Hilbus Pipe Organ

Object Details

Vestry of St. Thomas Church

Description

This pipe organ was made by Jacob Hilbus in Washington, District of Columbia, around 1811-1813. It has a single keyboard, with a compass of FF – f3. The organ’s disposition is as follows:

Single keyboard, FF - f3
8' Open Diapason
8' Dulciana (c1 – f3)
8' Stopped Diapason (Treble and Bass)
4” Flute
4' Principal (Treble and Bass)
2 2/3' Twelfth
2' Fifteenth
8' Open Diapason (in guillotine Swell, c1 – f3)
4' Principal (in guillotine Swell, c1 – f3)
Machine stop

Jacob Hilbus was a musical jack-of-all-trades, a Washingtonian who built several organs. This instrument came to the museum in 1907 as a gift from the Vestry of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Hancock, Maryland.

Much misinformation exists about the organ, notably that it was an English early eighteenth-century instrument originally in St. Peter’s Church, Port Royal, Virginia. There is no evidence for this. It is almost certain (but not easily documented) that it was made for Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia. At least, there is an entry in the Vestry minutes for January 15, 1815, noting that Hilbus needed more money from the church. The instrument bears many hallmarks of somewhat primitive early nineteenth-century American work. Its wooden parts, for instance, are made of American poplar and eastern pine.

It is probable that the organ was also in St. Johmn’s Church, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, before going to St. Thomas’ in Hancock. Reasons for attributing the organ to Hilbus include similarities to a Hilbus instrument in St. John’s Church, Broad Creek, Maryland, and the existence of a bill from Hilbus for tuning “a piano forty” that was used to glue up a joint within the organ.

The Fisk restoration report of 1967 states, “Recent research by various people at C. B. Fisk, Inc., and elsewhere, has proved beyond question that the organ belonging to the Smithsonian and long thought to have been an early 18th-century English organ which had once belonged to a church in Port Royal, was in fact built entirely new by Jacob Hilbus and Henry Howison of Washington, D.C. for Christ Church in Alexandria.

Location

Currently not on view

Currently not on view (pipes)

Currently not on view (organ parts)

Currently not on view (case parts, impost molding)

Currently not on view (organ structure core, bellows, keyboard)

Currently not on view (pipes, organ parts, blueboard boxes of parts)

Credit Line

Gift of The Vestry of St. Thomas Church

1811 - 1813

ID Number

MI.244851

accession number

46831

catalog number

244851

Object Name

organ

Physical Description

wood, walnut (casework material)

gilded (pipes material)

plaster, gilded (garlands material)

ivory (keys material)

ebony (keys material)

iron (pedals material)

silver (plates on knobs material)

Measurements

overall: 147 in x 90 in x 46 in; 373.38 cm x 228.6 cm x 116.84 cm

place made

United States: District of Columbia, Washington

See more items in

Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments

Music & Musical Instruments

Organs

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_606034

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-3238-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa