Historic Brethren pipe organ receives citation.

The 1698 Johan Christoph Harttman pipe organ located at the General Offices in Elgin, Ill., has been awarded a citation by the Historic Organ Citations Committee of the Organ Historical Society. The small pipe organ is part of the collection of the Brethren Historical Library and Archives of the General Board.

The Harttman organ is one of the two oldest organs in the US to receive the distinction, wrote Stephen Schnurr, chair of the committee, in a letter to the board's archivist Ken Shaffer. The citations program is part of the society's method of publicly honoring the special historic qualities of a pipe organ. Since the awarding of the first citation in 1975, some 330 organs in the US and Canada have received the honor. The society hopes to present the citation in a ceremony in the autumn of 2005 that may include a brief recital on the organ.

Source: 12/31/2004 Newsline