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Surnames: Carlisle, Corsi
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/khH.2ACIB/607.2.3.1.1.1.1
Message Board Post:
From "Thumbs Up To James Reynold Carlisle (1886-1962), Noted American Violin
Maker," by Margaret D. Banks, Curator of Musical Instruments, Shrine to Music Museum,
(now the National Music Museum), Vermillion, SD, in "The Shrine to Music Museum
Newsletter," April 1995:
“Had Stradivarius put his thumb-print in the varnish on his labels, there wouldn’t be so
much doubt today over genuine Strads” proclaims a caption that appears in an eight-minute
silent movie from the late ‘20s, “The Violin Speaks,” that documents the craft of
violin-making as practiced by James Reynold Carlisle (1886-1962), the noted American
violin maker.
Thanks to just such an imprint, no such confusion exists abut the authenticity of a violin
built by Carlisle, in Amelia, Ohio, in 1953, at the request of his nephew, Walter Corsi of
San Bernardino, California. Carsi donated the instrument to the Museum in 1992.
According to Thomas Wenberg, author of the standard reference work, “The Violin Makers of
the United States” (1886), Carlisle made more than 500 violins, of which “about 75 were
handmade and are fine instruments.” It is this latter group that bears the maker’s
thumb-print. …
Archival materials relating to Carlisle’s life and work, received in recent months from
Walter Corsi and his sister, Mary Corsi Kelley, Ann Arbor, Michigan, include historic
photographs, templates, varnish recipes, Carlisle’s personal notebook, and a copy of the
silent movie. …
Kelley notes that her uncle obtained his spruce from a location 6,000 up in the mountains
of North Carolina, "in order to get wood with the finest grain."
Born in Ashland, Kentucky in 1886, Carlisle constructed his first violin in 1910, when he
was 24. He made and repaired violins for the renowned Wurlitzer Company in Cincinnati,
after moving there from West Virginia in 1918. ...
Leaving the Wurlizter Company, Carlilsle was associated for a while with Homer Beach at
310 E. Eighth Street in Cincinnati, then operated his own shop at Peebles Corner for about
ten years, before moving his operations to a shed behind his home in Amelia, Ohio. In
contrast to his output of violins, Carlisle made only five violas and one 'cello. ...
At one time, nine members of the Cincinnati Symphony played Carlisle's instruments.
One of these was the concert-master, Emil Hermann, who wrote a glowing endorsement of
Carlisle's violins in 1930. "You may know," he noted, "that I own a
very fine Strad made in 1700. My audience often thinks I am plying my Strad, when, in
fact, I am playing my Carlisle. I do not think one could pay a modern violinmaker a more
handsome compliment." …
It seems only appropriate for the Shrine to Music Museum to give a “thumbs-up to Walter
Corsi and his sister, Mary Corsi Kelley, for their foresight and effort in helping to
preserve the details of the life and work of a significant, early 20th-century American
violin maker, who to them will always be known as “Uncle Reyn.”