Monday marked World Accordion Day and there’s no better place to celebrate in the Northland than at A World of Accordions Museum in Superior.

The museum’s curator Dr. Helmi Harrington collected nearly 2,500 different accordions from across the world that are on display. Each one from a different decade and with a different story.

Dr. Harrington says she’s been picking out the best accordions gradually over the years saying, “Not every rock in the backyard is worth keeping or showing off.”

The ones in the collection are evaluated based on beginner, intermediate, professional, fine, and world class standards. And they are all kept in shape.

Over the weekend the museum celebrated World Accordion Day by inviting big names in the accordion day and had a couple perform in their concert hall.

One of the artists there was Joan Cochran Summers, who’s a world renowned scholar, teacher, and musical artist. She’s been playing since she was 9 and started teaching at 14.

She says that the accordion is the perfect instrument to play to learn music theory. Due to the buttons on the side and the piano keys on the other.

And it’s the music that comes from the accordion that has changed lives over the course of history.

“The accordion saved my mother’s life in World War II,” says Dr. Helmi Harrington, “She could play and so she could entertain the troops in South Germany and they paid her off, not in money but in cigarettes.” By trading those cigarettes her mother was able to get food in Germany. And when Helmi and her mother came to the United States, her mother continued to play the accordion to make a living.

To find out more information for A World of Accordion’s you can check out their website here.