A. H. Hastings

Biography

A. H. Hastings, superintendent of the Braumueler Piano Company, is described as a very clever piano-maker and inventor. He learned the trade in Albany many years earlier, then became a tuner and dealer, traveling throughout South and North America and Cuba in that capacity. He later moved to New York, spending several years at Raven & Bacon's and another period at Chickering & Sons' New York house as tuner and tone regulator. Spillane calls him a prolific inventor, noting that many of his patents are listed elsewhere in index form, and says he has long been known as a scale draughtsman and pattern-maker to the trade. Hastings was born in Malone, N.Y., in 1834, of New England parentage, and was a near ancestor's descendant of the historic Jonathan Hastings, through whom the expression 'Brother Jonathan' originated in national parlance.

Highlights

• Superintendent of the Braumueler Piano Company and a prolific inventor with many indexed patents.
• Traveled extensively as a tuner and dealer across North and South America and Cuba.
• Descendant of the historic Jonathan Hastings, source of the term 'Brother Jonathan.'

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 303, 304.

Public domain.