John B. Dunham

Biography

John B. Dunham operated a New York piano-making shop that, in 1849, engaged Frederick Mathushek to draw new scales and introduce other improvements. The text credits the strong reputation Dunham's pianos enjoyed in that era directly to Mathushek's work, including a scale for overstrung square pianos said to have been drawn in Dunham's shop around 1850, a claim the author states has never been disputed. From Spillane (1890): John B. Dunham, born in 1799, served an apprenticeship in cabinet-making, traveled extensively in the South, and worked for a time in Charleston before settling in New York in 1834, where he entered the piano trade as a case-maker at Nunns, Clark & Company. He became a founding partner of Stodart, Worcester & Dunham (c. 1836), then of Stodart & Dunham after Worcester's departure, and continued alone under his own name after Stodart withdrew in 1849. His instruments became widely known and his business grew large; he introduced numerous patented and unpatented innovations, including the 'boudoir grand.' In 1867 the firm became Dunham & Sons upon the accession of family members. According to Napoleon J. Haines, who worked in Dunham's factory as a finisher and regulator from 1843-1846, Dunham's shop produced the first overstrung pianoforte made in the United States on a stable, permanent basis. Dunham died February 9, 1873, and the business passed to his sons. Dunham appears in a formal portrait plate captioned "JOHN B. DUNHAM," printed opposite a companion portrait of John Firth between the New York and Boston chapters of Spillane's History of the American Pianoforte. Shortly afterward, in closing his survey of minor New York makers, Spillane lists "Dunham" among a handful of "significant names" -- alongside Stodart & Worcester and Thomas Loud -- to be "carried forward" for fuller treatment later in the book, indicating Dunham's importance to the broader narrative even though no biographical detail is given within these pages.

Highlights

• Engaged Frederick Mathushek in 1849 to draw new scales and make improvements
• His pianos' strong reputation was credited to Mathushek's work in his shop
• Subject of a formal named portrait plate in Spillane's History of the American Pianoforte.
• Named among the 'significant names' of early piano makers to be treated more fully later in the book.
• Born 1799; apprenticed at cabinet-making and worked in Charleston before entering the piano trade as a case-maker at Nunns, Clark & Company in 1834
• Partner in Stodart, Worcester & Dunham, then Stodart & Dunham until Stodart withdrew in 1849, after which he ran the business alone
• Introduced innovations including the 'boudoir grand'; his firm became Dunham & Sons in 1867; died February 9, 1873

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 322.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 162, 181, 182, 183, 184.

Public domain.