By Alabama Public Radio
Florence, AL – The W-C Handy Museum in Florence has received a new donation. Lionel King, a music teacher from Florida, has given the museum a rare set of large chimes. King says he visited more than a decade ago and saw a set of the chimes in a faded photograph of Handy's band. King decided to donate the Deagan Organ Shaker Chimes and spent this past Tuesday assembling it at the museum. It's eight feet tall and six feet wide and was made in 1901. King says there are only two other known sets that large. One is part of the Purdue University bell choir and the other is in a California museum devoted to Lawrence Welk. King says he received the chimes from the grandmother of one of his music students.