James Lick
apprentice piano maker
journeyman piano maker
Biography
James Lick is noted in passing as having worked as an apprentice in Joseph Hiskey's Baltimore piano-making shop, after which he made pianos as a journeyman in New York and Philadelphia. The text identifies him as the same James Lick who later became "the celebrated founder of the observatory bearing his name," famous for his astronomical inquiries -- a reference to the Lick Observatory. No further detail on his piano-trade career is given.
Highlights
- Apprenticed as a young man in Joseph Hiskey's Baltimore piano shop
- Afterward worked as a journeyman piano-maker in New York and Philadelphia
- Later became "the celebrated founder of the observatory bearing his name," famous for his astronomical inquiries
Source
Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), p. 128.
Public domain.