Bagpipe: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This bagpipe was made by an unknown maker in Eastern Europe, around 1900-1935. It is a bellows blown bagpipe, with a sheepskin bag with a green plaid cover. The stocks and pipes are made of dark and light wood inlaid with pewter. The bass drone has blackened ivory ferrules and is lengthened by 3 parallel pipes interconnected through blocks at either end. There are 2 alternate chanters. The first chanter has 5 fingerholes and a vent together with a drone passage with 1 fingerhole and communication to a large flat U-shaped bell. The second chanter has 4 passages: small drone venting to the rear where it can be stopped with the thumb, largest drone vents through a metal shoe at the end of the chanter and has an adjusting peg near its end, another drone vents on the front side and can be stopped by the lowest finger, chanter passage has four fingerholes and a vent which can be stopped by the middle finger of the lower hand. There are cane reeds on chanters and drones. The instrument has a protective cover for reeds of chanter when not in use.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1900-1935
• Object Name: bagpipe
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: pewter (overall material)
• Physical Description: sheepskin (overall material)
• place made: Eastern Europe
• ID Number: MI.382520
• accession number: 161412
• catalog number: 382520
• Credit Line: Bequest of Abraham George Gruich
• 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.