The Pink Parlor was a formal room where guests visited with the McFaddin and Ward ladies. Perhaps they played music here, on their Victrola record players, for their guests during parties or large family gatherings. Listening to music was a way to boost morale during war times. Artists wrote songs to appeal to broad groups of people, even children. For example, "Lullaby of War, While Your Daddy's Far Away," written by Robert Kampman, was sung by mothers to explain why a loved one was away at war. Click on the Victrola to hear a patriotic song from the record collection once owned by the McFaddin family.
Communication Tour
Pink Parlor
The Pink Parlor was a formal room where guests visited with the McFaddin and Ward ladies. Perhaps they played music here, on their Victrola record players, for their guests during parties or large family gatherings. Listening to music was a way to boost morale during war times. Artists wrote songs to appeal to broad groups of people, even children. For example, "Lullaby of War, While Your Daddy's Far Away," written by Robert Kampman, was sung by mothers to explain why a loved one was away at war. Click on the Victrola to hear a patriotic song from the record collection once owned by the McFaddin family.
Phonograph
Click the audio below to hear the recording of the Star Spangled Banner performed by Geraldine Farrar. This record is part of the McFaddin-Ward collection and was recorded on this device in 2022.
This object is a phonograph produced around 1912 by the Victrola Talking Machine Company from Camden New Jersey. The company hired a furniture maker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build the special cabinet. Ouida Caldwell Watts, the sister of Ida Caldwell McFaddin, bequeathed this phonograph to the McFaddin family upon her death in the 1950s. This was an object that only wealthy people could afford when it was first sold to the public, as it was very expensive to buy. Eventually, middle class families afforded the popular music maker. The finish is known as a Vernis Martin finish, featuring hand-paintings over gold leaf, was an option made available in 1909.
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison as he was developing a way to record and reproduce sound. His “talking machines†used cylinder records, but they were expensive to make. Emile Berliner designed the flat disc record in 1892. Victrolas can only play 78 RPM records, not modern day records we play on our record players.
This Victrola has a horn built inside the box. Opening and closing the doors affects the volume. Soldiers serving oversees during both World Wars often took record players with them into battle. Listening to music kept up morale and provided the soldiers a recreational activity when they had brief moments of leisure time.
Victrola
(Object/Artifact)
Click the audio below to hear the recording of the Star Spangled Banner performed by Geraldine Farrar. This record is part of the McFaddin-Ward collection and was recorded on this device in 2022.
This object is a phonograph produced around 1912 by the Victrola Talking Machine Company from Camden New Jersey. The company hired a furniture maker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build the special cabinet. Ouida Caldwell Watts, the sister of Ida Caldwell McFaddin, bequeathed this phonograph to the McFaddin family upon her death in the 1950s. This was an object that only wealthy people could afford when it was first sold to the public, as it was very expensive to buy. Eventually, middle class families afforded the popular music maker. The finish is known as a Vernis Martin finish, featuring hand-paintings over gold leaf, was an option made available in 1909.
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison as he was developing a way to record and reproduce sound. His “talking machines†used cylinder records, but they were expensive to make. Emile Berliner designed the flat disc record in 1892. Victrolas can only play 78 RPM records, not modern day records we play on our record players.
This Victrola has a horn built inside the box. Opening and closing the doors affects the volume. Soldiers serving oversees during both World Wars often took record players with them into battle. Listening to music kept up morale and provided the soldiers a recreational activity when they had brief moments of leisure time.
Patriotic Music
Ida and her volunteer friends gather around the Victrola record player as they plan their bandage drive for the Red Cross.
“Come in to join us, we’re planning our Red Cross bandage drive. We decided to listen to patriotic music to get in the spirit.â€
Ida McFaddin Interpretation
(Video Recording)
Ida and her volunteer friends gather around the Victrola record player as they plan their bandage drive for the Red Cross.
“Come in to join us, we’re planning our Red Cross bandage drive. We decided to listen to patriotic music to get in the spirit.â€
Pink Parlor 
