Musical Box Society International

The Music Box Society International (MBSI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the enjoyment, study and preservation of all automatic musical instruments.

History

According to a 1987 article in The New York Times, the Music Box Society International first formed in the early 1900s to preserve and conserve existing examples of music boxes.^[1]

According to the MBSI's own website, the organization was founded in 1949.^[2] It numbers several thousand members with representation in 50 US states and nineteen other countries. It focuses on music boxes of all sizes, from small, hand-held wind-up boxes, to fairground organs or room sized orchestrions, including musical clocks and snuff boxes, singing bird boxes, player pianos (reproducing pianos, nickelodeons), and automatic musical instruments of any kind.