Music & Musical Instruments

This guitar was made by C. F. Martin & Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in 1948. It is a four course (4x1) tenor guitar, model 0-18T, serial #104342, with a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, hardwood neck, ebony fretboard, and nickel-plated tuning machines. There is a stencil on the peghead:

C.F. Martin & Co.
EST. 1833

This guitar was used by Nick Reynolds (1933-2008) of The Kingston Trio on recordings and live performances during the group’s heyday from 1957 through the late 1960s. The Kingston Trio was one of the most important commercial forces in the folk revival of the postwar years. As such they were critical in expanding the borders of American popular song to include material that originated throughout the world. The trio also were influential in the folk revival's emphasis upon an American heritage in their repertoire; as such they were important exemplars of the ways in which popular culture engaged American history in the Cold war era, an approach in which social conflict was downplayed and in which aesthetics or emotion took precedence over historical accuracy. Although the Weavers, the Almanac Singers, Huddie Ledbetter and Moses Asch's Folkways records all were much more significant in promoting folk music through politically active circles, the Kingston Trio and other groups who followed in their wake brought folk music to a much broader audience, one that transcended the issues of politics and authenticity that marked the folk revival in the early years of the Cold War. The Trio recorded indigenous songs from around the world. Their wholesome college-youth attire and demeanor along with their substantially muted politics all made folk music appealing to a vast audience. Recording for a major label, Capitol, the trio sold millions of albums which are still in demand around the world. While scorned by so-called "purists" during the height of the 1960s folk "boom" the Trio had a major impact on American culture. They inspired many other to seek out folk music, and presented it as worthy art even when divorced from its original context. Without this group, it is quite likely that the impact of folk music in American popular culture would have been much more limited.

Nick Reynolds was a founding member of the group and he worked in it until its breakup (there have been many re-unions in the 1980s and 90s). His tenor guitar helped give the trio its almost delicate sound. At a time when most similar groups used the much more propulsive and jangly 12 string guitar as a rhythm instrument, Reynolds tenor guitar was quite distinctive.

This guitar was made by Candelario Delgado in Los Angeles, California, in 1967. It is a custom-made guitar is of light wood with geometric pattern around sound hole and on bridge and head. Six strings with mother of pearl tuning pegs. There is a printed label:

Candelario Delgado
Fabricante de Guitarras Guitar Maker
Luthier
Concert Guitars
Classical and Flamenco
Made in U.S.A.
1066 SUNSET BLVD. - LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

(and handwritten inscription on label):

Construction Special for Jose Feliciano
1967
Candelario Delgado
"CANDELAS"

Jose Feliciano played this guitar on October 7, 1968 in Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan during Game 5 of the World Series. He played a folk-inflected version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” which was immediately met with intense backlash.

This guitar was made by Francisco Lupot of Orleans, France in 1773. It is a six course (6x1) guitar with a spruce top, veneered burly ash back, and burly ash sides. The neck is not original and was probably added in the early 1800s. This guitar bears the printed label:

Francisco Lupot fecit
In Orleano, anno 1773

(with “73” handwritten)

This guitar was made by C.F. Martin Co. of Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1950. It is a six course (6x1) guitar, Auditorium Orchestra model #000-18, serial #114993, with a natural spruce top, mahogany body, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, pearl position dots and white side dots, and nickel-plated tuning machines.

The guitar was owned and used by Libba (Elizabeth) Cotten. Libba taught herself to play the banjo and the guitar as a child, holding the instruments upside down because she was left handed. “… I learned the banjo upside down because I couldn’t change them (the strings) because it belonged to my brother.” By the age of twelve she had composed “Freight Train.” At fifteen Libba was already married. Her religious convictions prompted her to abandon musical pursuits in favor of raising her family and serving God. Elizabeth Cotten moved to Washington, DC in the 1930s where she found employment in the home of the musical Seeger family. Hearing music around the house where she was working, Libba was encouraged to pursue a professional career in music that included recordings, concerts and national tours. In 1984 she was awarded the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, and in 1985 she received a Grammy Award for her album “Elizabeth Cotten Live.” Her syncopated, lyrical blues music continues to live through a wide range of performers who have been influenced by her work.