THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
207 
usually makes of European or American walnut. Frequently they are 
beautifully carved and sometimes have distinctly Stradivarian faces. 
About ten years ago, when the great musicians of Europe began to 
ask for his violins, he bought a home and established an atelier in a 
secluded thicket on the shore of Lake Monona near Madison. It lies 
close to a famous Indian mound, probably a hill of the dead on the 
scene of one of their great battles. Mr. Reindahl is a great lover of the 
Indians and of their ancient lore and has expressed what the place 
means to him in the following lines : 
"Here those famous chiefs were hurled, 
Here among these ancient mounds. 
Oft at night when nature's sleeping 
We can hear their spirits weeping, 
We can hear their moaning sound 
Here among the ancient mounds." 
In the thirty years in which he has been engaged in making violins 
he has pioduced about five hundred instruments. He never makes 
moie than twenty in one year. Mr. Reindahl has become a recognized 
authority on all that pertains to the production of fine violins and has 
won honors both here and in France. He was the first president of the 
American Academy of Violin Makers. In 1893 he received a medal 
at the World’s Fair in Chicago, and in 1900 he was awarded the gold 
medal at the Exposition in Paris. Among the musicians for whom he 
has made violins are Fritz Ivreisler, Jan Kubelik, Eugene Ysaye, Frans 
von Vecsey, Hugo Heerman, Arthur Hartmann, Adolph Rosenbecker, 
Ch. Grigorwitz, and Bernhard Listerman. 
When Fritz Ivreisler came to Madison for a concert, a year ago, 
he visited his old friend the violin maker, to whom he confided that he 
meant to become an American citizen. “Then I will make you a 
violin,” replied Mr. Reindahl, “and when you have joined our great 
citizenry you shall have it. There is a stump many centuries old,” 
he added, pointing to a block of pine in the corner; “I will make it from 
that.” 
a year he worked on the instrument. Every piece was 
cut and carved and finished by hand. So exact is the reproduction, 
so faithful to the great Stradivarian model, that even the glass-like 
quality of the varnish and the color of the wood have been recreated. 
When the violin was sent to Mr. Kreisler, on the day he was given 
American citizenship, it was accompanied by a request that in the 
future the great violinist devote some of his attention to interpreting 
the music of America. 
Mr. Reindahl is himself the owner of some rare violins and lives 
as it were in an atmosphere of Stradivarius, the Amati, the Guarneri, 
and other renowned violin makers of the Cremona school. His studio 
