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Reuter Organ Company photograph collection

 Collection
Call Number: RH PH 68

Overview

This collection contains records about the Reuter Organ Company in Lawrence, Kansas, including photographic prints and negatives of organs under construction, photographs of organs in situ at locations around the United States, and photographs of the exteriors of churches and other buildings presumably in which Reuter organs were placed. The collection also includes dedication programs, promotional material, scrapbooks, catalogs, design specifications, and printing plates.

Dates

  • Creation: approximately 1917-2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

No access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

History of the Reuter Organ Company

Adolph Reuter began working at the Barkhoff Organ Company in the early 1900s, thereafter working at other pipe organ building companies until he reached the level of shop superintendent. In 1917, he and Earl Schwarz established the Reuter-Schwarz Organ Company in Trenton, Illinois.

In 1919, with a commission for an organ in the Masonic Temple in Lawrence, Kansas, the company moved operations to Lawrence. Soon after that Schwarz left the business, and the company was renamed as the Reuter Organ Company.

Adolph Reuter retired in 1961. In the early 1980s, long-time employee Franklin Mitchell, along with newly employed production manager Albert Neutel, purchased the Reuter Organ Company. Neutel had owned his own organ-building company in Ontario, Canada for several decades before moving to Lawrence and joining Reuter.

In 2001 Reuter moved its operations to a new specially designed facility in northwest Lawrence. The company continued to craft pipe organs for churches, synagogues, concert halls, schools, and homes in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and Korea until 2022, when owner J.R. Neutel announced the company would scale back operations and no longer build new organs, only service existing organs through their remaining warranties.

Extent

16.25 Linear Feet (18 boxes + 4 boxes of negatives, 3 volumes, 1 oversize box)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Series include

  1. Photographic prints
  2. Glass plate and flexible negatives
  3. Dedication programs
  4. 75th Anniversary Open House
  5. Publications
  6. Financial volumes
  7. Oversize materials

Physical Location

RH PH 68

Physical Location

RH MS 1584

Physical Location

RH MS G90

Physical Location

RH MS Q505

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gifts, Franklin Mitchell, 1985; Reuter Organ Company, 2022, 2023; and John Bechen, 2023.

Source

Subject

Title
Guide to the Reuter Organ Company Collection
Subtitle
Reuter Organ Company photograph collection
Author
Finding aid prepared by rw, 2008. Finding aid encoded by rw, 2008. Finding aid edited by cmp, 2023.
Date
2008
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Finding aid written in English.
Finding aid permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/10407/9146757739
Preferred citation
Reuter Organ Company photograph collection, RH PH 68, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository

Contact:
1450 Poplar Lane
Lawrence KS 66045-7616 United States
785-864-4334