Victrola Mechanical Phonograph Model VV-90 Serial Number 10692 manufactured in 1921.  It was purchased new by Elmer and Hannah Johnson, where it was placed in the enclosed porch of their house, where it served as a centerpiece of domestic and community life in the 1920's and 30's.  The phonograph was in the Johnson family home until 1978, and then preserved by Robert Johnson (Donor and Grandson of Elmer and Hanna) until 2025 when it was donated to the Lyon County Museum. The phonograph animated the private family gatherings and its music flowed out across the front lawn to the street.  The family later added the newly invented RCA radio  placed it inside the house next to the door, so they could listen to either.   

The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufactured. The company was incorporated in 1901 and was independent until 1929 when it merged with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division. The company’s roots go back to 1896 when Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone and disc record, asked Eldridge Johnson, owner of a machine shop in Camden, NJ, to manufacture a spring-driven motor for the gramophone. Over the next several years, Johnson developed a number of improvements for it and the process of disc recording.

Last fall, Robert J. Johnson donated his grandparents’ 1921 Victor Talking Machine VV-90 phonograph along with phonograph records to the Lyon County Museum. The phonograph, or also known as a Victrola, was purchased new by Elmer and Hannah Johnson of Marshall and it was retained in the family household (615 W Marshall St) until 1978. They played it during the spring, summer, and fall and at birthdays for their children, Howard and Donna.

When the Victrola was purchased, it was placed in the enclosed porch of the family home, where it served as a centerpiece of domestic and community life during the 1920s and 1930s. In this era, front porches were central architectural features of Midwestern homes. They functioned as semipublic parlors, where neighbors strolling along the avenue might pause for conversation on Sunday afternoons or pleasant summer evenings when families gathered after supper to watch the rhythms of town life slow down after the business day gave way to evening sociality.

The photograph featured this week shows the Victor Talking Machine that once belonged to Elmer and Hannah Johnson. It is currently on exhibit at the Lyon County Museum on the porch of the Heritage Room exhibit.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a nonprofit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 West Lyon Street in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open year-round to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.