National Registry for Historic Organs

As approved by the Board of Direc­tors of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, we proud­ly announce  the OHS His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry. This new Reg­istry has been cre­at­ed by the OHS to revive an estab­lished and revered pro­gram to col­lect thor­ough doc­u­men­ta­tion of excep­tion­al pipe organs, with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of each sub­mis­sion received being grant­ed a lev­el of sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic recog­ni­tion accord­ing to for­mal delib­er­a­tions by the His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry Review Pan­el. The OHS’s mis­sion is to cel­e­brate the pipe organ through edu­ca­tion, research, advo­ca­cy, and music and thus to enrich pub­lic knowl­edge, under­stand­ing, and appre­ci­a­tion of its place in his­to­ry and cul­ture. This new Reg­istry sup­ports that mis­sion by com­mem­o­rat­ing his­toric pipe organs of var­i­ous ages, styles, and ori­gins, pro­vid­ing recog­ni­tion across a wide range of classifications.

Since the incep­tion of the pre­vi­ous His­toric Pipe Organ Award pro­gram and through­out its var­i­ous iter­a­tions, pub­lic per­cep­tion has been that each cita­tion is a recog­ni­tion giv­en to an instru­ment by the OHS. While the respec­tive own­ers bore the respon­si­bil­i­ty for ensur­ing that the cita­tions’ cri­te­ria remained unchanged, any enforce­ment of those val­ues sat with the OHS, which was an imprac­ti­cal, unwise, and inef­fec­tive system.

It is incum­bent upon the OHS now to change the direc­tion of the recog­ni­tion act so that a his­toric cita­tion is some­thing request­ed by the cura­tors of an instru­ment, eval­u­at­ed by the OHS, and, if approved, entered into this Reg­istry at a lev­el appro­pri­ate to the con­di­tion of the par­tic­u­lar pipe organ. There­after, the respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure last­ing accu­ra­cy of its Reg­istry lev­el will rest with the own­ers or cura­tors of each instru­ment by way of a signed let­ter of agreement.

From its cre­ation, each pipe organ has inher­ent char­ac­ter­is­tics that should be doc­u­ment­ed, cel­e­brat­ed, and pre­served in any sub­se­quent inter­ven­tions. The His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry is designed to pro­vide pub­lic recog­ni­tion for instru­ments of his­toric mer­it. It is impor­tant that the OHS com­mu­ni­ty and those apply­ing for this recog­ni­tion under­stand the fun­da­men­tal pur­pos­es of this new Registry:

1. To rec­og­nize notable his­toric pipe organs by a for­mal citation
2. To doc­u­ment and pub­li­cize the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of wor­thy instruments
3. To demon­strate that the OHS Registry’s clas­si­fi­ca­tions remain valid to the extent that doc­u­ment­ed con­di­tions of cit­ed instru­ments remain intact, but that adju­di­cat­ed entries will be changed if unsym­pa­thet­ic alter­ations are made to rec­og­nized pipe organs

The OHS’s mis­sion is to cel­e­brate the pipe organ through edu­ca­tion, research, advo­ca­cy, and music and thus to enrich pub­lic knowl­edge, under­stand­ing, and appre­ci­a­tion of its place in his­to­ry and cul­ture. The OHS His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry sup­ports that mis­sion by com­mem­o­rat­ing his­toric pipe organs of var­i­ous ages, styles, and ori­gins, pro­vid­ing recog­ni­tion across a wide range of classifications.

From its cre­ation, each pipe organ has inher­ent char­ac­ter­is­tics that should be doc­u­ment­ed, cel­e­brat­ed, and pre­served in any sub­se­quent inter­ven­tions. The His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry is designed to pro­vide pub­lic recog­ni­tion for instru­ments of his­toric mer­it. It is impor­tant that the OHS com­mu­ni­ty and those apply­ing for this recog­ni­tion under­stand the fun­da­men­tal pur­pos­es of this new Registry:

1. To rec­og­nize notable his­toric pipe organs by a for­mal citation
2. To doc­u­ment and pub­li­cize the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of wor­thy instruments
3. To demon­strate that the OHS Registry’s clas­si­fi­ca­tions remain valid to the extent that doc­u­ment­ed con­di­tions of cit­ed instru­ments remain intact, but that adju­di­cat­ed entries will be changed if unsym­pa­thet­ic alter­ations are made to rec­og­nized pipe organs

A his­toric cita­tion is request­ed by the cura­tors of an instru­ment, eval­u­at­ed by OHS, and entered into this Reg­istry at a lev­el appro­pri­ate to the con­di­tion of the par­tic­u­lar pipe organ. There­after, the respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure last­ing accu­ra­cy of an instrument’s Reg­istry lev­el will rest with the own­ers or cura­tors of that instru­ment by way of a signed let­ter of agreement.

