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 A Hamilton reed organ, the brand's original identity.  The text on the back of the card talks about the appeal of the oval panel, but Hamilton people obviously knew what really sells a piano.  A sales sheet announcing an expanded Hamilton line shows the traditional target of piano sellers: the family.  In the early postwar years, Hamilton 45" uprights were so popular that the parent company appears to be coat-tailing on Hamilton's success with the addition of "By Baldwin." |
Hamilton - The hip, international Baldwin family member The new Hamilton pianos bring a name that has long been associated with Baldwin into the spotlight as its own independent brand. But while many piano owners are familiar with the Baldwin Hamilton studio models (45" uprights), few may remember that Hamilton once was a full-fledged brand in the Baldwin family - an international favorite in its early years and the showplace for some of Baldwin's coolest designs in the 1930s. And beyond living memory is the fact that in Baldwin's history as a piano maker, the Hamilton name actually came before Baldwin. The Baldwin company was founded in Cincinnati 1862, but for the first 37 years it was a retail operation, not a piano maker. Baldwin got into manufacturing by buying the Monarch reed organ company of Chicago. (Reed organs or "melodeons" cost about half the price of an upright piano.) The company immediately planned a second tier of reed organs and needed a brand name. Presumably the name of the founder was reserved for pianos, so D.H. Baldwin's middle name, "Hamilton," was appropriated for the new reed organ line. (The founder's first name, Dwight, was inappropriate due the notoriety of Dwight, IL, as the home of a popular alcoholic rehabilitation center, and D.H. Baldwin's status as a teetotaler.) The first pianos manufactured by Baldwin appeared under the Baldwin brand in 1891, followed by a second brand, Ellington, two years later. Although the piano market was crowded with makers, and the financial times were shaky, Baldwin was successful enough to introduce a third piano line, elevating the by-now-familiar Hamilton name from melodeons to pianos. In the organization, Hamilton was part of the Ellington operation. From the turn of the 20th century well into the post-WWII years, Hamilton pianos cut quite a path through the piano industry and around the world. Here's a scrapbook from the Baldwin archives.  A 1908 Hamilton brochure features samples of advertising available to dealers and proclaims that Hamilton is already "a world wide favorite." |
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 Shipping ledgers from the 1910s support "world wide favorite" claim, showing Hamiltons going out to major cities all over the world. |
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 In the 1930s, Hamiltons sported some of the most modernistic designs in the Baldwin family, exemplified by Model 279. |
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