Mather Five-String Fretless Banjo: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This banjo is marked "F. P. Mather 1860." It is a Five-String Fretless Banjo, with a bird’s-eye maple shell, metal hoop, twenty brackets, brass-plated fingerboard, and machine tuners. Hand-written inscription on dowel stick:

Fred Mather was a well-known minstrel banjoist of the mid-19th century.

Like banjos marketed under the name of other well-known performers such as the Dobsons, this instrument was likely actually made in the New York factory of the Buckbee company. It is typical of mid-century commercial instruments in having a fretless neck, gut strings and a bentwood rim. The machine tuners and inlaid brass plate are probably later 19th century additions, along with the present arrangement of head-tightening brackets.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1860
• maker: Mather, Fred P.
• Object Name: banjo
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: animal skin (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 34 in x 12 1/4 in x 3 1/2 in; 86.36 cm x 31.115 cm x 8.89 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York City
• Subject: Music
• ID Number: MI.207888
• catalog number: 207888
• accession number: 37279
• Credit Line: Gift of Estate of Fred P. Mather through Adelaide Mather
• 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.