CLASSIFICATIONS in the OHS Historic Pipe Organ Registry

Every instru­ment award­ed a cita­tion under pre­vi­ous OHS pro­grams will be includ­ed in the His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry with­out need for reap­pli­ca­tion or review. As time and per­son­nel per­mit, or as issues may arise, the new Reg­istry Review Pan­el may under­take exam­i­na­tion of pipe organs cit­ed pre­vi­ous­ly to con­firm that they remain extant and invi­o­late, and the OHS will have the pow­er to demand return of the orig­i­nal cita­tion plaque if such his­toric con­di­tions do not pre­vail, as pri­or rules always have allowed.

The offi­cial record of pri­or OHS his­toric cita­tions shall be main­tained as it cur­rent­ly exists and shall then be expand­ed by the addi­tion of ongo­ing deter­mi­na­tions into the His­toric Pipe Organ Registry.

All instru­ments that are entered into the His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry shall be flagged accord­ing­ly in the OHS Pipe Organ Data­base. Ide­al­ly, appli­ca­tions to the His­toric Reg­istry will syn­er­gis­ti­cal­ly feed infor­ma­tion to the Pipe Organ Data­base, but the pres­ence of a pipe organ in the Data­base does not imply an ele­vat­ed cita­tion in the Registry.

Des­ig­nat­ing a pipe organ as his­toric is a process of com­pre­hen­sive sub­jec­tive judg­ment. The OHS has stip­u­lat­ed that an age of fifty years shall be the first, basic qual­i­fi­ca­tion for entry into the Pipe Organ Reg­istry, bar­ring tru­ly com­pelling cir­cum­stances. For require­ments of con­tent and process for appli­ca­tions to the OHS His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry, pur­suant to the Review Panel’s rubrics for eval­u­a­tion, see ​“The His­toric Organ Reg­istry Appli­ca­tion” page; only basic guide­lines fol­low here.

Any offi­cial des­ig­na­tion of sig­nif­i­cance and entry into the His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry is deter­mined by the mem­bers of the Review Pan­el but is con­ferred by the Board of Direc­tors of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Society.

All deter­mi­na­tions made by the Reg­istry Review Pan­el shall be deemed to be final, although appli­cants may request a brief writ­ten expla­na­tion of the results from the Sec­re­tary of the Panel.

The clas­si­fi­ca­tions of for­mal recog­ni­tion in the His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry are set forth as follows:

EXCEPTIONAL — Wor­thy instru­ments will be award­ed a plaque and will be pre­sent­ed in an arti­cle pre­pared by the appli­cant and pub­lished in The Track­er. To achieve this lev­el, a pipe organ must exhib­it at least two of these char­ac­ter­is­tics: be in its orig­i­nal home; remain utter­ly orig­i­nal; remain unre­stored; remain unal­tered; be the rarest of all extant organs of its genre; present some cul­tur­al­ly mon­u­men­tal status.

DISTINCTIVE — Wor­thy instru­ments will receive a framed cer­tifi­cate. To achieve this lev­el, a pipe organ must exhib­it sig­nif­i­cant­ly at least one of the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics: main­tain a lev­el of orig­i­nal­i­ty and unique­ness; present some par­tic­u­lar rar­i­ty; have some asso­ci­a­tion with a his­tor­i­cal event, place, or person(s).

HONORABLE — Wor­thy instru­ments will receive a for­mal let­ter of recog­ni­tion. To achieve this lev­el, a pipe organ must exhib­it some fame or celebri­ty cul­tur­al­ly, and/​or present any of the fore­go­ing cri­te­ria beyond basic age.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION by the Review Panel

The fol­low­ing cri­te­ria for eval­u­a­tion of appli­cant pipe organs exem­pli­fy the range of con­di­tions and kinds of sig­nif­i­cance that will qual­i­fy instru­ments for list­ing in this His­toric Reg­istry. These cri­te­ria will apply to a vari­ety of exist­ing instru­ments across gen­er­a­tions of pipe organ design and con­struc­tion, based on intrin­sic sig­nif­i­cance, his­tor­i­cal integri­ty, respect­ful treat­ment, and thor­ough­ness of cur­rent doc­u­men­ta­tion. The broad his­toric con­text serves as a frame­work with­in which the cri­te­ria can be applied and cur­rent judg­ments made. Thus, cri­te­ria list­ed here are intend­ed to exem­pli­fy appli­cant infor­ma­tion required and sub­jects of review and eval­u­a­tion, but this is not an exclu­sive pre­sen­ta­tion. Every appli­cant sit­u­a­tion and instru­ment will be unique, and those com­pos­ing on-site doc­u­men­ta­tion are encour­aged to be thor­ough and explic­it in their details, shar­ing ample knowl­edge of their local sit­u­a­tion and rel­e­vant history.

