Timothy Gilbert (January 5, 1797 – July 19, 1865) was an American piano manufacturer, abolitionist and religious organizer in Boston, Massachusetts. His brother Lemuel Gilbert (February 10, 1804 – February 27, 1864) was also a piano manufacturer."Gilbert" William Richard Cutter ed. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts vol.4, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910 p.2094-2095
Life Gilbert was born in Enfield, Massachusetts, the second child of Timothy Gilbert and Fear Shaw and worked on his father's farm until the age of 21. He arrived in Boston December 1818, where he apprenticed with cabinet maker Levi Ruggles, and later worked for piano maker John Osborn before becoming a piano maker in his own right. He was an active member of the Baptist Church, to which he converted in 1817, and was an outspoken abolitionist. He maintained his home as a station of the Underground Railroad, and on the passage of the Fugitive slave laws Gilbert announced in the papers that his door would remain open to runaway slaves. He was also member and director in secular charitable organizationspresident Female Medical Society in 1851 and 1852 - Massachusetts State Record James French Boston, 1851 p.178; The Massachusetts Register no.86, George Adams, Boston, 1852 p.287; director in the American Peace Society The Advocate of Peace for years 1864-5 American Peace Society, Boston and served as president of the Boylston Bank from 1855 to 1860. He was president of the Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization that aided fugitive slaves.
Gilbert married Mary Wetherbee in 1823 (Ashburnham, Mass., July 7, 1796–December 1843), and their only child, Mary Eunice, was born June 8, 1827. Following Mary's death, Gilbert married Alice Davis November 28, 1844, and in 1846 they adopted Alice (b. April 23, 1846). Their second daughter, Martha Fear Gilbert, was born April 27, 1847.
Gilbert died July 19, 1865, at his home in Boston. His funeral was held at the Tremont Temple at the expense of the Evangelical Baptist Benevolent and Missionary Society, both of which he had been instrumental in forming. He is buried at Mount Auburn cemetery.
Pianos
Currier & Gilbert
Gilbert entered a partnership with Boston piano maker Ebenezer Currier (1801–1835)"Ebenezer Ransom Currier (121135)" Currier Family Records of U. S. A. and Canada vol.2, 1984 p.55; by 1826,Boston Directory, 1826 and they were listed at 393 Washington street by 1829,Boston Directory 1829 but the partnership was dissolved that spring. Currier, with new partner Philip Brown, opened a showroom on the first floor, where they offered "all kinds of Upright & Horizontal Piano Fortes...embracing the latest improvements,"Boston Directory 1830 and in 1831 he patented a square piano with hammers above the strings.Ebenezer R. Currier "Horizontal Pianoforte" United States Patent no. X6507 April 22, 1831; Spillane drew attention to this patent for its suggestion of a seven octave compass in a square before 1840 - Daniel Spillane History of the American Piano-forte D. Spillane, New York 1890 p.96International Musical Instruments, Inc. of Marion, North Carolina registered the Currier name for use on pianos in 1969, and were purchased by the Kaman Corporation and reorganized as Currier Piano Company, Inc. in 1972. Currier closed 1982 and its assets were assigned the Kaman Aerospace Corp. in 1982, and to Kaman Music Corp. in 1989 - "Currier" United States Trademark 72,328,059 March 17, 1970 Trademark Assignment Record reel/frame 0230/0499, 0432/0276, 0613/0138; Larry Fine The Piano Book The Brookside Press, Boston. 1987. p.87
T. Gilbert, T. Gilbert & Co.
402 and 406 Washington street; 393 and 400 Washington street
Gilbert established his own factory in his previous employer John Osborn's former workshops at 402 Washington street, near Beach street.This address is listed one year as Osborn's house - Darcy Kuronen "John Osborne" The Encyclopaedia of the Piano p.256 By 1834 the firm reorganized as T. Gilbert & Company, with Gilbert's brother Lemuel Gilbert and brother in law Henry Safford (1802-c.1872)Arthur W. Brayley "Henry Gilbert Safford" Schools and Schoolboys of Old Boston Louis P. Hager, Boston 1894 p.290 as partners.Stimpson's Boston Directory 1834; Safford appears to have taken over the retail portion of the business in 1852, after which he continued to list the same address as Gilbert & Co., although he is no longer listed as a partner in the concern. In 1835 their address was listed as 400 Washington street, and this year alone included Currier & Gilbert's old address at 393 Washington—the entry for Currier was his last and did not give a business address—and in 1836 brother in law Increase Gilbert was admitted as partner.Stimpson's Boston Directory, 1836 In 1837 T. Gilbert & Co. were awarded a silver medal for one of the pianos they showed at the Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, placed after fellow Boston manufacturers Chickering & Co., Wilkins & Newhall, and Hallet & Allen for the tone and slightly heavy touch of their piano,"Musical Instruments - Piano-fortes" First Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association Dutton and Wentworth, Boston 1837 p.41-42 but the company was removed from competition at the following exhibition for advertising "the fact, that they have not, to their knowledge, a personal friend among the selected judges.""Musical Instruments and Bells - III. Keyed String Instruments" The Second Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association Isaac R. Butts, Boston, 1839 p.103-104 They received a silver medal for a horizontal piano at the 1839 Franklin Institute exhibition in Philadelphia,"Report of the Committee on Premiums and Exhibitions, Tenth Exhibition of Domestic Manufactures" Journal of the Institute of the State of Pennsylvania and Mechanics' Register. New Series, Vol. XXII. The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia 1839 p.305 and a diploma for the third best square piano at the 1841 exhibition in Boston."Musical Instruments and Bells - III. Keyed Stringed Instruments - Common Square Piano Fortes" The Third Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association T. R. Marvin, Boston 1841 p.86
