What Is the Organ Historical Society and How Does It Preserve American Pipe Organs?

The Organ Historical Society (OHS) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates, preserves, and studies the pipe organ in America in all its historic styles, working through research, education, advocacy, and music. If you want to understand how historic American pipe organs are documented and kept in public awareness — or you're looking for a way to hear, study, or support them — OHS is the main national body doing that work. Its activities fall into four areas: research, education, advocacy, and music, and its public-facing work includes national conventions, a pipe organ database, publications, and named funds and grants.

What OHS actually does

The Society's stated mission covers four kinds of activity:

• Research — documenting instruments, builders, and the places they served.
• Education — funds and programs that support learning about the organ, including the Barbara Owen Fund for Education.
• Advocacy — making the case for preserving historic instruments.
• Music — programming that puts organs and organists in front of audiences.

The scope is deliberately broad: not just church instruments, but organs in concert halls, auditoriums, universities, hotels, world's fairs, and expositions. That breadth is the point — it treats the pipe organ as part of American civic and cultural life, not only worship.

Signature events: the national conventions

OHS holds national conventions that combine instrument visits, performances, and scholarship. Two are currently on the calendar:

The Philadelphia convention is framed as a double celebration — the national semiquincentennial and the Society's own platinum jubilee. The instruments listed for that event span builders and eras, including Aeolian (1930), Aeolian-Skinner (1931, 1933, 1937), Austin (1961), C.B. Fisk (2018), Dobson (2006 and 2026), Kegg (2014), M.P. Möller (1950), Reuter (2000), and Rieger (2005). That range is a useful illustration of what "all its historic styles" means in practice: a single convention can move from early-20th-century symphonic organs to a brand-new Dobson.

Publications and the historical record

OHS publishes books that reconstruct instruments no longer standing. Lost Pipe Organs of America by Rollin Smith documents organs from the "Golden Age" of American organbuilding that have since disappeared — among them instruments at the 1869 Boston National Peace Jubilee, New York's Chickering, Mendelssohn, and Carnegie Halls, the Hotel Astor and Waldorf-Astoria, the E. & G.G. Hook at Louisville's 1883 Southern Exposition, Chicago's Steinway Hall and Stadium, auditoriums in Denver, Washington, Detroit, and Chicago, the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition's Festival Hall, and Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall. Builders covered include Hook, Jardine, Roosevelt, Skinner, Farrand & Votey, Aeolian, Möller, Austin, Estey, Barton, Wurlitzer, and Aeolian-Skinner. The book is illustrated and heavily footnoted.

There is also a Pipe Organ Database, which is the Society's structured record of instruments — the place to start if you want to look up a specific organ, builder, or location rather than read narrative history.

Research and education support

Two named programs appear in the Society's current material:

• The Barbara Owen Fund for Education — supports educational work related to the organ.
• The Dr. Rollin Smith Research Grant — supports research, consistent with the Society's documentation mission.

If your interest is scholarly rather than concert-going, these are the entry points to check for eligibility and timing.

How to engage

Which route makes sense depends on what you want:

• To hear instruments in person — attend a national convention. OHS 2026 in Philadelphia and OHS 2027 in Boston are the announced gatherings.
• To look up a specific instrument — use the Pipe Organ Database.
• To read American organ history — start with Lost Pipe Organs of America and the Society's other publications.
• To support preservation or education — the Barbara Owen Fund for Education and the Rollin Smith Research Grant are the named vehicles; membership is the general way to sustain the organization's work.
• To keep up with news and events — the OHS News section carries current announcements, a monthly events listing, and the annual pipe organ calendar.

One practical note: the site's "Buy Now" and "Order Now" links indicate that publications and calendars are sold, and that convention participation involves registration. Pricing and membership terms are not stated in the material available here, so check the individual pages before assuming cost or access.