286 Transactions op the 



are not only manufacturers, but by their discoveries and improvements 

 of the piano they have contributed more to the perfection of that instru- 

 ment than all other American manufacturers combined. 



One of the Chickerings is the inventor and patentee of the iron frame 

 used in all the first-class pianos now made. For this invention he was 

 awarded a first-class medal at the World's Fair at London, in eighteen 

 hundred and fifty-three, and since that time some ninety medals from 

 State and National Fairs in all parts of the world. For this he was also 

 awarded a gold medal by the jury of the Universal Exposition at Paris, 

 in eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, to which the Emperor, as an evi- 

 dence of his special and personal approval, added the high distinction of 

 the Legion of Honor. Mr. Chickering is also the inventor of the cir- 

 cular scale now so generally used, and which has contributed so much 

 to the perfection of the piano; besides, many other less prominent 

 improvements have been made by him. 



The faculty of- music is the most noble of the human soul. This 

 faculty, well cultivated, brings into exercise the most exalting and most 

 divine-like attributes of an individual, and renders him more happy 

 and contented, and better fits him to discharge the many social and 

 domestic duties he owes to those that by chance or choice he may be 

 surrounded with. As with an individual so with mankind generally and 

 with communities and nations. Hence the wisest statesmen and most 

 enlightened educators recommend that in the education of youth, music 

 be by no means omitted, and in all the most approved systems of modern 

 education, music, both vocal and instrumental, is as regularly taught as 

 the art of reading and writing, and this fact is telling in the higher 

 moral standing of the nations who have adopted this custom. 



No man or association of men has done more towards the musical 

 education of the people of the United States in the last fifty years than 

 have the brothers Chickering. With greater reason we may apply the 

 same remark to the youth and people of our own State, California. 



The factory for the manufacture of the Chickering^ pianos is the 

 oldest, as it is the most successful, in America, having been established 

 in eighteen hundred and twenty-three, and has been steadily increasing 

 in capacity and in the number of instruments manufactured since that 

 time. It now gives constant employment to over four hundred men, 

 and thus furnishes the means of a good living to over two thousand per- 

 sons. It turns out now over three thousand instruments per annum, of 

 a value of over one million of dollars. Of this large number California 

 receives her full share, one hundred and fort}' having already been sent 

 to this State during the present year. This partiality of the people of 

 California for the Chickering piano may well be considered as one of the 

 best evidences of their genuine merit, for no people are more capable of 

 a correct and discriminating judgment in regard to such matters, and 

 none more distinguished for a universal disposition to own none but the 

 best. 



Having full faith in the superior merit of my exhibition, and full con- 

 fidence in the integrity and good judgment of the committee, I submit 

 the above statement and my claims to the gold medal for the fourth 

 department. 



L. K. HAMMEK, 

 Agent for Chickering & Sons. 



