Why is the National Music Museum in Vermilion, South Dakota | KCUR

On a tour of the National Music Museum, conservator Daryl Martin approached one instrument, a small wooden keyboard painted olive green.

Its lid is propped open, revealing its insides, and Martin pulls a string as he walks past.

“It’s actually the oldest harpsichord in the world,” he said. “Made in Naples, probably about 1525, 1530.”

Five hundred years later, the world’s oldest playable harpsichord has made its way to Vermilion, South Dakota. A city of just under 12,000 residents located in the southeastern part of the state, it boasts one of the largest collections of musical instruments in the world.

Dwight Vaught, director of the National Music Museum, knows what you’re thinking.

“Why the National Music Museum is in Vermilion, South Dakota is probably the question we get asked the most,” he said.

Why Vermillion, South Dakota

The whole story begins when a man named Arne Larson comes to town with his 2,500 instruments collected during his time as band and orchestra director at a high school in Brookings, South Dakota.

It was 1966, and the University of South Dakota in Vermilion had hired Larson as a professor of music. The rookie came up with a trick.

“When he was hired by the University of South Dakota, he said, ‘Do you have a place where I can store my instruments?'” Vaught said. “And so they offered him a place.”

Larson’s son, Andre, led the charge to turn the warehouse space into a museum. He was the first director when the museum officially opened in 1973.

“Both Arne and his son, André, were true forces of nature,” Vaux said. “When you have that visionary mindset, you can kind of block out any of the potential questions or criticisms that might come your way. And today we are the benefactors of that focus.”

“The first three in the world”

Andre really put the museum on the map in 1984 when he coordinated a $3 million donation to purchase a prestigious collection of early Italian strings, including the oldest cello in the world.

The acquisition—now known as the Witten-Rawlins Collection—gave the museum worldwide attention. And confusion.

“Then all of a sudden it catapulted us into people literally all over the world saying, ‘Wait a minute, what’s this National Music Museum in Vermilion, South Dakota?'” Vaught said.

Andre said people would have to make the trek to the Midwest to see the historic tools. As his father had said, from New York to Vermilion is just as far as from Vermilion to New York.

The collection continued to grow after the early acquisition of Italian strings. Fifty years after its founding, the museum boasts 14,000 instruments, covering everything from a clay whistle made as far back as 600 AD to one of Elvis’ guitars.

“It’s easily in the top three in the world,” Martin said. “It’s not just about the numbers – it’s the quality of the tools across a wide range of tool types.”

One of these instruments took up an entire exhibit hall on the museum’s first floor during an early winter visit. This is an Indonesian gamelan; an ensemble composed primarily of percussion instruments.

On Thursday afternoon, a group of Vermillion locals gathered at the exhibit hall. They took off their shoes and ignored all “do not touch” signs to move the ornate gongs, drums, pots and xylophones that stood in the room.

The natives of Vermillion were not there to admire the gamelan. They came to play it.

Faythe Weber plays a pekin, which looks like a small xylophone. She said she learned about gamelan during her travels to Asia while serving in the Navy.

When Weber heard about a gamelan concert in Vermilion, she thought a traveling band was coming through town.

“I was just amazed to learn that the instruments lived here in Vermilion and that anyone was welcome to play,” Weber said. She has now been with the band for the past ten years. She said the entire museum was an unlikely jewel for Vermillion.

“It’s one of the best toolkits in the world. And it’s here in South Dakota,” she said, laughing. “We are so happy.”

A new chapter

Last year, the museum reached an important moment – ​​it celebrated its 50th anniversary. It also reopened to the public after a five-year renovation that added a new wing and a storage and research center.

The accomplishments are thanks in part to the museum’s regional community support, Vaught said.

“If it wasn’t for the people in Vermilion and all over South Dakota, and even in Nebraska and Iowa, the National Music Museum wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “They were the first supporters to spread the word and bring their friends and family.”

Vaught said he likes to reframe the question of how the National Music Museum came to be a home in Vermilion.

“It’s not ‘Why did it start here?’ it’s ‘What does it mean it stays here?'” he said. “It was a product of South Dakota, put together by South Dakotans. It was South Dakota bred, South Dakota maintained and here to stay. And this is a source of pride for us.”

This story was created in partnership with Harvest public media, a collaboration between public media newsrooms in the Midwest. He reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.