San Francisco, CA St. Mary's Cathedral

This postcard features the instrument in St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, California. The organ was built by the Ruffatti firm and installed in 1971. The organ has 89 ranks of pipes, 69 stops and includes about 4800 pipes. It is interesting for the lack of a case for the organ. In that regard it is rather like many instruments built by the US firm Holtkamp in the mid- to late-1900's. The postcard neatly captures both the console and the pipework of the instrument.

Passau, Domorgel

The organ in the Passau Cathedral has long been famous for being one of the largest in the world. I believe it is currently still the largest church instrument in Europe. This card features the console.The five manuals are only slightly less intimidating than the setter buttons for the combination action. The post card is not that old; if I read the postmark correctly, it's from 1958. The organ currently has 5 manuals, and 233 ranks, and nearly 18,000 pipes.