Wurlitzer Bilhorn Portable Folding Organ

The Bilhorn, a folding portable organ, was invented by Peter Philip Bilhorn around 1885. Peter Bilhorn was an evangelist singer and composer who invented the portable organ for his evangelistic activities. He and his brother, George E. Bilhorn, founded the Bilhorn Brother Organ Company in Chicago. The instruments were sold in big department stores such as Sears & Roebuck around 1902. The company exhibited the organs at numerous World Fairs where they were awarded six Grand Prizes for greatest volume, greatest variety of tone, sweetest quality in tone, highest excellence in materials, workmanship, compactness & finish, and mechanical ingenuity.

One of the most noble owners of this type of organ was James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (1887-1983), he was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. Blake practiced on this folding organ (pictured below) in hotel rooms when he traveled. This organ may be the same one Blake's mother purchased for him as a child, and which inspired his musical career that began in 1912. In 1921, in a collaboration with Noble Sissle, they wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". In 1978 the Broadway musical Eubie! showcased his works, and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan awarded Blake the Presidential Medal of Freedom