The website of the Concertina Museum Collection was launched to the public on 1st November, at www.concertinamuseum.com – it offers a massive, detailed and visually-stunning research archive of one of the largest collections of Concertinas and related instruments and historic images still in private hands! This website features Neil Wayne’s entire Concertina Museum Collection and is the first major on-line resource for the detailed study of over 380 rare and early examples of this uniquely-English instrument, of its players, and of their bands, its music and images from the past 180 years.

The collection also contains Charles Wheatstone’s own research items, many related instruments, early music and tutors, together with over 4000 original prints, postcards, photographs and written data about the instrument, its players, bands and its role during the past two centuries of musical culture. The new web site is designed to be an open-access database that is of easy access and should encourage and assist research upon all matters pertaining to the concertina and its history.

The XML-based web site was created by Wes Williams, the noted concertina researcher and designer of many instrument research sites, and benefits greatly from the research of Chris Flint, the genealogist of many of the early Victorian concertina makers. Neil’s first collection was transferred to The Horniman Museum in 1996, and his Free Reed record label, (which started in the ‘70s as a concertina music label!) now features definitive box-sets of leading folk musicians.
Neil, Wes and Chris hope to liaise closely with both the Horniman Museum’s Wayne Collection, and that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (with whom Neil has collaborated on concertina research), and other Collections around the world, in order to add links to their collections of related instruments to the Concertina Museum web site.

Website: www.concertinamuseum.com