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 2317 items.
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Nick Reynold’s Tenor Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by C. F. Martin & Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1948. It is a four course (4x1) tenor guitar, model 0-18T and serial #104342. 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1948
- referenced
- Kingston Trio
- user
- Reynolds, Nick
- maker
- C. F. Martin and Company
- ID Number
- 1998.0355.01
- serial number
- 104342
- model number
- 0-18T
- accession number
- 1998.0355
- catalog number
- 1998.0355.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Paul Reed Smith "Dragon 2000" Electric Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This electric guitar, serial #9 41200, was made by Made by Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars) in Annapolis, Maryland in 2000. It is a Dragon 2000 model with a dragon inlay on the guitar body made of 242 pieces of mastodon ivory, rhodonite, agoya, coral, onyx, sugilite, chrysacola, red, green, and pink abalone and paua. This is from a limited production run of 50 guitars.
- When he started building his instruments, Paul Reed Smith was steeped in the traditions of the classic electric guitars of the 1950s and 1960s. Ted McCarty, the past president of Gibson and designer of the Les Paul model, was his mentor. In 1994, Paul Reed Smith's company, PRS Guitars, launched the McCarty model as a tribute to this electric guitar pioneer.
- Date made
- 1999
- maker
- Smith, Paul Reed
- ID Number
- 2000.0074.01
- accession number
- 2000.0074
- catalog number
- 2000.0074.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gibson Old Hickory Electric Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by Gibson in Nashville, Tennessee in 1998. It is an "Old Hickory" (Andrew Jackson) model electric guitar, serial #OH-001. The guitar is made using wood from a 275-year-old tulip poplar tree, which is the largest in the state of Tennessee, and hickory wood from a tree that grew in the garden near Andrew and Rachel Jackson's tomb. This guitar is the first in the series of 200 specially made collector's electric guitars and is the first in the limited edition series of custom-made guitars using wood from trees lost in the April 16, 1998 tornado. Andrew Jackson's portrait is inlaid on the headstock, and his nick name, "Old Hickory," is inlaid on a hickory fretboard. An inlay of The Hermitage mansion appears on the pickguard. Both inlays are made of mother-of-pearl. There is an inlay mother-of-pearl ribbon across the body of the instrument noting key dates in Andrew Jackson's life.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1998
- referenced
- Jackson, Andrew
- maker
- Gibson Inc.
- ID Number
- 2001.0185.01
- serial number
- OH-001
- accession number
- 2001.0185
- catalog number
- 2001.0185.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Benedetto Archtop Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by Robert Benedetto in Homosassa Springs, Florida in 1978. Robert Benedetto was born in 1946 in The Bronx, New York into a family of artists, cabinet maker s and musicians. Benedetto made his first archtop guitar in 1968. His reputation grew as he crafted guitars for noted guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Chuck Wayne, Joe Diorio and Cal Collins. From 1999-2006, Benedetto had a licensing agreement with Fender Musical Instruments to produce his models in a small, controlled manufacturing environment. Following the agreement with Fender, Benedetto joined forces with jazz guitarist and corporate executive, Howard Paul, to manufacture a broad line of more affordable professional instruments without compromising the unparalleled Benedetto quality. In 1977 Benedetto met jazz guitarist, John “Bucky” Pizzarelli and made this 7-string archtop guitar, serial #1678, for him a year later. Pizzarelli played this guitar up until the time he donated it to the museum in 2005.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1978
- user
- Pizzarelli, John "Bucky"
- maker
- Benedetto, Robert
- ID Number
- 2006.0004.01
- accession number
- 2006.0004
- catalog number
- 2006.0004.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Danelectro Electric Bass Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This electric bass guitar was made by Danelectro in Red Bank, New Jersey around 1958. Danelectro was founded by Nathan Daniel in 1947 and manufactured amplifiers for Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward. In 1954, the company started producing the Danelectro lines of solid-body electric guitars and amplifiers. Two years later, Danelectro introduced the six-string electric bass. This U-2 model with double pickup sold in a 1956 Danelectro catalog for $100.00
- Jazz guitarist John “Buck” Pizzarelli played this guitar up until the time he donated it to the museum in 2005.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1958
- user
- Pizzarelli, John "Bucky"
- maker
- Danelectro
- ID Number
- 2006.0004.02
- accession number
- 2006.0004
- catalog number
- 2006.0004.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
American Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by an unknown maker in the United States around 1878-1882. It is a six course (6x1) guitar with a spruce top, rosewood back and sides, cedar neck, and a patented machine head with ivory pegs. This guitar appears as item #6073 in J. Howard Foote' Catalogue from 1880: "Solid Rosewood, neatly inlaid with wood inlaying front, stripe down back, plain rosewood edges, finely finished...$23.00.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1878-1882
- ID Number
- MI*055692
- accession number
- 11535
- catalog number
- 055692
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chitarra Battente Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This chitarra battente was made by an unknown maker in southern Italy around 1775-1799. It is a five course (5x2) guitar with a spruce top, arched walnut back and sides.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1775-1799
- ID Number
- MI*095262
- accession number
- 26256
- catalog number
- 095262
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Vinaccia Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by Gaetano Vinaccia of Naples, Italy in 1779. The Vinaccia family were violin and mandolin makers in Naples from the mid-18th century to the late 19th. Later generations, including Gaetano Vinaccia, made mostly mandolins and guitars. This is a six course (6x1) pear-shaped guitar with a cypress back and sides. The label inside the guitar reads: “Gajetanus Vinaccia [/] Fecit Neapoli Strada Rua Catalana [/] Num. 85 Anno 1779.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1779
- maker
- Vinaccia, Gaetano
- ID Number
- MI*095263
- accession number
- 26256
- catalog number
- 095263
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Preston English Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This guitar was made by John Preston of London, England around 1760-1770. It is a six course (4x2, 2x1) guitar with a spruce top, figured maple back and sides, and tortoiseshell veneered oak fingerboard and four holes for the capotasto or “moving-bridge.” The guitar has a watch-key tuning device which was better suited to the guitar’s short metal strings. English guitars received great popularity with amateur musicians in Great Britain from about 1750 to 1810.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1760-1770
- maker
- Preston, John
- ID Number
- MI*095325
- accession number
- 26512
- catalog number
- 095325
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lyre Guitar
- Description (Brief)
- This lyre guitar was made in the 19th century by an unknown maker. It is a six course (6x1) lyre-shaped guitar with a pine top, walnut back and sides, with two circular sound holes and a flat bottom. This popular “parlor” instrument was also known in France as "lyre anacréontique" and in England as "Apollo lyre."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1800-1899
- ID Number
- MI*095326
- accession number
- 26512
- catalog number
- 095326
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center