American Folk Fiddle: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made in the United States around 1840-1860 by an unknown maker. It is made with ribs set into channeling of the table and back without corner blocks or linings. The fingerboard is of maple, stained black, with a paper finger position chart showing notes from a-flat to d'''-sharp glued to the fingerboard. The violin has a case that is a rectangular, compartmented box of unfinished pine, nailed together. It has a hinged top, and is lined with machine-printed wallpaper. The date for this violin is based on the historical period when this type of paper was popularly used in the United States. This violin is made from a one-piece table of pine with exaggerated “S” sound-holes, back of similar pine, cut on the slab, ribs of plain maple, maple neck, pegbox and crude scroll, and is stained a reddish-brown color.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1840-1860
• Object Name: fiddle
• Physical Description: pine (back material)
• Physical Description: maple (part material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 in x 8 1/8 in x 2 3/4 in; 58.42 cm x 20.6375 cm x 6.985 cm
• Place Made: United States
• ID Number: 1981.0864.01
• accession number: 1981.0864
• catalog number: 1981.0864.01
• 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.