Browse Items (49 total)

  • Collection: The Straight-Sided Dulcimer in Tennessee

[Decatur County Dulcimer #2]

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This instrument was manufactured by one J. W. Ashcraft, who called it a "harmonica".

[Gibson County Dulcimer #1]

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The current owner purchased this instrument at an antique store in Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee. The manager of the store knew nothing of this dulcimer's origin. The top of the instrument was taken off at some point, then reattached via nailing,…

[Gibson County Dulcimer #2]

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The current owner located this instrument at the same time as Gibson Dulcimer #1. No other information known of its origins.

[Decatur County Dulcimer #1]

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This instrument belonged to the grandmother of Charles Fiddler, whose family chiefly lived in Henderson County. "Harmonica" is written on one side of the instrument, along with an illustration of a cuckoo. On the bottom of the instrument are traces…

[Davidson County Dulcimer #2]

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Bought for $8.00 at a yard sale on Woodmont Boulevard, Nashville, Tennessee. No other information given.

[Chester County Dulcimer #1]

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This particular instrument is believed to have originated in Chester County, Tennessee. According to Mr. Evans of Henderson County, it came down through his family, where his mother had had it all his life. Interestingly, the instrument also features…

[Gibson County Dulcimer #3]

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This instrument was built by Almus Crowe of Milan, Tennessee, likely in the 1960s. According to the builder, his instruments were modeled on 19th-century instruments from the West Tennessee region. The label inside reads as follows:

"No 9 A.…

[Giles County Dulcimer #1]

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According to its oral history, this instrument originally belonged to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Lizzie) Follis Thurman (b. 1898), who was one of twelve children, and lived in Giles County, Tennessee, all her life. The current owner remembers it being in…

[Giles County Dulcimer #2]

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This dulcimer was purchased by the current owner for his grandmother when he was in high school to replace her dulcimer which had burned years earlier in a house fire. He remembers hearing her talk of it often and located this one which had…