Then the autoharp made a comeback - through the radio of all things. The autoharp and its ilk took a back seat to broadcast music programs for years. Then the radio came along, and that was even easier to play. Mail-order catalogs listed instruments that 'anybody could play.' But the autoharp and some of its immediate ancestors came the closest to fulfilling that promise. Traveling salesmen hawked similar devices from the East to the West. Precisely 85 years after the initial autoharp's patent, psychedelic folk musician Roger Penney invented the electric autoharp.Autoharp Buyers' Guide, from Riverboat Music (tm)Д«uyer's Guide for Autoharps - From Riverboat Music(tm),ДЄutoharps were one of many attempts to bring music into essentially non-musical households that started in mid-to-late 1800s. All the same, Oscar SchmidtВ perfected the autoharp and is still the most famous and respected zither manufacturer. A few years later, Oscar SchmidtВ acquired the corporation, then trademarked the name 'autoharp.' Many believe the Oscar Schmidt Company invented the autoharp, but this is not factual. Because of the surge in popularity, a second manufacturing company, the International Musical Corporation in New Jersey, began producing autoharps. The Carter family were the first known autoharp players to stand while playing the instrument rather than sitting down to pluck the strings. Secondly, the legendary Carter Family, discovered in the late 1920s, brought a new level of recognition to the instrument. Ernest 'Pop' Stoneman created a wholly unique style of plucking the autoharp. Nearly two decades later, the autoharp surged in popularity, thanks to two new country and gospel acts. Around 1910, the Phonoharp Company in Boston began producing the autoharp. He did enjoy some success, so he sold his business and relocated to California.

Unfortunately, Dolge struggled financially. Marketing materials boasted that '50,000 have been sold in the first three years.вЂќ Despite the autoharp's success, Alfred Dolge acquired the patent and moved production to New York. Production of the autoharp remained in Philadelphia for nearly four years. However, despite the conflict, the first known autoharp produced in America happened in Philadelphia in 1885. Historians are conflicted on which man invented the autoharp. In 1885, after returning from visiting his native Germany, Zimmerman updated his patent with a newly submitted design similar to Gutter's. However, there is one photo of him playing his instrument that tied him to the States geographically. Researchers found no record that Zimmerman's autoharp was manufactured in the United States. But the design was quite different than Gutter's zither or today's modern autoharp. Zimmerman patented an instrument he called an autoharp in 1882. Shortly after receiving his patent, he sold the rights to fellow German native and musical instrument manufacturer Herman Lindemann. Gutter was a successful luthier (a craftsperson who builds and repairs stringed instruments) in Markneukirchen, Germany. In reality, a British patent was granted to German native Karl August Gutter in 1883 for his version of the Akkordzither. For many decades, the autoharp's invention was credited to a German immigrant in America, Charles Zimmerman.В However, a couple of enthusiastic researchers discovered additional information that corrected historical facts.

Antique autoharp value