American Five-String Fretless Banjo
date: label: date made
content: 1963
name: label: maker
content: Proffitt, Frank
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This banjo was made in the United States around 1963.It is a Five-String Fretless Banjo, with a fixed head set into a heavy wooden rim.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Banjos with small diameter fixed heads set into a heavy wooden rims are a traditional kind of home-made banjo. They persisted in rural Appalachia long after inexpensive commercial instruments became easily available in the second half of the 19th century. For those accustomed to elaborately machined and decorated factory-made instruments this homemade instrument has a surprisingly loud and clear tone. It was played by and purchased from the well known traditional musician Frank Proffitt. Although from Proffitt’s shop, the instrument was probably made by his neighbor Clifford Glenn, who like his father Leonard, specialized in making and playing banjos of this construction.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>In 1937 ballad and folk song collectors, Frank and Anne Warner, recorded Proffitt singing “Tom Dooley” and other American folk music on the banjo and dulcimer. “Tom Dula” was later included in the publication, <i>Folk Song: USA,</i> by American folklorists and ethnomusicologists John A. Lomax and his son, Alan Lomax. This version of “Tom Dooley” was the inspiration for the popular recording by the Kingston Trio in 1958.</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.65.0715
label: catalog number
content: 65.0715
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 8 3/4 in x 2 in; 90.17 cm x 22.225 cm x 5.08 cm