Your tour of nearly 3,000 instruments begins inside the University of Michigan's Stearns Collection in Ann Arbor. Here the university preserves nearly 3,000 historical and contemporary instruments from around the world, a collection whose basis was the gift made by pharmaceutical businessman Frederick Stearns in 1898. Known internationally as a unique research collection, it gathers remarkable personal histories: the trumpet collection of Armando Ghitalla, former principal trumpet player of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a University of Michigan faculty member; a collection of violin bows from Jerry Tetewsky; Robert Moog’s first commercially produced Moog synthesizer from 1964; and the RCA theremin that was used during the WXYZ broadcasts of the Green Hornet from 1936 to 1952.
Scholars and curious listeners have long relied on catalogs: Albert A. Stanley published a catalog in 1918 with a second edition in 1921, and in 1988 Professor James M. Borders published a catalog featuring the Collection’s European and American wind and percussion instruments. You’ll also learn that the museum’s collections include a number of forged or altered items, purchased by the founder from the notorious Italian. Notice which instrument in this room has traveled the strangest journey to reach you.