Kora (before 1918): Art, History and Details

Kora (before 1918) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The kora is an instrument that has 21 strings. This example is now missing many, which would have been tied along its long neck. The strings are plucked with the fingers, causing the sound to resonate in the half-sphere-shaped gourd body. Stitch marks on the back show that many cracks on the gourd were repaired in the past.

Object facts

• Title: Kora
• Date: before 1918
• Culture: Africa, unknown maker
• Type: Musical Instrument
• Technique: Gourd, wood, rawhide, string, and rope
• Dimensions: Diameter: 32.4 cm (12 3/4 in.); Overall: 111.8 cm (44 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1918.352

A detail from the museum

Musicians continue to play the kora today, including in concerts at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Collection credit

The Charles G. King Jr. collection; Gift of Ralph King in memory of Charles G. King Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 82-85.
• D. S. M. "Exhibition of Musical Instruments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 9 (1921): 134-43.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.