Bob and His Fiddle: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A stereograph titled "Bob and His Fiddle" printed and photographed by O. Pierre Havens of Savannah, Georgia. The albumen prints depict a boy holding a homemade fiddle while seated outside a small log dwelling. He wears a white shirt, dark vest, dark pants, and no shoes. His hat is lying on the ground by his left foot. He looks down at the fiddle held in his left hand and propped on his left shoulder, while holding a bow made from string and a bent stick in his right hand over the strings of the fiddle. The title is blurred and printed in the bottom left corner on the right facing print. The prints are mounted on card stock that is orange on the recto and light pink on the verso. On the verso black text in various decorative fonts reads: [Havens / (Successor to Wilson & Havens) / PHOTOGRAPHER / 141 & 143 Broughton Street / SAVANNAH, GA. / PUBLISHER OF THE / LARGEST COLLECTION / OF / SOUTHERN VIEWS / IN / THE UNITED STATES.].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1876-1888
• Photograph by: O. Pierre Havens, American, 1838 - 1912
• Subject of: Unidentified Child or Children
• Type: albumen prints
• Type: stereographs
• Type: portraits
• Medium: albumen and silver on paper on card mount
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 3 15/16 × 7 in. (10 × 17.8 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (image (each)): 3 3/4 × 6 1/2 in. (9.5 × 16.5 cm)
• Place printed: Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: American South
• Topic: Child musicians
• Topic: Children
• Topic: Music
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Reconstruction, U.S. History, 1865-1877
• Topic: U.S. History, 1865-1921
• Object number: 2016.166.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from the Liljenquist Family Collection
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture 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. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.