Schulz Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made by Carl Schulz in Bismark, North Dakota in 1954. Carl Schulz was born in Germany in 1878, trained as a professional trumpet player and performed in New York under Walter Damrosch

and John Philip Sousa. He later turned to farming, moving to North Dakota in 1921. After retirement in 1945 he became interested in violin making, and by 1956 had completed 18 violins and one cello, all of imported European wood. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, one-piece back of maple with fine horizontal figure, ribs of similar maple, moderately figured maple neck, pegbox and scroll, and a bright transparent orange-red varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1954
• maker: Schulz, Carl
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 1/2 in x 8 3/8 in x 3 in; 59.69 cm x 21.2725 cm x 7.62 cm
• Place Made: United States: North Dakota, Bismarck
• ID Number: MI.79.04
• catalog number: 79.04
• accession number: 1978.2376
• Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Emilie Schulz
• 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.