any­one in high school or in a bachelor’s or master’s pro­gram study­ing the pipe organ. Doc­tor­al stu­dents are not eli­gi­ble. Dig­i­tal mem­ber­ships will be free for the dura­tion of their stud­ies with prop­er ver­i­fi­ca­tion. Con­tri­bu­tions to this fund help ensure a healthy, grow­ing mem­ber­ship in the OHS.

Apply Now!

 

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The Tracker

OHS pub­lish­es its jour­nal four times a year. The Track­er includes news and arti­cles about the organ and its his­to­ry, organ­builders, exem­plary organs, region­al sur­veys of instru­ments, and the music played on the organ. The empha­sis is on Amer­i­can organ top­ics of the 18th, 19th, and 20th cen­turies, and there are occa­sion­al arti­cles on Euro­pean top­ics. Most issues run 48 pages with many illus­tra­tions and photographs.

More about The Tracker

Dear Friend of the Organ –
A New Opportunity

Think about the plea­sure you will receive in offer­ing an OHS mem­ber­ship to a friend or rel­a­tive. You can share your love of the pipe organ and intro­duce some­one else to the good works of the Soci­ety in edu­cat­ing, pre­serv­ing and chron­i­cling our rich organ her­itage and cul­ture. Mem­ber­ships make splen­did gifts. The recip­i­ent will receive a sub­scrip­tion to our quar­ter­ly mag­a­zine, The Track­er, a spe­cial gift and all the ben­e­fits of mem­ber­ship, includ­ing mem­bers’ prices on many items in the OHS Catalog.

Give A Gift Sub­scrip­tion Now!

The OHS Mission Statement

The Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety cel­ebrates, pre­serves, and stud­ies the pipe organ in Amer­i­ca in all its his­toric styles, through re­search, edu­ca­tion, ad­vocacy, and music.

The Organ Historical Society

330 North Spring Mill Road
Vil­lano­va, PA 19085 – 1737
(484) 488-PIPE (7473)
mail@​organhistoricalsociety.​org

 

 

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The importance of the OHS to the “Organ World” cannot be overstated.  We invite you to be a part of this organization and to support the OHS with a contribution of any size.  This will ensure the continued presence of the OHS on a national and international scale to educate and involve those who love the pipe organ and its unique history. 

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Together we can honor the past, enrich the present and curate the future.

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