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.
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."
This guitar was made by Robert Benedetto in Homosassa Springs, Florida, in 1978.
It is a 7 course (7x1) archtop model, serial #1678.
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.
This cuatro was made by Rafael Aviles Vazquez in Puerto Rico in 1999-2000. A type of plucked 10-string instrument (5 courses, double-strung), it is now ubiquitous in most groups playing any kind of Puerto Rican music. It is used in the manner of a first guitar: to play melodies and to “floretear” or accompany singing. The instrument is used today in salsa orchestras and plena music groups and is, of course, the king of Puerto Rican country music.
This guitar was made in Germany, around 1875-1880, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is a 6 course guitar (6x1), with a peghead with wooden tuning pegs. This guitar appears as item #6044 in J. Howard Foote' Catalogue from 1880: "Maple. dark red color, finely inlaid with pearl, etc., Spanish model, finely finished $5.40" "..a line of cheap and handsome Guitars of German make, with peg heads."
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.
This guitar was made probably in Germany, around 1875-1880, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is a 6 course (6x1) Spanish model. This guitar appears as item #6053 in J. Howard Foote' Catalogue from 1880: "Bird's-Eye Maple, mouse color, with fancy pearl and wood inlaying front and back, extra fine quality, with first quality patent head. $9.85" "...made after the Spanish Model, with patent, or machine heads."
This guitar was made probably in Germany, around 1875-1880, and sold by the J. Howard Foote Company in New York and Chicago. It is a 6 course (6x1) Spanish model. This guitar is listed in the accession paperwork as J. Howard Foote item #6055.
This guitar was made by Matheus Januário da Silva in Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal around 1890-1900. It is a six course (6x2) pear-shaped guitar with walnut back and sides and a very distinctive tuning mechanism. The guitar bears the printed label: “LOJA DE INSTRUMENTOS DE CORDA [/] E SEUS ACCESSORIOS, QUINQUILHERIAS, ETC. [/] DE [/] FARNCISCO GABRIEL CORREA [/] 43 – RUA DON TANUERIROS – 45 [/] [ ] officona onde fabricam toda a qua- [/] lidade de instrumentos de corde, garan- [/] findo a sua perfeicao e solidez, a cargo [/] do artista MATTHEUS J. DA SILVA, ex-offi [/] cial da 1a fabrica de LISBOA [/] Recebe quaesquer encommendas ou [/] concertos por precos convencianados. [/] FUNCHAL.”
This harp guitar was made by C.F. Martin and Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1905. Harp guitars were designed to provide a fuller bass response and more harmonic possibilities than standard guitars. According to Martin company records, this harp guitar was shipped in 1906 to Lewis & Son, violin dealers, in Chicago. The donor’s father, Fred Norman Vanderwalker is believed to have been the first owner of this harp guitar. This 000-28 model guitar, serial #10163, is one of five known harp guitars made by C.F. Martin and Company, none of which were made to the same specifications. It is notable for its double mahogany neck arrangement, large body style, highly figured rosewood ribs and back, and a harp peghead in the Viennese style of Johann Stauffer. C.F. Martin apprenticed in Johann Stauffer's shop before emigrating to America in 1833.
This guitar was made by Derazey in Mirecourt, France around 1838-1842. Honoré (Jean Joseph) Derazey worked in various workshops in Mirecourt and Paris and is best known as a maker of violins. This six course (6x1) guitar bears the label: “Fabrique de Derazey, [/] A MIRECOURT” and has a spruce top, bird's-eye maple veneered spruce back, bird's-eye maple sides, and machine head.
This guitar was made by an unknown maker in France around 1835-1865. It is a six course (6x1) guitar with spruce top, veneered bird's-eye maple back and sides, painted back of a fortune-telling scene, machine head, and a very unusual bridge comprised of individual adjustable metal screws.
This harp guitar was made by the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1919. It is a sixteen course (6x1,10x1) Style U harp guitar with a spruce top, birch back and sides. The guitar is serial #56064 and bears the label: Patented Feb. 1 '98 [/] Patented March 30, '06 [/] Other Patents Pending [/] Gibson GUITAR Style U [/] Number 56064 is hereby [/] GUARANTEED [/] against faulty workmanship or material. Should [/] this instrument, with proper care and usage, go wrong, [/] we agree to repair it free of charge at our factory, or [/] to replace it with another of same style or value. [/] GIBSON MANDOLIN-GUITAR CO. [/] (MANUFACTURERS) [/] Kalamazoo, Mich., U.S.A.“ Gibson made four styles of harp guitars from about 1903 until the mid 1920s with the Style U being the most popular and the largest.
This resonator guitar was made by Dobro in Los Angeles, California around 1933-1937. The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. "Dobro" is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning "goodness" in their native Slovak. This six course (6x1) guitar has a squared-off neck with raised strings for Hawaiian-style playing.
This guitar features U. S. Patent #1,896,484 dated February 7, 1933 by John Dopyera for a musical instrument with a conical metal resonator.
Frederick John Wright (1926-1985) was a classic amateur country music performer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and a year later, his family moved to Toronto, Canada. In 1938, a door to door salesman offered a Dobro guitar with lessons for $5.00 per week, for thirteen weeks. Fred played this guitar and with his father entertained veterans in hospitals in the Toronto area. In 1947, Fred returned to the United States with his treasured guitar.
This guitar was designed by Mario Maccaferri and made by the French American Reeds Manufacturing Company of Mount Vernon, New York in 1954. Maccaferri (1900-1993) was born in Cento, Italy and at the age of eleven became an apprentice to guitarist and luthier Luigi Mozzani. After an early career as a guitarist and instrument maker in Europe, Maccaferri immigrated to the United States in 1939. Mario Maccaferri developed a variety of plastic instruments including plastic woodwind reeds and a plastic ukulele. This six course (6x1) guitar, model G-40, was made of Dow Styron plastic. As indicated in the original brochure accompanying this guitar, it sold for $39.95.
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.
This guitar was made by an unknown maker in France during the 18th century. It was converted from a five course (5x2) to a six course (6x1) guitar and has undergone a number of repairs and restorations. This guitar has a spruce or cedar top, ribbed and fluted fruitwood back, and ebony sides. It has a rounded back, with an inlaid chevron design on the back of the guitar’s neck. There is an intricate starred pattern around the guitar’s soundhole.