Suggested Reading                                                                 wssr

It is incredible that a music instrument developed in this country that managed to captivate our population for a major portion of our nation's history has been so overlooked or ignored from a literary perspective. From S. S. Stewart's dissertation, The Banjo, in 1888 until the publication of Ring the Banjar! in 1984 in conjunction with the exhibition at M. I. T., (other than playing instruction publications) I am unaware of a single book devoted to any aspect of the banjo. The trickle that has come forth in the ensuing 22 years has included several worthy additions but has barely scratched the surface of what the instrument deserves.

As a result this list is short and even using the term, "Reading", is a stretch since nearly half the entries are primarily pictorial.

A) Books and Exhibition Catalogs
1) "America's Instrument, The Banjo In The Nineteenth Century" by Philip Gura and James Bollman, 1999.
2) "Ring the Banjar!, The Banjo In America From Folklore To Factory" accompanying an exhibition by the same name, by Robert L. Webb, 1984.
3) "The Banjo, A Dissertation" by S. S. Stewart, 1888.
4) "The Birth Of The Banjo" accompanying an exhibition by the same name, by Robert Shaw, et. al., 2003.
5) "Banjos, The Tsumura Collection" by Akira Tsumura, 1984.
6) "One Thousand and One Banjos, The Tsumura Collection" by Akira Tsumura, 1993.
7) "Picturing The Banjo" accompanying an exhibition by the same name, edited by Leo Mazow, 2005.
8) "That Half-Barbaric Twang, The Banjo In American Popular Culture" by Karen Linn, 1991.
9) "With A Banjo On My Knee, A Musical Journey From Slavery To Freedom" by Dr. Rex Ellis, 2001.
10) "Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments, A Photographic History" by George Gruhn and Walter Carter, 1993.


B) Magazines
1) Pickin' June 1978, "Vega/Fairbanks Banjos, A History" by Jim Bollman, et. al., page 26 (Note that after the article appears to end there follows an important "Serial Number Dating Chart").
2) A major source of valuable reading has been the material published in the "5 Stringer", the journal of the American Banjo Fraternity. Visit the web site www.abfbanjo.org and give careful consideration to becoming a member and also ask for a list of articles available for purchase.
3) Mugwumps , a series of articles on S. S. Stewart banjos by Eli Kaufman, beginning in May 1973.
4) The Magazine Antiques Dec. 2003, "The Early Banjo" by Robert Shaw and Peter Szego, page 82.
5)The Iron Worker , Vol. XXXIII, Autumn 1969, "The Swinging Sweeneys" by Burke Davis, page 2. ( The quarterly publication of the Lynchburg Foundry Co. , this seemingly unlikely source carries 4 Sweeney-related pictures on its cover and a generously illustrated 10 page article on the Sweeney family).


C) Banjo Maker Catalogs
1) The Fairbanks & Cole Co.
2) The Vega Co.
3) The Bacon Co.
4) The S. S. Stewart Co.
( At the time of creating this web site, no catalog has been found of either The Fairbanks Co., from 1890 to 1904, or The Cole Co.)