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Overview | Inventory | History | Using The Collection

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Overview

The Violin Society of America / H. K. Goodkind Collection, jointly purchased in 1986 by The Violin Society of America and Oberlin College, includes over 1,200 book, score, and periodical titles, 566 auction catalogs, miscellaneous research files, institutional records for the Violin Society of America, and a variety of visual materials. The collection contains many items originally compiled by Hyman Frankel (d. 1959), including rare books on the violin from the seventeenth century through the twentieth century; scores for solo violin, violin chamber music, violin methods and treatises; prints and engravings; and violins and bows. Goodkind assumed the responsibility for administering Frankel's collection around 1959.

The books, scores, and periodical titles comprise the core of the collection. They focus on the history of the violin, violin construction, the rare violin market through the years, early violin makers and violinists, and early violin treatises. 566 catalogs from 104 auction houses, stringed instrument makers, and musical instrument dealers published between 1838-1991 address violin sales, pricing, and ownership. Research materials include those created or compiled by Goodkind and Edward W. Abell as well as numerous photocopies of articles from periodicals and newspapers (1808-1986) on the subject of violin construction and history. The institutional records of the VSA contain financial, membership, public relations, and board of directors records; along with correspondence, clippings files, ephemera, and miscellaneous photographs. Additional visual materials including photographs, negatives, and two paintings round out the collection.

Inventory

Series 1: Books (82 linear feet), 1659-1990:

Consists of approximately 1,200 books that are individually cataloged in the Oberlin’s Library Catalog (OBIS). A complete list is available organized in reverse chronological order by date of publication.

These materials focus on the history of the violin, violin construction, the rare violin market through the years, early violin makers and violinists, and early violin treatises. Rare eighteenth-century treatises on violin playing and stringed instrument acoustics include authors such as Francesco Geminiani, Carlo Tessarini, Peter Prelleur, Johan Adam Hiller, Leopold Mozart, and Carlo Taglini. More than fifty books on the early nineteenth-century violin virtuoso and composer Niccolo Paganini, including works published during his lifetime, were collected primarily by Frankel, who was an avid admirer of Paganini. There are also a wealth of materials on violin construction and acoustics, with extensive coverage of the bow, varnish, woods, gums and resins, adhesives, and painting techniques. Included in Series I is a notebook (ML140.G66 1900z) Goodkind maintained that indexed photographs of violins discovered in his readings, the catalogs, and other brochures. Although never published, the index is useful to anyone needing photographs of specific violins, and it often refers to items appearing in the Catalogs Series.

Series 2: Periodicals (21.5 linear feet), 1872-1982:

Consists of approximately 40 periodical titles, each of which is individually cataloged in the Oberlin Library Catalog (OBIS).

Series 3: Catalogs (13 linear feet), 1838-1991:

Consists of auction catalogs, musical instrument maker catalogs and brochures, and musical instrument dealer catalogs that address violin sales, pricing, and ownership. Hyman Frankel regularly collected catalogs and provided the foundation for the catalog collection. When Goodkind received the collection in 1959, he actively worked to update this part of the collection. Goodkind carefully followed the rare violin market by collecting catalogs from auction houses, stringed instrument makers, and musical instrument dealers that related primarily to auctions of musical instruments. Many catalogs contain marginalia by Goodkind. The auction houses most heavily represented are Bongartz, Christie's, Phillips, Puttick & Simpson, and Sotheby's. Price lists and descriptive, historical, or biographical pamphlets of stringed instrument makers include companies such as Fraser, Gemunder, Muller & Kaplan, Roth, Virzi, and Weisshaar. Musical instrument dealer catalogs, especially those dealing with rare instruments include companies such as Bein & Fushi, Inc., Ditson, Doring, Fischer, Friedrich, Lewis, Lyon & Healy, Rushworth & Dreaper, Scherl & Roth, and Wurlitzer. Complete inventory of the 566 catalogs representing 104 companies [PDF].

Series 4: Research Materials (5 linear feet), 1808-1986:

Consists of materials created or compiled by Herbert Goodkind or Edward Abell to support research, collecting, and writing.

Series 5: Visual Materials (0.5 linear feet, and two paintings):

Consists of two nineteenth-century photo albums: 1) with 60 photographs of Franz Liszt; 2) with 30 photos of historical figures and royalty. Also included are two postcards with Liszt photos; 8 loose plates with portrait photographs of late nineteenth-century musical figures (Hector Berlioz, Hans Richter, Arthur Nikisch, Anton Seidl, Theodore Thomas, Arturo Toscanini); photographs of violin makers Fred Haenel and Arthur Bultitude; a photo of Charles E. Farley Model 1900 violin; and miscellaneous photographs (c. 65) of violins enclosed in correspondence to Goodkind. An unidentified series of about 40 black and white photographs of rare instruments is included as well as one large black and white photo of Fritz Kreisler and Walter Damrosch. The series additionally contains a 1980 painting (36x48") of H.K. Goodkind by Ted Koepper and a 1971 painting (40x47") of Antonio Stradivari at work by Alton S. Tobey and commissioned by Goodkind, as well as two reproductions (12.5x16") of the Tobey painting.