The Review Pan­el will exam­ine appli­ca­tions for pre­vail­ing sig­nif­i­cance and orig­i­nal­i­ty of the fol­low­ing vari­ables in any pipe organ: builder(s); stoplist(s); age; location(s); restora­tion or alter­ation; con­di­tion;  and asso­ci­a­tion. The term ​“asso­ci­a­tion,” broad and per­haps not eas­i­ly quan­ti­fied, is meant to describe the rela­tion­ship of any giv­en pipe organ to fac­tors of his­to­ry, archi­tec­ture, engi­neer­ing, and cul­ture, among oth­ers; for example:

1. how a pipe organ may be asso­ci­at­ed with events that have made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the broad pat­terns of our his­to­ry (e.g., organ­build­ing as relat­ed to trans­porta­tion systems);
2. how a pipe organ may be asso­ci­at­ed with the lives of per­sons sig­nif­i­cant in our past (from colo­nial judges to rob­ber barons and beyond);
3. how a pipe organ may present rare exis­tence or dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ter­is­tics of a builder, type, peri­od, or method of con­struc­tion; rep­re­sent the work of a mas­ter; or pos­sess high artis­tic val­ues; or,
4. how a pipe organ may rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant or dis­tin­guish­able enti­ty whose com­po­nents may lack indi­vid­ual dis­tinc­tion but rep­re­sent some notable evo­lu­tion in the con­struc­tion of such instruments.

The OHS Pipe Organ Data­base is an ever-grow­ing inven­to­ry of instru­ment doc­u­men­ta­tion (writ­ten and pho­to­graph­ic, as much as pos­si­ble with sto­plists and images), his­toric or not, extant or not, with the objec­tive of becom­ing as com­plete and cor­rect a cen­sus as is prac­ti­cal by vol­un­teer support.

The OHS Library and Archives is in con­stant oper­a­tion at the OHS head­quar­ters at Stoneleigh in Vil­lano­va, Penn­syl­va­nia, as the largest repos­i­to­ry in the world for pipe organ lit­er­a­ture, books, ephemera, man­u­scripts, spe­cial col­lec­tions, mechan­i­cal draw­ings, and images. Vis­i­tors are wel­come any time by appoint­ment; many library resources are avail­able elec­tron­i­cal­ly or by direct inquiry.

These OHS pro­grams already have a sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship that sup­ports the new His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry and that the Reg­istry will help enhance in return. Appli­cants to the OHS His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry should include research in oth­er OHS resources in their prepa­ra­tions. There­fore, all per­sons are encour­aged to become sup­port­ers of the OHS and to par­tic­i­pate in the fore­go­ing pro­grams as part of build­ing, main­tain­ing, and pre­serv­ing the broad fab­ric of our col­lec­tive cul­tur­al history.

The His­toric Pipe Organ Reg­istry Review Pan­el reviews appli­ca­tions for entrance into the Reg­istry. The Review Pan­el con­sists of experts in the organ world whose career expe­ri­ences demon­strate a high lev­el of knowl­edge and exper­tise rel­e­vant to vet­ting wor­thi­ness and deter­min­ing appro­pri­ate clas­si­fi­ca­tion of applicants.

The Pan­el is com­posed of a Chair, appoint­ed for a four-year, non-renew­able term by an approved motion of the OHS Board of Direc­tors, and four Pan­elists, each appoint­ed for a three-year, non-renew­able term by an approved motion of the OHS Board of Direc­tors. At least two Pan­elists must be long­time mem­bers of OHS and rec­og­nized in their field of exper­tise; at least two Pan­elists must be from the organ­build­ing sec­tor; one must also be an organ­ist; and one must be rec­og­nized as a his­to­ri­an. Non-OHS mem­bers, not to exceed two, may be appoint­ed to the Pan­el. The Board of Direc­tors is to con­sid­er gen­der rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the Pan­el when­ev­er pos­si­ble. Review Pan­el mem­bers may be appoint­ed to a sec­ond term after a break of three years. The OHS Board of Direc­tors appoints a Sec­re­tary to the Review Pan­el to act as liai­son between appli­cants and Pan­el members.

The cur­rent Pan­elists are:
Jonathan Ort­loff, Chair
Jack Bethards
Nami Hama­da
Joseph McCabe
Sol Riz­za­to