Banjo
ca. 1840 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This banjo is one of the earliest versions of the instrument to survive, and looks primitive when compared to later versions. The banjo was derived from the West African banja, an instrument built round a gourd and played on slave plantations in the United States. Joel Walker Sweeney of Appotomax, Virginia, popularized the instrument in both America and England, during the 1840s and 1850s, and it became very much associated with blackface musicians' bands like the Christie Minstrels, who performed in music halls and occasionally at grand houses. So popular was the banjo by the 1880s that the humour magazine Punch made a joke about the new Latin verb, 'Banjo, banjas, banjat'.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Vellum soundboard nailed to beech sides, pine back and bone soundhole |
| Brief description | American, 1830-40. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | This formed part of the collection of Carl Engel (1919 - 1882), a leading musicologist who published the Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1874). Engel's collection was bought by the museum in 1882, nos. 150 to 350, for £555. 6s. 0d. RP 2315/1882 Bought for £1 |
| Summary | This banjo is one of the earliest versions of the instrument to survive, and looks primitive when compared to later versions. The banjo was derived from the West African banja, an instrument built round a gourd and played on slave plantations in the United States. Joel Walker Sweeney of Appotomax, Virginia, popularized the instrument in both America and England, during the 1840s and 1850s, and it became very much associated with blackface musicians' bands like the Christie Minstrels, who performed in music halls and occasionally at grand houses. So popular was the banjo by the 1880s that the humour magazine Punch made a joke about the new Latin verb, 'Banjo, banjas, banjat'. |
| Bibliographic reference | London, Victoria & Albert Museum: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Part II, Anthony Baines: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 42 - 43. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 226-1882 |
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| Record created | February 11, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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