Series 6: Violin Society of America Institutional Records (1.5 linear feet), 1973-1996 and undated:

Contains financial, membership, public relations, and board of directors records; along with correspondence, clippings files, ephemera, and miscellaneous photographs related to the American Society for the Advancement of Violin Making and the Violin Society of America.

History

Herbert K. Goodkind was born in New York City on April 30, 1905 to Walter and Annie Visanska Goodkind. Musicians in the family included his mother, who was a pianist, and his uncle, Dan Visanska, who played the violin professionally in several orchestras in Europe. Herbert Goodkind grew up in Yonkers, and lived briefly in Florida, South Carolina, and the Bronx before settling in Larchmont, New York in 1933. He attended the Cornell University School of Hotel Management for three years and then spent his career in the real estate business in New York City. During the 1930s and 1940s he sold commercial real estate in Manhattan for Helmsley Spear. He also was an active real estate agent in Larchmont where he maintained a successful business in management, appraisal, and consulting until the 1960s. Goodkind married Mabel Goldhammer (d. 1956) and had two sons, Thomas (b. 1933) and John (b. 1935). He married Virginia Jackson Haggett (b. 1925) in 1957 and had a daughter, Rachel (b. 1958) and a son, Daniel (b. 1961). Rachel continued her father's interest in the history of the violin and managed his estate after his death in 1982 following a one-month illness.

Goodkind's passionate interest in violin history and construction led him to become a dealer and appraiser of violins, an avid collector and dealer in books and other material on the subject, a publisher of his own book on Stradivari, and an early leader in the Violin Society of America, which he helped found in 1973. Initially taught by his uncle, Dan Visanska, Goodkind began playing the violin at age 10 and later, as an accomplished violinist, played in numerous chamber music groups. He played many other instruments as well and earned money during his college years by playing the saxophone. Goodkind began collecting materials about the violin in his early years and continued throughout his life.

Goodkind collected, identified, and appraised rare violins. His careful tracking of specific violins prompted him to collect auction catalogs, especially in the last twenty years of his life. Around 1978 he joined with Eric Chapman, a co-founder of the VSA, to begin a business in Larchmont, New York that specialized in new hand-made instruments and that kept rare instruments on consignment.

As an independent dealer in books on all subjects, Goodkind was a longtime subscriber to AB Bookman. He specialized in rare books and collected music scores as well. In 1958 he sold 36,000 volumes to the University of Texas at Austin (Goodkind-Bookman Collection), and in 1969 he sold 5,000 books and scores to Hofstra University in Long Island.

In 1972, Goodkind published Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari, 1644-1737, the definitive study of all 725 known Stradivari instruments and their provenance with photographs, illustrations and related articles. Because no publisher wished to take the risk of publishing such an ambitious work, Goodkind himself contracted typesetters (Stinehour Press, Lunenburg, Vermont), printers (Meriden Gravure, Meriden, Connecticut), and binders (Horowitz & Co., Clifton, New York) to publish the book on his own. In 1971 Goodkind commissioned Larchmont, New York artist Alton Tobey (b. 1914) to create a painting of Antonio Stradivari at work, which was featured in the book.

The H. K. Goodkind Collection was amassed over the years with significant help from Goodkind’s friend and fellow collector Hyman Frankel (d. 1959). Frankel escaped from Russia in the early 1900s, emigrated to Boston at the age of fifteen, and moved to New York City shortly thereafter. He worked as a fur cutter while studying violin with Ferdinand Carri and collecting books and violins. Over the course of fifty years, Frankel amassed a collection of over 1,000 books including many rare titles on the violin from the seventeenth century through the twentieth century; over 1,500 scores for solo violin, violin chamber music, violin methods and treatises; prints and engravings; and violins and bows. After Frankel’s passing, Goodkind oversaw the disposition of his collection.

Edward W. Abell (1864-1957), an early twentieth-century expert and connoisseur of violin history and violin making, was similar to Goodkind in his interests and approaches to his avocation. He wrote articles on the history of the violin and violin construction in The Violinist and other periodicals from 1916 to 1927.

Using the Collection

Restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Rights: The copyright interests in this collection may not have been transferred to Oberlin College.

Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Identification of series], Violin Society of America / H. K. Goodkind Collection, Oberlin Conservatory Library