Abstract:

In nineteenth-century America, the parlor piano carried immense symbolism. The piano represented wealth, taste, position, and duty. My research explores how a large, cumbersome instrument aligned itself with the most influential, but intangible aspects of everyday life for the nineteenth-century middle class American. Inside the home, the piano had a significant impact on interior design, family dynamics, and gender roles. It showed visitors that their hosts were a strong family with a hardworking husband and father, a stylish, caring wife and mother, and disciplined, cultured children. Meanwhile, outside the home, these compact pianos played a major role in American manufacturing, commercialism, and consumerism while also bringing about the birth of the modern music industry. By understanding the role of the parlor piano in nineteenth-century America, one cannot only learn a great deal about American culture and society of the period, but also appreciate how much of an impact everyday objects have on modern life and the stories they will be able to tell in the future.

Mentor: Melissa Blair, History, UMBC

Image: 1885 advertisement for the Sterling Piano Company

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