The museum’s nationally-known collection of over 600 musical
instruments dates from the 17th to the 20th centuries and includes
instruments used by everyday Americans as well as polished professional
musicians. Included are violins and spinets like those used
by wealthy colonists; fifes, drums, and clarinets used by members
of military bands; elegant pianos and harps played by well-to-do young
ladies during the early 19th century; violins, dulcimers and
other stringed instruments played at rural dances during the 19th
century; brass and woodwind instruments used by members of town bands
at concerts and parades; and mass-produced pianos, parlor organs,
guitars, violins and mandolins eagerly purchased and played at the
turn-of-the-20th century by middle-class Americans. Also of
note are several fine 17th and 18th century violins by master violinmakers,
including both Antonio Stradivari (About 1645-1737) and Giuseppe Guarneri
del Gesu (1698-1744). These violins were acquired by Henry Ford
during the 1920s.
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