In 1841 Gilbert patented improvements in uprights in which he claimed a spring attached to the hammer butt for the combined purposes of returning the hammer to its resting position, reseating the damper against the strings, and keeping the hammer in communication with the key, and he also included a screw adjustment for jack position and damper timing, and a secondary notch on the hammer butt to facilitate shakes and trills.Timothy Gilbert "Manner of constructing the Action part of Pianofortes" United States Patent no. 1,970 February 10, 1841 Piano historian Daniel Spillane described that this patent was for "a number of ideas and inventions relating to uprights and squares… and a number of lesser improvements which came to nothing", but considered the upright action significant because it "outlined many ideas afterward claimed by Wornum… in England",Daniel Spillane p.91 referring to an 1842 patent by this manufacturer that Edgar Brinsmead dubbed the "tape-check action" in the 1879 edition of his History of the Pianoforte,Edgar Brinsmead History of the Pianoforte Novello, Ewer & Co. London 1879. p.167 in which the last claim was for methods coupling the damper and hammer.Robert Wornum "Pianofortes" English Patent No. 9,262 enrolled August 15, 1842
The same year Gilbert was assigned tuner Edwin Fobes' patent for manufacturing hammers with a layer of soft leather covering a block of cork glued to the top portion of the hammer molding.Edwin Fobes "Manner of constructing the Hammer-heads used in Pianofortes" United States Patent no. 1,971 February 10, 1841 Gilbert also licensed the Aeolian attachment patented by independent mechanic Obed. Coleman in 1844, which fitted a simple reed organ onto the bottom plank of an ordinary square piano, arranged to be played directly by the keys of the piano.Obed M. Coleman "Pianoforte" United States Patent no. 3,548 April 17, 1844; ; mechanic and inventor J. A. Bazin claimed the first batch of reeds he delivered Gilbert were tuned in equal temperament - Robert F. Gellerman The American Reed Organ and the Harmonium p.15 Spillane described that Gilbert & Co. licensed the invention in 1846 "for a small figure"—an article about the inventor from January 1845 reported that the firm paid $25,000 for the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell pianos with it in Massachusetts, while New York manufacturers Nunns & Clark paid $25,000 in cash and offered $50,000 royalties for its use in the rest of the country.Coleman and his Eolian Attachment The Cincinnati Miscellany, or Antiquities of the West, and Pioneer History vol. I. Caleb Clark, Cincinnati, 1845 p.98 Spillane wrote that although the Aeolian attachment received some notice as a novelty in the Boston and New York papers, "little came of this…it having been proved that the piano section, at least, required to be tuned every month to keep it in tolerably good condition"Spillane p.92 a charge the firm reported had been raised by "many of the piano forte makers and others in their interest" and which they attempted to meet when they advertised in 1850 they would thereafter install the attachment only in pianos built expressly for it.advertisement The Brighton and Brookline Business DirectoryGeorge Adams Boston, 1850
William H. Jameson (1818—1887) joined the company as a partner about 1843. Jameson married Gilbert's daughter Mary Eunice in 1845.E. O. Jameson The Jamesons in America. 1647-1900 The Rumford Press, Boston 1901. p.248
Patent Aeolian Pianoforte Manufactory
In 1847Dorchester Directory, 1850 Gilbert & Co. erected new granite-front warerooms at 400 Washington street, opposite Boylston Market. According to their entry in The Stranger's Guide in the City of Boston published in 1848 the new facilities cost about $20,000 (~$ in ) and together with two buildings in the rear occupied over , the whole being powered and heated by steam,T. Gilbert & Co." The Stranger's Guide in the City of Boston Andrews & Co., Boston 1848. p.69-69 and in a brief and not entirely reliable retrospective of the Boston piano industry published by the Boston Globe in 1915, Arthur Brayley described that the warerooms were connected by bridges with the factory across the yard, and an underground passage connected the machine shop with the boiler room, "which was said to be a refuge for runaway slaves".Arthur W. Brayley, "The First Piano in the United States" The Boston Globe, May 9, 1915 The sketch of the firm for Edwin Freedley's Leading Pursuits and Leading Men of 1856 described that they manufactured every part of their pianos except the cases on their own premises, and although their operations were conducted in from twenty-five to thirty rooms they went on "with the most perfect order and system."Edwin T. Freedley, ed. Leading Pursuits and Leading Men. A Treatise on the Principal Trades and Manufactures of the United States. Edward Young, Philadelphia 1856 p.440-441 The 1848 article also stated the firm employed about sixty workers, and had manufactured between 3,000 and 4,000 pianos, upwards 500 of them with the Aeolian attachment.
In 1847 Gilbert patented a cast iron frame for grand pianos with the ordinary resisting bars combined with bars perpendicular to the strings—one of which was to be connected with the front edge of the sounding board—in order to prevent the case sides from twisting,Timothy Gilbert "Metallic Frame for Pianofortes" United States Patent no. 5,202 July 24, 1847 as well as a double action for horizontal pianos with springs meant to support the weight of the hammers and dampers in order to lighten the touch of the keys.Timothy Gilbert "Piano-forte Action" United States Patent no. 5,216 August 7, 1847