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Musical Clock
1940-1960
Bambi
Switzerland
Wood, metal, glass, cloth
overall: 3"h x 6-3/8"d x 1-1/2"d
Gift of Harold N. Murphy
87.46.1

Musical Clock; rectangular; wood; dial marked "Bambi"; metal winders on back.


Although clocks had long featured alarms, the portable bedside alarm clock was something new that emerged in the 1870s. Spurred, in part, by the adoption of standard time in the 1880s, Americans’ expectations about punctuality changed. Offices and factories asked employees to start work at set times. By the 1920s, as artificial lights illuminated towns and cities, urban dwellers depended on clocks to schedule their days. Throughout the 1900s, time-aware Americans turned to the many alarm clocks on the market to help them wake up.