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Historical Authenticity Meets DIY: The Mass-Market Harpsichord in the Cold War United States

In a 1970 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred Rogers introduces his viewers to the harpsichord.1 After a brief discussion of teeth and feathers, Rogers sits himself at a 1967 William Dowd instrument and explains that “the harpsichord is like a piano but it sounds different.” He points out that harpsichords have two manuals (as opposed to pianos, which have only one) before moving to a more subtle distinction between the two instruments. “Now the difference about a harpsichord is that it has little jacks that pluck the strings. I’ll show you,” he says, as he takes the jack rail off. He pulls out a plastic jack and explains, “Each one of these is a little pluck. A long time ago, they used to even be made out of feathers and they would pluck the strings like that . . .” Rogers uses a feather to pluck one of the strings. He then holds up a gooseneck tuning hammer and demonstrates how to tune a string. Concluding the presentation, he summarizes: “It is a very fancy instrument.” A few moments later, harpsichordist Frances Cole knocks at the door. She has just enough time to play a Scarlatti sonata (K.146) and a Bach minuet (from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, Anh. 114) before an ever-impatient Mister McFeely arrives to hurry her along to a concert. In this brief segment, Rogers marks the harpsichord as both “fancy” and mechanistically accessible. Fitting within his larger project of demystifying technology, of unveiling the materials and processes behind everyday commodities, Rogers’s description makes plain the harpsichord’s inner workings: its plucking action, the shape and function of its