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

The object in the museum catalogue

This banjo was made by an unknown maker in Marengo County, Alabama around 1850-1884. It is a Four-String Fretless Banjo. It was collected in in 1884 in Marengo County, Alabama by Dr. Edward Palmer for the Smithsonian's "frontier collection.” Although roughly made, with whittled tuning pegs and a tacked-on untanned animal skin head, the grooves worn into the fretless neck show that it was well used. The banjo is a typical example of many homemade instruments that used locally available materials to make instruments which could produce powerful results in the hands of a skilled musician.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1850 - 1884
• Object Name: banjo
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: animal skin (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 35 in x 11 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in; 88.9 cm x 29.21 cm x 6.985 cm
• place made: United States: Alabama, Marengo county
• ID Number: MI.075008
• catalog number: 75008
• accession number: 14145
• 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.