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Musical Instrument Museums Online

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
MIMO, for short. Linky: http://www.mimo-db.eu/mimo/infodoc/default.aspx

MIMO began life as a consortium of eleven of Europe’s most important musical instruments museums which came together for a project that aimed to create a single online access point to their collections. The MIMO Project, which was part funded through the European Commission’s eContentplus programme, ran from September 2009 until August 2011 and successfully achieved all of its objectives.
They only have 45,479 images and 1,306 recordings ....
 
You're welcome.

I do wonder if they'd accept stuff from "hobbyist" websites like saxpics.com, thesaxinfo.com and Helen's bassic-sax.ca. I also know that there are a LOT of brasswind 'sites out there. Hey, I know that if saxpics.com was included in their list o' 'sites, it would easily double the amount of pictures they currently have. I also know that I have more Claude Laurent flutes (not just pictures, but more flutes, period) on thesax.info than they have listed.

I think I'll look into it. It'd be interesting!
 
Great link.

And if you ever get near Vermillion SD, visit this place:
http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/

The website doesn't give it justice.

I was there quite a few years ago, when it was called "America's Shrine To Music Museum" (before the National title).

Leilani and I spent almost an entire day looking at the impressive collection of instruments and listening to recordings of those very same instruments on the rented 'walk-things'.

I found this place by accident. We were going to "The Badlands" and spent the night at a motel. In the lobby was the poster I attached to this post. In the frame with the poster was the title, "America's Shrine To Music Museum, Vermillion SD". We asked about it, and went there the next day. It was wonderful.

Highly recommended.
 
There have been updates:

http://www.mimo-international.com

They now boast 50,815 instruments.

They've "folded in" the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels, which is a very nice 'site in and of itself and has one of the largest collections of Adolphe Sax instruments. It's also available in a few different languages (the selector is in the lower right).

Speaking of this MIM, I would love to get a chance to go to see their "Workshops and Reserves." I think I can pull off "serious musical instrument historian" long enough to play with some horns :).

==============

Related, from the MIM website, from their COLLECTIONS page is europeana.eu (keeping the e.e. cummings lack of capitals), which is:

Europeana is a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe. It is an authoritative source of information coming from European cultural and scientific institutions.
That's way kewl on several levels, especially if you have an interest in other things historic than just musical instruments.
 
As an aside, I've been attempting to find pictures of as many A. Sax instruments as possible. That's the reason why I worked my way back to the MIMO website. While I'm very happy to see some pics -- one was a near-lifesize image of an A. Sax alto -- I was a little disappointed in the lack of consistency in labeling the exhibits. Knowing that the horn was made in 1854 is good, but I want to know the serial number, too. I also want to know what the engraving says and if there's a street address, because these can also help you with an accurate date. Fortunately, I do have a resource that can help, but only if I know that, say, the MIM in Brussels has the ONLY KNOWN silver-plated A. Sax alto made in 1854.

I also hope they redo all the pics, someday. In some of the records, there's a little button that's marked "3D." They're probably referring to "surround" photosets like what USAHorn.com occasionally does (click on a thumbnail), rather than, "You have to wear funny glasses." That'd be exceptional.
 
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