Aluminum Violin
date: label: Date made
content: 1932
name: label: maker
content: Aluminum Company of America
notes: label: Description
content: This violin was made by the Aluminum Musical Instrument Company, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1932. In the last decade of the 19th century Neil Merrill, president of the Aluminum Musical Instrument Co. in New York City, began incorporating aluminum in the manufacture of mandolins, fiddles, banjos, guitars and zithers. Fitted with spruce soundboards, the bodies of these instruments were pressed from one piece of aluminum.
label: Description
content: Unrelated to Merrill's efforts, on March 24, 1932 the Buffalo plant of ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America) joined with Dr. Joseph Maddy, a music teacher from Ann Arbor and director of the National High School Orchestra Camp at Interlochen. They redesigned a 1928 aluminum double bass model in order to market aluminum violins, with bow and case for $50.00. The Buffalo plant assembled and finished the violins to resemble wood and Dr. Maddy provided the set-up work and sales from Ann Arbor. ALCOA records indicate the Buffalo Fabricating Plant provided a total of 435 violins to Dr. Maddy and about 500 double bass instruments to other dealers.
label: Description
content: This 1932 model is molded with half-height ribs and back pressed from a single piece of aluminum joined at the center height of the ribs to a similarly molded aluminum table with half-height ribs. It is fitted with an aluminum neck with wood core, and an aluminum pegbox, scroll, bassbar and endpin. The exterior aluminum surfaces are painted to imitate wood grain.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Michigan, Ann Arbor
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Violins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0311.01
label: accession number
content: 1988.0311
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0311.01
label: serial number
content: 356
objectType: label: Object Name
content: violin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 23 3/4 in x 8 1/8 in x 3 15/16 in; 60.325 cm x 20.6375 cm x 10.00125 cm