American Five-String Fretless Banjo
date: label: date made
content: 1875-1899
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This banjo was made by an unknown maker in the United States around 1875-1899. It is a Five-String Fretless Banjo. The instrument’s body is made from oak, and the body’s rim is ornamented with 12 furniture tacks. This banjo was acquired from noted traditional musician Frank Proffitt, who said that he had bought it from a local second hand store with the understanding that it had originally come from the family of a local wagoner. It is a finely crafted example of the traditional thick rim style banjo, a style which was never adopted by urban manufacturers but which continues to be made and used in the southern mountains.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>In her book <i>African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia,</i> Cecelia Conway points out similarities between the body form and small head of such instruments with those of 19th African American gourd banjos.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: North Carolina
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: Banjos
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.65.0716
label: catalog number
content: 65.0716
label: accession number
content: 258893
objectType: label: Object Name
content: banjo
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: animal skin (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 35 1/2 in x 10 in x 2 1/4 in; 90.17 cm x 25.4 cm x 5.715 cm