The Aeolian Company, Ltd.

The Aeolian Company is recognized as having been among the top piano manufacturers in the United States throughout the early twentieth century. It was established by piano builder William Tremaine as the Aeolian Organ & Music Company in New York City in 1887, but by 1895 it was known simply as the Aeolian Company. Its initial focus was on the production of automated and player pianos and organs, expanding only decades later into non-player instruments. In the first few years following the turn of the century, Aeolian subsumed numerous other companies producing similar automated instruments, and, in 1916, they founded Vocalion Records to accompany the production of a line of associated phonographs. In 1932, the company merged with the American Piano Corporation, which had itself merged from the Chickering and Knabe manufacturers, to form the Aeolian-American Corporation. The firm declared bankruptcy in 1985.