Cigar Box Guitar: Museum Object and Cultural History
Cigar Box Guitar: Date made: 1875 - 1899. Object Name: guitar. Physical Description: wood (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
This cigar box guitar was made by an unknown maker in North Carolina around 1875-1899. It is a four course (4x1) guitar made from a Morris & Son cigar box. Homemade instruments such as cigar box guitars and fiddles played an important part in jug bands and blues music in the late 19th century through the Great Depression.
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date made: 1875 - 1899
- Object Name: guitar
- Physical Description: wood (overall material)
- Physical Description: gut (strings material)
- Measurements: overall: 22 in x 7 1/2 in x 4 3/4 in; 55.88 cm x 19.05 cm x 12.065 cm
- place made: United States: North Carolina
- Subject: Music
- ID Number: MI.096844
- accession number: 34639
- catalog number: 96844
- Credit Line: Gift of Charles Hallock
- 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.
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