Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum National Music Museum - Vermillion SD - pictures

Thanks feeble,

Great shots, very interesting it's a shame SD is so far from OH. Does anyone know of a museum with player pianos?

ewaite

Thank you so much for the photos! I have actually been to this museum, and it is truly amazing. It was particularly great to see so many photos of the keyboard instruments posted here--when I was there I have to admit I was distracted by the string instruments, although of course I looked at the keyboard instruments as well. For anyone with any interest in strings, the collection there will blow you away. For example: a Stradivarius guitar (who knew he made them?), Stradivarius instruments of every kind, all the famous makers represented, some by instruments in their original conditions. . . .Truly staggering. Dozens of string instruments by all the great names--and some of the instruments themselves have names.

Well worth a visit!

did they have any double basses? In particular any Abraham Prescott instruments? If so I am totally going up there!

I am sure you could find out on the museum's website or by calling them. One of the aspects of the museum that I found fascinating was that many of their string instruments were unchanged since made. I had not known that most string instruments made by Stradivarius, etc., had had their necks lengthened over the years.

At least when I was there, you basically walked into the museum and wandered around among millions upon millions of dollars worth of glorious instruments. They sometimes get them out of their glass cases and play them--if you are a musician, as your post suggests you are, you might want to see if they are planning any concerts. (They have a string quartet of instruments made by one of the household name makers, unchanged since made, that they use sometimes to keep them happy.) There is probably no hurry about this--South Dakota winters are gruesome, and I cannot imagine anyone planning a concert for the dead of winter!

BTW, if you are interested in woodwinds, there is a huge collection of those, too. Something for everyone.

Of course, I am sitting in a blizzard as I write this, on the East Coast--might as well be in South Dakota today! And no, I don't work for the South Dakota tourist board, if there is one. . . .

feeble - Thanks so much for taking the time to post your excellent pictures and the descriptions. It made for a very entertaining read!

I received a nice email today from Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, Sr. Curator of musical instruments at the NMM.

I'm enclosing it here:
============================================================================
I was delighted to see all the interest recently expressed in the NMM’s keyboard collection, as well as the numerous photographs of some of our keyboards posted on the piano world’s website forum at https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...ional%20Music%20Museum%20-%20Vermil.html .



Would you please inform your forum readers that there is a checklist of all of our keyboard instruments (with the exception of our reed organs and our electric organs) available on our extensive website at http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/KEYBOARD.HTM .



Our most recent keyboard acquisitions can be found on “A Sampling of Recent Acquisitions at the NMM” at http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/News/acquisitions.html.



Many other instruments from our global, encyclopedic collections of more than 14,800 musical instruments can be found in various checklists on our website (http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/collect.html), as well as on our many virtual tours (http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/galleries.html).



I’d also recommend that your readers visit our new introductory slide show, “Take A Walk Thru the NMM” (http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/Tours/WalkThruNMM/TourDirections.html).



I hope that these online resources will both inspire and entice many more of your readers to visit South Dakota in order to see the NMM’s extraordinary treasures in person!



Best wishes,



Dr. Margaret Downie Banks

Senior Curator of Musical Instruments

Professor of Music

Webmaster

National Music Museum

University of South Dakota

414 East Clark Street

Vermillion SD 57069



E-mail: Margaret.Banks@usd.edu

NMM Website: www.nmmusd.org
==============================================================================

Very interesting.

Gorgeous Knabe Square, and I loved the Broadwood as well.

Skyblanche.

Those are some awesome pianos. I like the one that looks like an elaborate computer keyboard

The paintings on the underside of the covers of some of those are really beautiful.

feeble,

Thanks for posting all those wonderful pictures - it would be interesting to hear them played - which raises another question, are any of the playable?

Thanks.

WOW! That was a beautiful introduction to this museum. Thank you for sharing feeble!

I do think I remember seeing a broadcast of the place a couple of years ago on TV. Anyone remember that? It impressed me back then, but I had forgotten about it since.

I also just enjoyed the intro slide show from the museum. Must go see that again.

Hmmmmmm, any direct flights to SD?

darn, I was just up in Vermillion a few months ago. Thank you for the pictures, they're so neat.

I can see taking a special trip (not that far away).

(i really like the house organ (it's huge))

I really appreciate how you posted the descriptions. WELL DONE

Thanks very much for the photos. Very nice post.

Hmmm... I attended medical school in Vermillion (a long time ago) and lived on Clark Street not too far from the museum. But I never knew about the museum. My mind was elsewhere. I will be retiring in SD in 2011 and will make a point to visit the museum when I'm back.

Direct flights to South Dakota do not exist. Generally you must fly through either Minneapolis (Delta Airlines) or Salt Lake City (Delta) or Denver (United). The best way to get to Vermillion is to fly to Sioux Falls, SD which is about a 50 mile drive to Vermillion. You can also fly to Sioux City, IA which is about 40 miles from Vermillion. There is no airport in Vermillion.

Vermillion is a small university town not far from the Misssouri River breaks. The University of SD is a full time campus with about 5,000 to 6,000 students.

Vermillion is about 400 miles from Rapid City and the Badlands where you will find the major tourist attractions of SD (Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Wind Cave, etc.). The Sturgis motorcycle rally is held annually in Sturgis, SD about 25 miles from Rapid City. That usually attracts about 500,000 people for a week in the Black Hills.

I will be retiring in Rapid City, my hometown, in 2011.

Rod Michael,

Thank you for the details about getting to Vermillion, I'd wondered what the best approach was.

I mentioned the idea of taking a PWPF group through and got a great response from the nice folks at the Museum.

I also hinted that we would like some pianos to play as well (I believe the museum pianos are hands-off, unlike the pianos at the Fredericks Historical Piano Collection).

One of the curators said that shouldn't be a problem as there are plenty of pianos on campus.

Could be a fun way to spend a day.
Tour the museum
Plays some pianos
Meet for dinner somewhere

Something to consider.

Very Nice ...

Thank You ..

Excellent museum. I visited two years ago. It's a natural stop on the way to the Corn Palace (in Mitchell, SD) or Wall Drug (in Wall, SD) or even Rapid City, SD.

Thank you for sharing the photos from the collection at Vermillion. Since I may never be able to see the collection in person, it was nice to see the photos. I've just read a section about the collection in the book "A Splintered History of Wood" by Spike Carlsen, in case no one had mentioned that connection yet.

John in South Carolina (but originally from Nebraska)

Thank you or these great piano photos! Amazing collection!