Hammell Practice Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This practice violin was made by R.J. Hammel of Maquoketa, Iowa in 1904. It was designed as a teaching tool of normal violin length. The narrow solid body widening at the lower bout is attached to a commercial German neck, pegbox and scroll. R. J. Hammel in a letter of 1913 describes the instrument as a “Practice Violin . . . to assist in the correct technic of the left hand used mostly without the bow altho the bow can be used as there is enough tone produced to ascertain pitch . . .” This practice vioin is made of a narrow body of solid walnut, neck, pegbox and scroll of plain European maple, and a golden yellow varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1904
• maker: Hammel, R. J.
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: walnut (body material)
• Physical Description: maple (part material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 7/8 in x 7 1/2 in x 3 1/4 in; 60.6425 cm x 19.05 cm x 8.255 cm
• Place Made: United States: Iowa, Maquoketa
• ID Number: MI.280752
• catalog number: 280752
• accession number: 56003
• Credit Line: Professor R. J. Hammel
• 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.