In 1892, Brackhausen left Germany to start the Regina Company in Jersey City, New Jersey. Soon thereafter many rivaling companies emerged throughout Europe (Tallis 1971, 52-53). An employee of the Symphonion Company in Leipzig, Gustave Brackhausen, saw how successful the disc musical boxes were and decided to bring them to the American market. Music boxes and other mechanical instruments have existed for centuries, but the disc musical box did not come to prominence until Paul Lochmann began selling them in Germany in 1886. Image of the Regina Music Box Factory (Al Meekins Collection, Photos, The Meekins Antique Regina Music Box Company, Zephyrhillis, FL, ). To whom was the Regina Music Box Company catering? How did those consumers relate (if at all!) to the types of song discs that the company sold? Regina music boxes originated in Europe and later came to America, so their discs offer a rare glimpse into the changing listening cultures of domestic audiences in Europe and America at the turn of the twentieth century.įigure 7. My focus soon turned to the listening cultures surrounding these instruments, concentrating on the people to whom the Regina Music Box Company sold their products. Once I overcame this basic obstacle, I began to make more inquiries. My first question for the UNT Regina Music box was simple: how do I make it play?! After extensive research and multiple correspondences with Alan Bies from the Musical Box Society International (MBSI), I finally heard a full, rich sound emanate from the box unlike any other music box I had ever experienced. Each box has its own special origin story and history, which inspire many different types of questions, even scholarly ones. But music boxes are more than just entertainment or a vessel for personal memories. Perhaps they remind us of an event in our past or recall the person who gave it to us. Music boxes are charming devices that play some of our favorite tunes. Gounod, Flower Song tune disc from UNT Collection.