(The following is a feature on “Technology at the Library” from the September-October 2014 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)
flute from the Library’s collections. Photo by Abby Brack Lewis
The Library of Congress holds the largest collection of flutes in the world, due in great measure to the generosity of Ohio physicist and amateur flutist Dayton C. Miller (1866-1941). Miller donated his collection of more than 1,700 flutes and wind instruments to the Library upon his death.
Housed among Miller’s gold, silver, wood and ivory flutes are 18 flutes made out of glass during the first half of the 19th century by Claude Laurent of Paris. The Library holds nearly half of the approximately 40 glass flutes known to exist worldwide, in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Smithsonian Institution.
Although trained as a clockmaker, Laurent took out a patent for his “crystal” flutes in 1806 and won the silver medal at the Paris Industrial Exposition that year. Laurent’s flutes, with their intricate cut patterns and ornate jeweled keys, are also functional instruments. Some were made for heads of state. One such flute, which was crafted in 1813 and presented to James Madison during his presidency, is permanently on display at the Library of Congress.
The Laurent flutes are the subject of a collaborative research project between the Library’s Music Division and its Preservation Directorate. This cross- disciplinary collaboration is shedding new light on the Madison flute and its sibling glass flutes. The research will allow the Library to care for these rare instruments with the most up-to-date preservation methods, provide a new understanding about the place of Laurent’s flutes in history and enrich the world’s knowledge of 19th-century glass preservation.
The sheer number of Laurent’s flutes in the Dayton C. Miller Collection makes the Library an ideal place for researchers to carry out this work, which was prompted by senior curator of instruments Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford. She observed that some of the flutes were undergoing subtle changes in appearance and enlisted the help of research chemist Lynn Brostoff and conservator Dana Hemmenway. The team is moving forward with an in-depth study that seeks to bring to light the remarkable story behind Laurent’s creation of glass flutes, as well as their current preservation needs. Their tools include a high-powered microscope and the use of X-rays to “see” into the glass and discover its composition.
The materials analysis carried out thus far by Brostoff has revealed that only two of the 18 flutes are, in fact, made of “crystal,” which is technically leaded glass. The remaining flutes are made of potash glass, so named due to the presence of potassium from the ash used in their manufacture. As the study continues, Library researchers–aided by glass chemists at the Vitreous State Laboratory of The Catholic University of America–will investigate how a new understanding of the materials and manufacturing methods that Laurent used in different flutes may aid in their conservation. Library Junior Fellows Dorie Klein and William Sullivan also are assisting in the Library’s efforts by learning more about Laurent, including a possible family connection to the famous Paris maker of cut crystal, Baccarat.
“The project is amazing,” said Klein, a history and museum studies major at Smith College– and a trained glassblower. “Our goal to determine the structure and significance of these rare flutes is important, both to the Library and to the larger mission of preservation of history.”
Comments (7)
Very interesting. I’m going to read up on Laurent and Baccarat.
Wow! I haven’t played the Dayton C Miller flutes or seen them in decades, but I never thought about preservation, especially not about the glass. So interesting.
In the late 1990’s when I was researching the program notes for my recording of the Madison flute at Montpelier I came across speculation that went, as I recall, that Laurent’s father was from Baccarat, ergo Laurent might have used crystal supplied by Baccarat to make his flutes. I telephoned Baccarat USA and was quickly put through to their CEO, who naturally was interested by the idea that his parent company might have a connection to these flutes. By the next day we had an answer from the Baccarat archivist in France, who pointed out that the company started lead crystal production in 1816, about a decade after Laurent’s patent and three years after the Madison flute was made.
I was also interested in establishing the provenance of the flute before Madison, and asked David Mattern, an editor of the Madison papers, if he had ever encountered any mention of the flute in Madison documents he had seen. Like most Madison scholars at the time he was unaware of this instrument, but promised to keep an eye out. One day many months later my phone rang, and David said, “We have the letter.” This letter was found in Madison’s papers at LOC, and if I recall correctly can now be viewed as a digital scan. Laurent had written to Madison asking what had become of the flute he had sent a couple of years earlier.
Does the flute collection contain an “Ovalo Flute”?
This is a side blown flute without fingering holes.
It is flayed by warping the note/notes with the mouth, breath and one hand over the open end.
The flute gifted to Madison ended up in the property of Dr. Cornelius Boyle. Boyle was the doctor that signed the death certificate for Payne Todd in 1852.I don’t know how Todd acquired it, but he was James Madison’s step son. He was a gambler and a man frequently in trouble for bad debts. I have speculated that Todd gave the flute to Dr. Boyle for payment of medical services.
Have the dimensions of the flutes in the Miller collection been documented and is that information publicly available? There is an active community of flute makers reproducing classic flute designs that could benefit from that information.
Payne Todd’s will (12/31/1851): Thirdly I give and bequeath unto my friend Doctor Cornelius Boyle, of the city of Washington, my silver mantle, cristal flute.”
He terms it “MY flute.” (His father had died in 1836)