Banjo played by Lew Snowden: Museum Object and Cultural History
Banjo played by Lew Snowden: date made: ca 1870s. Object Name: banjo. Physical Description: nickel (rim material).
The object in the museum catalogue
Banjo played by Lew Snowden. Snowden was a member of the Snowden Family Band, an ensemble of Black farmers who performed across rural Ohio from the 1850s to the early 1920s. Banjo rim interior is wood with a nickel exterior. Custom engraving of "L.D. Snowden" on proper right side of the top of the rim. Wood neck and headstock. Skin head attached to rim with metal tension hoop and 10 brackets and screws. Likely was produced by the Buckbee company around 1870s.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: ca 1870s
- Object Name: banjo
- Physical Description: nickel (rim material)
- Physical Description: wood (overall material)
- Physical Description: metal (overall material)
- Physical Description: skin (head material)
- Physical Description: ivory (tailpiece material)
- Measurements: overall: 33 1/2 in x 12 in x 3 1/2 in; 85.09 cm x 30.48 cm x 8.89 cm
- associated community: African American
- associated subject: Black history
- Subject: Music
- ID Number: 2023.0122.01
- accession number: 2023.0122
- catalog number: 2023.0122.01
- Credit Line: Gift of Howard L. Sacks and Judith Rose Sacks from the Snowden Collection
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
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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. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation.
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