Banjos

The first American banjos were made by African slaves, who built them in the style of the gourd-body instruments they had played in their homeland. Minstrel shows of the 1830s and 1840s, both in the U.S. and England, popularized the instrument more broadly. By the end of the 19th century, numerous instrument makers were building banjos, including E.J. Cubley of Illinois, and A.C. Fairbanks and Co. of Massachusetts.

One Fairbanks banjo in particular, the Curtis Electric, is extremely rare because as few as 50 of them were made. The Curtis was loud but not a lot of fun to play. Slightly better were the four-string banjos made by Stella of New Jersey, while the cream of the crop were the banjos made by Gibson, who ruled the banjo world during the mid-1920s to mid-1930s.