American Five-String Fretless Banjo: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

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.

In her book African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, Cecelia Conway points out similarities between the body form and small head of such instruments with those of 19th African American gourd banjos.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1875-1899
• Object Name: banjo
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: animal skin (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 35 1/2 in x 10 in x 2 1/4 in; 90.17 cm x 25.4 cm x 5.715 cm
• place made: United States: North Carolina
• ID Number: MI.65.0716
• catalog number: 65.0716
• accession number: 258893
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.