William Bourne

Biography

William Bourne was among the pioneers who tried to establish piano making in the American 'Far West.' He started a piano factory at Dayton, Ohio, in 1837, when Native American communities were still nearby, but found little encouragement there and moved to Cincinnati in 1840. Failing to find appreciation for his craft there either, he took a position in the Chickering factory in 1842, remaining until 1846, when he organized the firm of William Bourne & Company. A piano maker of the old school, he produced only first-class instruments. He died in 1885, and the business was continued by his son, Charles H. Bourne. From Spillane (1890): William Bourne, father of the well-known concern of W. Bourne & Company, went West and began manufacturing pianos in Dayton, Ohio, in 1837, when the city had a population of close to one thousand; the text calls this an art pioneer's venture that inevitably failed on a frontier where the plough, pick, and construction trades left little room for art luxuries. He moved to Cincinnati about 1840 and worked in a leading capacity at a piano shop there. In 1842 he came to Boston and eventually became a department foreman at Chickering's factory, a post he left in 1846 to found his own firm, W. Bourne & Company. Under his direction the firm made numerous improvements over the following decades, including a claimed original form of the circular scale in 1851 (previously invented, unpatented, by Jonas Chickering) and an application of the square-action damper, along with several patented mechanical improvements.

Highlights

• Started a piano factory in Dayton, Ohio in 1837, then moved to Cincinnati in 1840
• Worked at the Chickering factory 1842-1846 before founding William Bourne & Company in 1846
• Known as a maker of first-class pianos of the old school
• Attempted an early, unsuccessful piano manufacturing venture in Dayton, Ohio, in 1837, when the town had barely a thousand people
• Worked in a leading capacity at a Cincinnati piano shop from about 1840
• Became a Chickering department foreman in Boston (from 1842) before founding W. Bourne & Company in 1846

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 278.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 170, 171.

Public domain.