When the museum was opened in 1995, we had a lot of "Extra" items that came along, which were put in storage, mostly on the second and third floors. When we started our "Open all Floors to the Public" project, we slowly cleaned out these areas and cataloged and stored the items more properly.
We had one phonograph listed on our inventory as a very early Columbia table model, which we had tucked away and paid no attention to.
One of our summer interns was checking out these stored items for proper ID and condition. It did not take long to see that this phonograph was not a Columbia, but an external horn 1906 Victor VicII, without a horn.
Once we understood what to look for, we found the horn in our miscellaneous stored parts. After cleaning and repair, this phonograph became a fine addition to our first floor tour area and is played on many of our tours.
The Victor VicII was first introduced in 1901 as the E model. Transition to the Vic-II name came in 1905 with the change to a tapered tone arm. It was a single spring motor table model with an external horn, selling for $30.00 when introduced. Production continued until 1920, by which time the price was $37.50 and something like 125,000 had been made.
Ref: www.victor-victrola.com for background information.
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