The Aeolian Corporation was one of the largest and most successful piano companies in history. The firm was originally established by William Tremaine in 1887 for the purpose of manufacturing mechanical self-playing organs, later becoming the Aeolian Company after 1895. Aeolian originally built its vast empire on the new-found popularity of the player piano. By the early 20th Century Aeolian had become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of pianos and organs with factories in both North America and Europe.
Aeolian controlled dozens of piano companies abroad, and in 1932 it merged with the American Piano Corporation to form the Aeolian-American Corporation. The Aeolian-American Corporation continued to build thousands of pianos under many different names throughout the 20th Century until closing in 1985.
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