Music & Musical Instruments - Overview
The Museum's music collections contain more than 5,000 instruments of American and European heritage. These include a quartet of 18th-century Stradivari stringed instruments, Tito Puente's autographed timbales, and the Yellow Cloud guitar that belonged to Prince, to name only a few. Several of these rare instruments can be heard in performances of the Smithsonian Chamber Players and in other public programs. Music collections also include jukeboxes and synthesizers, square-dancing outfits and sheet music, archival materials, oral histories, and recordings of performances at the Museum. The vast Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated Sheet Music is a remarkable window into the American past in words, music, and visual imagery. The Duke Ellington and Ruth Ellington Boatwright collections contain handwritten music compositions, sound recordings, business records, and other materials documenting the career of this renowned musician.
"Music & Musical Instruments - Overview" showing 1362 items.
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“White Christmas” Sheet Music
- Description (Brief)
- This sheet music is for the song “White Christmas” from the film Holiday Inn. Irving Berlin wrote and composed the song, and Irving Berlin Inc. published this sheet music in 1942. The cover has several different still photographs from the film, which starred Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, and Virginia Dale.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1942
- composer
- Berlin, Irving
- publisher
- Irving Berlin, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1983.0424.148
- accession number
- 1983.0424
- catalog number
- 1983.0424.148
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Violin
- Description
- Physical Description
- Wood with personal carvings.
- Specific History
- Violin purchased by Solomon Conn in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 1, 1863. Conn carried the violin while serving with Company B, 87th Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War. Written on the back of the instrument are the names of places where the soldiers of the 87th were either on duty or engaging the enemy. More place names are written along the left and right edges of the sides. Among the more well-known battles the 87th took part in were the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864. By the end of the war, the 87th Volunteers had lost 283 men, most of them to disease.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- user
- Conn, Solomon
- ID Number
- 1988.0716.01
- accession number
- 1988.0716
- catalog number
- 1988.0716.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
"The Battle of the Sewing Machines" Sheet Music
- Description
- "The Battle of the Sewing Machines" was composed and arranged by F. Hyde for the piano, and was published in 1874 by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of 547 Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. The lithograph by R. Teller of 120 Wooster St., N.Y., N.Y., illustrates a "battle" of sewing machines. The Remington "army" is marching towards the fleeing Singer, Howe, Succor, Weed, and Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines. The soldiers are riding the Remington treadle machines like horses and are carrying Remington rifles. The Remington No. 2 sewing machine had just come out to market in June 1874. The family treadle machine with a drop-leaf table and two drawers would have cost $75.00.
- On the top left of the sheet music, a woman is pictured sewing on a Remington machine in the Remington office at Madison Square, New York. In the right box is featured the Remington Works of Ilion, N.Y. The music consists of 11 pages, with such subtitles as: "Howe the battle began"; "Advent of all the best machines"; "Song of the Sewing Machine Man: 'How Can I Leave Thee'"; "Triumph of the Remington Sewing Machine," and "Home Sweet Home."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1874
- referenced
- Remington Sewing Machine Company
- composer
- Hyde, F.
- publisher
- William A. Pond and Company
- lithographer
- Teller, R.
- ID Number
- 1991.0130.01
- catalog number
- 1991.0130.01
- accession number
- 1991.0130
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tito Puente's Timbales
- Description
- Born in New York City's Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican parents, Tito Puente became one of the most important Latino bandleaders, composers, arrangers, and percussionists of his generation. He mastered both Afro-Caribbean music and jazz, contributing to the development of Latin Jazz, mambo, and salsa. In collaboration with other great Latin music and jazz artists, he brought a new Latin sound to American music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1990-1996
- user
- Puente, Tito
- maker
- Latin Percussion
- ID Number
- 1996.0304.01
- accession number
- 1996.0304
- catalog number
- 1996.0604.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Blue Sky Boys
- Description
- Beginning in 1936, brothers Earl (1919-1998) and Bill Bolick (b. 1917), known for their intricate melodies on guitar and mandolin, influenced many other duet performers. The Blue Sky Boys retired in 1951, but returned to performing in 1962, drawn by the rising interest in folk and traditional country music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1974
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.002
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.002
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Del McCoury
- Description
- Del McCoury's voice is known as one of the finest examples of traditional bluegrass's "high lonesome" sound. Delano Floyd McCoury (b.1939) got his first big break in 1963 when Bill Monroe hired McCoury's band to play a few shows. McCoury briefly joined Monroe's band, but returned to a successful career with his own group. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2004.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1975
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.013
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.013
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Osborne Brothers
- Description
- After performing individually with Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe, and other headliners in the 1940s, Sonny (b.1937) and Bobby (b. 1931) Osborne became one of the most popular and innovative bluegrass groups of the postwar era. Experimenting in the mid-1960s, they added piano, steel guitar, and electric instruments. While these ventures angered traditionalists, their innovative sound attracted a new younger audience to country music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1974
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.040
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.040
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Fans with Carl and Pearl Butler
- Description
- Carl and Pearl Butler pose for photographs with fans.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.090
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Couple grilling
- Description
- Some fans traveled great distances to participate in music festivals, and would camp nearby. This couple brought a grill to make a meal or two.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.097
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.097
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Popping the Question
- Description
- Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
- These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
- This colored print is a three-quarter length portrait of man and woman seated indoors. The woman is dressd in a long dress with lace trim, gloves, and a jewel on her forehead. The gentleman wears a dress coat and plaid trousers. Room furnishings include: an ornate table and side chairs,an open jewelry box and vase on a table and a guitar under table. Fancy lace curtains, draperies, and a carved mirror decorate the room.
- The print was produced by Sarony & Major. Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896) was born in Quebec and trained under several lithography firms including Currier & Ives and H.R. Robinson. Sarony was also known for his successful experiments in early photography, eventually developing a cabinet-sized camera. In 1846, Sarony partnered with another former apprentice of Nathaniel Currier, Henry B. Major and created Sarony & Major Lithography firm. Joseph F. Knapp joined the firm in 1857. Sarony, Major & Knapp earned a solid reputation for lithography and the company was especially known for its fine art chromolithography. Unfortunately, by the 1870s, the firm shifted focus to the more profitable area of advertising. It also expanded to become the conglomerate known as the American Lithographic Company, successfully producing calendars, advertising cards and posters. In 1930 they were bought out by Consolidated Graphics.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1846
- maker
- Sarony & Major
- ID Number
- DL*60.2277
- catalog number
- 60.2277
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center