American Church Bass
date: label: date made
content: early 19th century
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>This bass was made by an unknown maker in New England, United States, early 19th century. It is an American church bass with a cherry colored stained wood body, neck of black stained wood, cherry colored stained wood pegbox and scroll with 4 friction pegs.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>The modern term for this instrument is church bass. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this instrument was also known as the American bass viol, New England bass viol, or Yankee bass viol. These church basses were used in churches and meeting houses to provide a bass line for maintaining a consistent key by New England congregational singers. The church bass was also used by popular singing groups such as the Hutchinson Family singers.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New England
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: Religion
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Carol B. Warden and Joy Burchuk
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0181.02
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0181.02
label: accession number
content: 2014.0181
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Bass
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 50 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in x 8 in; 128.27 cm x 46.99 cm x 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 50 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in x 5 7/8 in; 128.27 cm x 46.99 cm x 14.9225 cm