Gemünder Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made by George Gemünder in Astoria (Queens), New York in 1881. As Gemünder's business flourished, his popularity and subsequent financial success allowed him to move his shop to Astoria, Long Island in 1874. George Gemünder experimented with wood in search of an “ideal” sound. This violin, in the model of Stradivari, is made of a two-piece table of spruce, a back of American maple in two pieces cut on the quarter with even ascending medium-fine figure, ribs of similar American maple, a grafted maple neck with original American maple pegbox and scroll, and transparent reddish-orange varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1881
• maker: Gemunder, George
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 3/4 in x 8 1/4 in x 3 1/2 in; 60.325 cm x 20.955 cm x 8.89 cm
• Place Made: United States: New York, Queens, Astoria
• ID Number: 1983.0205.01
• catalog number: 1983.0205.01
• accession number: 1983.0205
• Credit Line: Gift of Mr. Earl W. Dorfman
• 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.