Lyon & Healy - History

History

The company was founded in 1864 by George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy, who moved from Boston to start a sheet music shop for music publisher Oliver Ditson. The full history of Lyon & Healy is complicated by the destruction of its building and loss of company records during four fires including the Great Chicago Fire (1871). Letters and trade catalogs containing information about this company are not forthcoming as to exact dates, when Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments. An article found within the pages of the Musical Courier states that Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments in 1885. Clearly, Lyon & Healy was making plucked string instruments in the 1880s, with Washburn (guitars, mandolins, banjos, and zithers) being their premier line. Lyon & Healy also made various percussion instruments. Later, Lyon & Healy began manufacturing brass instruments, possibly as early as the 1890s. Lyon & Healy also repaired instruments and evidently offered engraving services. Complicating matters still further, Lyon & Healy engraved instruments, that it retailed but did not actually manufacture. In its 1892 catalog, it began advertising, that it manufactured 100,000 instruments annually.

Other instruments the company is known to have made include reed organs and pianos. Lyon & Healy evidently began manufacturing these instruments around 1876 in its factories in Chicago and nearby cities. George W. Lyon patented his cottage upright in 1878 and it was sold under the Lyon and Healy name.

Lyon retired in 1889; Healy died in 1905.

Lyon & Healy built their first harp in 1889. Healy was interested in developing a harp better suited to the rigours of the American climate than the available European models. They succeeded in producing a harp notable for its strength, reliability of pitch, and freedom from unwanted vibration. Previously, most harps were imported to North America from France, England, Ireland, or Italy by smaller groups of craftsmen.

In 1890, Lyon & Healy introduced the Style 23 Harp, still one of the most popular and recognizable designs in the world. It has 47 strings, highly decorative floral carving on the top of the column, base, and feet, and has a fleur de lis pattern at the bottom of the column. In many orchestras, patrons may see the harpist playing a gold version of this harp. It is 74 inches (190 cm) tall, and weighs about 37 kilograms (82 lb). Lyon & Healy produces one of the most ornate and elaborate harps in the world, the Louis XV, which includes carvings of leaves, flowers, scrolls, and shells along its neck and kneeblock, as well the soundboard edges.

By the 1900s, Lyon & Healy was one of the largest music publishers in the world, and sold new and antique violins, pianos, and other instruments. However, In 1920s, Lyon & Healy sold its brass musical instrument manufacturing branch (see "New Langwill Index"). By the 1970s, L&H decided to concentrate solely on the creation and sale of harps.

In 1928, Lyon & Healy introduced one of the most unusual harps ever designed for mass production, the "Salzedo Model", designed in collaboration with the harpist Carlos Salzedo. It is in the Art Deco style, incorporating bold red and white lines on the soundboard to create a stylized and distinct instrument, that still appears modern and bold even today.

In the 1960s, Lyon & Healy introduced a smaller lever harp, the "Troubadour", a 36-string harp that is designed for young beginners, who have smaller hands and may find playing a concert harp difficult, as well as hobbyists. This harp stands 65.5 inches (166 cm), and weighs 17 kilograms (37 lb).

In the late 1970s, Lyon & Healy was purchased by Steinway & Sons (then owned by CBS), and consequently closed their retail stores in the Chicago area, that had been selling sheet music and musical instruments, and their education departments—to focus on the harp division.

By 1985, Lyon & Healy also made folk harps, also known as "Irish harps", which are even smaller than the Troubadour. The "Shamrock model folk harp" has 34 strings. It stands 55 inches (140 cm) tall with its legs; the legs can be removed if the player wishes to play lap-style on the knees, although this makes playing much more difficult and can only be done by the tallest players. It weighs about 10 kilograms (22 lb). It has Celtic designs on the soundboard. One who plays the smaller Irish or folk harps is often referred to as a "harper" rather than the more formal "harpist" title, which is used for players of concert or pedal harps. The most famous of the wandering Irish bards, was the blind harper O'Carolan.

DePaul University now owns their Wabash building. Lyon & Healy harps are still located in Chicago, Illinois, at 168 North Ogden Avenue. The building was once home to the recording studios of Orlando R. Marsh.